(Photograph courtesy of Beverly and Roger
Phillips)
The picture in the above newspaper article
shows the "other" John Perme’s Saloon, located at 700 Elm
Street. When this photograph was taken he had already moved on
to another location.
The Herald Democrat, Section II,
Leadville, Colorado
Thursday, March 25, 1952
Leadville Had Many Fine Boarding Houses
This building at 700 Elm is an example
of a number of buildings which were used for private large
boarding house enterprises. With single men coming in droves to
Leadville to work in the mines the need for boarding houses
became self-evident, and those who had large homes or places of
business in front soon realized a good thing.
Couples who had large families had
built-in help. Extra help was also available from sending for
ladies from the "old country" when a job was there. Many of
these ladies soon became Mrs.ed with the good supply of eligible
bachelors, but there were always more "where they came from."
Married men who had left their wives behind either in the "old
country" or here were also patrons of boarding houses.
Both bed and board were provided in the
arrangements. Augusta Tabor was probably the first woman in
Leadville to keep the family going by providing boarding
facilities in the days when her husband Horace moved from camp
to camp before he hit it rich in the Little Pittsburgh and
became one of the most famous of the "silver kings."
Because in the very early days a place
to sleep was a major problem, it is recorded that George Pullman
supposedly got the idea for sleeping cars just from seeing how
miners packed themselves into bunks in tiers along the walls of
small cabins.
There was more than one boarding house
on Elm Street as large buildings had been constructed there in
the early days when mile-long Chestnut Street became a mass of
population and structures, necessitating the overflow to go one
direction or another.
John and Johanna Bernat had a like
establishment in the 500 block of Elm which occupied the now
vacant lot across from the present Eagles Hall. Those
headquarters were outgrown, and the three-story Crystal Palace
was purchased at the corner of Chestnut and Pine. Those three
stories provided plenty of sleeping room.
Many of the boarding houses prior to
prohibition added a saloon to their bed and board enterprises.
The theory was, "The miners are going to drink some place so why
not provide them with a package plan."
The many-roomed boarding houses also
made it easy to secure employees from the former home land of
the couples conducting the business since they had a place for
them to live. There was no housing problem such as is being
experienced today in a busy ski resort like Vail.
A humorous story – in some respects –
concerns an incident which occurred in a boarding house located
in the 400 block of Elm. One of the amorous local miners had his
advances spurned by one of the beautiful bar maids who had come
over from the "old country." Thoroughly miffed, he sought
revenge so he wandered upstairs and found the room which was
occupied by the young lady. On the bed reposed a beautiful
Easter hat she had purchased with her first earnings. He’d show
her – he’d get even for turning him down. He proceeded to ruin
the hat.
The building at 700 Elm was a barber
shop, a candy store and other enterprises before Mr. and Mrs.
Anton Bost came here from Pueblo in the early 1920s to establish
a new home and occupation. The ample quarter provided plenty of
room for the family which grew to seven children and remained a
family home for many years.
The Koerners of Denver realized the
outstanding qualities of the building and purchased it when all
the Bost family members had moved elsewhere.
Although boarding houses are associated
with the early mining days of Leadville – and would still be a
going business if high food prices did not make it hesitant
nowadays for anyone to enter such a venture – boarding houses in
America go back to the 1700s.
School teachers were known to "board
around." Widows established boarding houses to supplement their
livelihood. One of the most famous boarding houses in New York
was known as the Widow Gallop’s and attracted such well-known
people as Robert Fulton.
Even the Boston magnates sought girls
from New England to work in their mills and provided food and
lodging plus the magnificent wage of $2.00 a week. In Boston
there were strict rules to observe: Lights out at 10 p.m.;
church attendance on Sundays; observation of the Sabbath with no
card playing on Sundays.
Charles Dickens who made a tour of the
east in 1841 didn’t think much of the idea of married couples
taking advantage of the cheap living provided by boarding
houses. This didn’t occur in Leadville as far as is known. As
soon as the eligible bachelor won the heart of the girl who
waiting on him, they set up housekeeping on their own. And in
many instances it was a "fast romance" with some of the girls
having worked only a month before "hooking a husband," and the
man of the house disgustedly had to send for a replacement. This
was costly for the proprietor for the usual arrangement was that
the transportation cost was borne by him, and the employee was
to work at least long enough to replay that cost.
The expression "boarding house reach"
took no time in becoming part of American language. The ample
food prepared by the cooks had the miners eagerly scrambling for
the various dishes.
History records that over seventy
percent of the population in early times lived in boarding
houses. Why not? They provided companionship, freedom for
responsibility, and it was also fashionable.
Necessity in the 1800s in the east
caused the growth of boarding houses. So many people came to New
York in the 1830s looking for jobs that the city became knows as
"one great boardinghouse."
The same was true for Leadville. Miners
had to find a place to eat and sleep, and houses could not be
erected as rapidly as the need for them.
The boarding house is now considered an
American institution of the past.
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