Nederland’s Gillaspie House The Nederland Area Historical Society proudly maintains and gives tours of the historical Gillaspie House. The house was built for Dr. Carbon Gillaspie’s bride Grace in 1906. PHOTOS BY JESSIE ANSARI[/caption]

A young doctor proposed to his beloved, the tall red-headed Grace Fairchild. His prudent wife-to-be would not agree to wed until there was a house to live in. Dr. Carbon Gillaspie purchased a small plot of land on a south-facing slope in Nederland for $65. The year was 1905.

Gillaspie enlisted his friend William Loach of the Wolf Tongue Mining Company to help build the house. Loach was an active figure in the area involved in the tungsten business and later became President of First National Bank in Boulder. William Loach’s wife was Violet Todd. The Todd family was well known in the founding days of Nederland history.

Gillaspie and Loach built a simple little L-frame house, with the kitchen at the rear, as was typical of most mining cabins of the period. It had no electricity or plumbing at that time. By 1906, Dr. Gillaspie and his wife had moved into the house and were prominent figures in the community. Grace Fairchild had been among the first year of graduates from the newly established Boulder Business College in 1901. She was active in several groups, including the D.A.R., (Daughters of the American Revolution), American Legion Auxiliary, and her church, the Disciples of Christ. Mrs. Gillaspie’s daughter- in-law Caroline Gillaspie would later describe her as an efficient lady with very definite ideas. “She was a very dominant lady,” said Caroline Gillaspie, during a 1987 oral history interview for the Boulder Carnegie Branch Library for Local History.

Dr. Gillaspie was a true pioneer physician who practiced from home and visited patients when needed. He treated everything and everyone, and rode his horse up to Caribou to treat patients during the influenza epidemic in which many people died. He was the local doctor, pharmacist and for a time, Mayor of Nederland. Dr. Gillaspie ran for mayor on the “dry ticket” in 1908, and won the position during a period when practically every other building in town was a saloon. Construction on Barker Dam began in 1907, the same year Dr. and Mrs. Gillaspie’s son John was born, and was finished in the summer of 1910.

When young John was two or three, Dr. Gillaspie moved his medical practice to Boulder while the family still lived in Nederland. He was in practice with Dr. Houston as a surgeon and general physician. Originally, he rode horseback for his commute to and from Boulder, then used a horse and cart. He kept a horse at a local livery stable. The horse knew the way to Nederland so well that the doctor could sleep on his way up in the cart.

In those years, Dr. Gillaspie would sometimes ride his bike down the dirt road to Boulder, and then take the narrow gauge train back up the Switzerland Trail via the mining town of Sunset. The Colorado & Northwestern Railroad had been hauling out ore and bringing tourists into the mountains for several years by that point. The train left from Boulder, travelled up Four-Mile Canyon to Sunset, and on to Ward. The railroad branch line to Eldora had opened in 1905. After the silver price collapsed in 1893, the nation had been thrown into a depression, but by the 1900s, tourism had taken over.

A part of Nederland’s history The Gillaspie House stands today on North Bridge Street. In the house there are many items on display that would be typical from a home in the early 1900s. PHOTOS BY JESSIE ANSARI[/caption]

When their son John was still very young, the family moved to Boulder. John Gillaspie followed in his fathers footsteps and became a doctor. At a grade school piano recital, he met Caroline Henry. They remained friends throughout high school and married on June 14, 1930.

John Gillaspie completed his internship in Portland, Oregon, then returned to Boulder when his father died in 1933. John and Caroline Gillaspie kept their Nederland house to be used as a summer home, but in reality, it was rarely used. Sometime during the 1930s, an extension was added to the rear, and an in-home lavatory eliminated the need for the outhouse and the house size was expanded to four rooms.

Dr. John Gillaspie and his wife Caroline donated the house to the Town of Nederland in May, 1975, on the express condition it be kept open to the public as a museum. There was very little inside the house at first, but over the years, many local people have donated period furniture, clothing, and other treasures to the Nederland area Historical Society for display in the house.

The museum showcases an outfit belonging to Nederland’s first and longtime postmistress, Marguerite Shellhaus, Mary Flarty’s wedding outfit, christening gowns, bonnets, boots, trunks, top hats, a vast collection of historical Donald Kemp photographs, tintypes, coins, books, opera binoculars, early Nederland jailhouse lock and keys, a phonograph, rocking chairs, a reed pump organ, sewing machine, early washing machine, wood-burning stove and oven, kitchenware, physician and dental tools, bone saws, a foot- powered dental drill, an early telephone, a pressure cooker, print press, typewriters, a trombone, a trumpet, a washboard, cobblers equipment, vintage skis, a sled, one of the first ever in-home refrigerators and much more! Many of these objects and artifacts came with their own stories, and we are still receiving donations today.

Over the years, it has been staffed by volunteers from the Nederland Area Historical Society and the community. week, we lost a longtime volunteer of the museum, Glenna Carline. Carline donated many items to the museum over the years and was a wealth of local knowledge. She will be greatly missed.

Nederland Area Historical Society volunteers recently rebuilt the flower beds out the front, and replanted a wonderful flower garden. The non- profit continues to support the museum through gardening, maintenance, paying the electricity bill and more. This summer, the museum is open on Sundays from 11a.m. - 3 p.m. and is free to visit, although the house has no annual budget, and so we highly encourage visitors to make a donation to preserve this unique Nederland treasure.

If you are interested in volunteering for the museum or becoming involved with the NAHS, please email; NederlandHistory@gmail.com.

To find out more, check out the website at https://www.nederlandareahistoricalsociety.org/