Report: Ninth Street Historic Park Phase II

              Citizens seek preservation of
Golda Meir's Denver home
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By CHRIS LKPPKK
IJN,Speeial Assignments
There's very little now to indicate who once lived here. The tiny
brick duplex, its windows emply
holes and its old whitewash peeling
rapidly, looks like just another of
Denver's countless turn-of-the-century lower-income dwellings, the
usefulness of which has long
passed.
within those walls. Long before her
name became a household word,
the 15-year-old Golda Mabovitz
lived in this Denver abode, the
home of her sister and brother-in-
law Shana and Sam Korngold in
1913-14. She attended North High
School and made pocket money by
working in her brother-in-law's dry
cleaning business.
It was probably in this inauspic-
On Tuesday night, the Denver City Council unanimously
passed a resolution calling for the preservation of the structure.
While this does not guarantee its preservation, it helps greatly.
Actual permission to allow the building to be placed on city
property should be debated soon.
Gazing at the humble structure
at 1606 Julian St on the West Side,
one would never imagine that
Golda Meir spent part of her vouth
ions building, too. that the young
Golda received her first exposure
to Zionism. Historians and biographers   say   that   her   sister   and
Intermountain Jewish News    8-7-81
brother-in-law often invited Jewish
guests in the evenings and that the
discussions on Zionism often lasted
late into the night. Golda. il is said,
rarely participated in the debates
herself but was seldom out of earshot.
One of those guests was a young
Denverite by the name of Morris
Myerson who, several years later,
was to become Golda's husband,
giving her the last name which
later became Meir. a surname few-
Jews, Christians or Moslems
would be unfamiliar with.
Not a soul had lived in this house
for the better part of a year. Its
owners, the Boys Club Inc. of Denver, had no idea that Golda once
lived there. They saw in the property the potential for a new athletic
field. Just last week they planned
to bulldoze the duplex into oblivion.
But the building has been saved,
at least temporarily, in a rescue
which calls to mind the most
daring, last minute efforts from an
old "Perils of Pauline" movie. The
rescuer arrived just barely before
the train came roaring down the
track.
Jean May was exercising her interest in the historic buildings of
Northwest Denver last week. She
was taking photographs of historic
buildings in that area for a cookbook to raise funds for the Sloans
Lake Citizens Group. Although
non-Jewish. Ms. May had long
been a Golda admirer.
"I knew Golda Meir had lived in
the Sloans Lake area," she told the
UN, "but I didn't know where."
Actually, some historians had
placed her one-time home at the
correct 1606 Julian St. address but
that fact was far from common
knowledge. Ms. May found that out
in research at the Denver Public
Library and. after checks of Colorado tax records and files at North
High School, she knew she had confirmed the location.
After photographing the duplex.
Ms. May called the Boys Club. "I
lold them, 'good news, your building is going to be in our cookbook.' " Ms. May says. "They
said. "no. it's going to be destroyed.
twla> or tomorrow.' " In fact, the
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