Address: 1033 9th Street, Denver, CO 80204
Description: MSUD Honors Building
This 1873 house was built by carpenter Jeremiah Gardner in the stick style. The shingled tower is supported by framing located in the angle of the house's L-shaped floor plan. The iron cresting and roof molding are the same as on the Witte House next door at 1027.
Gardner probably built the two houses for speculation. He and his wife, Mary, lived in both houses at one time or another until he died in 1895. In the 1930s, Phillip J. Torres, community leader and founder of St. Cajetan's Credit Union, owned 1033.
This house is one of only two frame structures in the block (the other is 1020). Frame houses were not built in Denver after 1874, when a city ordinance was passed, preventing the use of any building material other than brick. On April 19, 1863, fire swept through the city, destroying much of the downtown area. Denver quickly recovered, only to be inundated by the great Cherry Creek flood just a year later.