Greeley’s Historic Preservation Commission will celebrate the city’s agricultural past with two free public events this month, which is celebrated as Historic Preservation Month.
The first event is a tour of the historic White-Plumb Farm Learning Center, 955 39th Ave. One of Colorado’s Centennial Farms, the site was run by the same family for more than 100 years. Civil War Veteran Charles White settled the farm in 1881, and the city’s first female architect, Bessie Smith, designed the house in 1907.
The tour is 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday at the center. Inclement weather may shift the event to the Greeley History Museum, 714 8th St.
The second event is a special History Brown Bag presentation at the museum regarding Dearfield and its connection to early Greeley. Historian Bob Brunswig will present “The Conjoined Histories of the African American Dearfield Townsite and Colony and the Union Colony Greeley.”
Nathan Meeker established Greeley in 1870 on the idea agricultural endeavors could provide a superior quality of life. In 1911, during the Jim Crow era, Oliver Toussaint Jackson founded Dearfield about 30 miles east of Greeley. Jackson was inspired by Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of attaining social and economic security through hard work on the land.
The presentation begins noon Thursday, May 19 at the museum.
The commission is seeking speakers to resume its regular schedule of Brown Bag series events. Anyone with expertise in history or historic preservation-related topics and anyone interested in speaking at a Brown Bag event is asked to contact planner Elizabeth Kellums at Elizabeth.kellums@greeleygov.com or (970) 350-9222.
