Eric Chinn, Central City. The House at 201 Eureka is believed to have been built in 1867 and is said to be the first house in Central City to have indoor plumbing.  The front gabled building has a porch with classic columns. 

Judge Henry A. Hicks

Judge Hicks was appointed as the County Judge in 1893.  He was listed as a School Director in 1897 and elected as the Gilpin County Attorney in 1900.  He shared a law office in the Morse Block (ReMax office) on Eureka in Central City with L.J. Williams but that ended in 1910.  He sold the house at 201 Eureka in 1908 and moved his law office to Denver.  He returned from time to time as a stockholder with the Rock Mountain National Bank (Located in the Teller House Little Kingdom Room).   

Henry Pope Lowe & Maude A. Lowe

Henry was a mining engineer and mine promoter.  He sold English mining stock.  He managed the Topeka, Frontenac and Aduddel mines.  In 1891 he purchased a number of mines in the Russell District.  His office and assay room were across the street at 200 Eureka (Festival Hall).  

He was a well respected member of the mining community.  His reputation was built on the fact that he could turn unproductive mines into very successful operations.  He invented a way to drain the flooded and abandoned Caribou silver mine turning it back into a money maker.  One of his mines employed 75 men.  He purchased the ground previously occupied by the Eureka Hotel to make a park for the City.  He did a lot for the community, owned his own railroad car and lived in great style.

Henry’s wife Maude Lowe, nickname “Low & Behold,” was famous for her beautiful garden which included exotic roses sent by a French nobleman.  She was gracious, charming and celebrated for her flawless parties and distinguished cuisine often catered by Bauers of Denver.  She was charming with beautiful clothes and always wore gloves.  

In 1894 Henry was injured in an accident when a passenger car turned over on a curve in Clear Creek canyon.  Henry “landed with his head against a hook in the top of the coach, breaking open the skull and exposing the brain.”  Henry sued the railroad for $50K in damages.

After Henry’s death from pneumonia in 1920 at the Shirley Hotel in Denver, Maude buried her husband’s ashes in a container behind the house at 201 Eureka.  She then moved into Festival Hall across the street.  The building had been converted into a house by the Rackofsky family years earlier.  

Maude  read Christian Science literature in German, was a writer and had a garden behind the building.  After Henry died she was reclusive but later joined the Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist Church.  The English Mining company took care of her with a check in the mail each month.  She kept the building dark with three shades on the windows.  

She kept Henry’s clothes ready as if he would return any minute.  His hat and coat were hung in the front hall.  She always set the table for two, herself and Henry.  When Peter McFarlane visited her he asked who the extra place at the dinner table was for.  She said, “for Henry.”  Pete said, “I don’t see him.”  She said, ”I do and I talk to him.” Pete said, “Ask him when he is going to pay his bills??”  

When coal was delivered each piece had to be wrapped in paper so no dust got into the house.  

She donated Festival Hall to the Central City Opera Association in 1956.  At the time of her death, at a Christian Science nursing home in 1957, she owned non-operating mines in Black Hawk and Russell Gulch.  Henry’s ashes were exhumed and both of their ashes were scattered in her garden behind Festival Hall.

Joe C. Thomas Jr.

Joe enjoyed hunting and was mentioned in the paper as having purchased a big game hunting license.  He had extensive remodeling done to the house at 201 Eureka.  

Joe’s wife received a silver pin after donating blood three times and was pictured in an article in the September 1943 issue of Life magazine.  She attended a Ladies Aid Society meeting at Maude Lowe’s home (Festival Hall) in 1943.

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Johnson

In 1961 the house at 201 Eureka was purchased and presented to the Central City Opera Association by the Arthur Johnson Family.  In 1966, #1 red cedar shingles were added to the roof of the “Johnson” House and they were painted green.  

In 1983 James Hartley of Hartley House Interiors restored and redecorated the house.  Hartley’s wife, Barbara Johnson, is the daughter of Arthur Johnson whose family donated the house.  At the time, the Johnson Foundation donated more than $15K for the restoration of the house and Hartley House Interiors donated $2K in period wall coverings.  Shumacher Fabrics donated as well. 

The interior work began after the foundation and back wall were repaired.  Drywall was repaired and new electrical wiring was installed by Glenn Dutcher, Administrator of Historical Properties for the Central City Opera Association.  

Wall coverings, borders and ceiling borders are in patterns of terra cotta, feather, grapes, rope and other 1800s patterns.  The colors are hues of shrimp, apple blossom, bittersweet, green, turquoise, rose and mulberry.  The wallpaper in the lower bath was christened “Helen’s Delight” in memory of the late Mrs. Johnson.    

(Originally published in the June 13, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)