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hen Marinus G. Smith was asked by Professor J. Raymond Brackett if he would live to see the tree he was planting bear fruit, Smith replied , “Old men plant trees; young men can’t wait.” Smith, whom everyone called “Marine,” donated part of his University Hill acreage to the University of Colorado. Marine Street has been named in his honor. The “Hill,” which looked so formidable to Jane Sewall when she first arrived in Boulder, looked a lot better with some trees. Since it was out of the floodplain, University Hill, like Mapleton Hill, became a desirable place to live. Prestigious residential subdivisions were platted and put on the market, but in the 1890s few lots were sold. One of the first went to the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary who in 1892 built Mount St. Gertrude Academy , a Catholic girls’ school. Nearly two decades earlier, in 1874, a national movement had been founded to bring educational, cultural, recreational, and religious programs to communities across the country. The movement’s headquarters was at Lake Chautauqua, New York. Lured by the mountain scenery and the city’s cool nights, a group of Texas educators chose Boulder, specifically the 75-acre Bachelder Ranch, as the site for a Colorado chautauqua. Only a wagon road existed to Chautauqua Park when it was established in 1898, the year of the Spanish-American War. Visitors, and their luggage, were loaded onto horse-drawn wagons after they arrived at the Union Pacific depot on 14th Street, onemileaway.OpeningdaywasJuly4,withGovernor Alva Adams presiding. The day was climaxed by the announcement that the U.S. Navy had destroyed the Spanish fleet at Santiago. A small city of tents, laid out like an army camp, claimed it could accommodate five thousand people. Lectures, classes, and music programs were held in the large auditorium. Visitors ate in the dining hall for $5.00 per week, or 35¢ per meal. University Hill and Chautauqua Becoming Established 167 b o u l d e r : e v o l u t i o n o f a c i t y 168 Stagecoach excursions, led by none other than Joseph Bevier Sturtevant (Rocky Mountain Joe) thrilled the flatlanders. Sturtevant also led children up Flagstaff Mountain and gathered them around the campfire to hear stories of his days as an Indian scout. Groups of tourists boarded the narrowgauge railroad, which dropped them off at Mont AltoPark,aboveSunset,topickwildflowers.Special trains then carried them on to Ward for undergroundminetours .Women“tramped”inthemountains in long skirts and broad-brimmed hats. Before the next summer season, Boulder built its first electric streetcar line. Railroad ties were unloaded at the university station and then hauled to the route that went up 12th Street, wound around University Hill as far west as 9th Street, and then reached Chautauqua Park before its return . Subsequent streetcar lines ended at the Boulder Colorado Sanitarium on Mapleton Avenue and also at the intersection of 23rd and Pine Streets. By 1900, cottages had begun to replace the tents. Similarly, the wide open spaces among Chautauqua Park, Mount St. Gertrude Academy, and the university began to fill with homes. There were enough children living in the area in 1905 to warrant their own school, appropriately named University Hill School. It opened with six classrooms and an auditorium. One of the earliest custom-designed homes on University Hill was George and Mildred Norlin’s house at 907 12th Street. The Norlins lived in the Romanesque revival style house from 1903 to 1919, during the time George Norlin was a Greek professor at the University of Colorado. The family moved to the university’s President’s House when he became its fifth president. The craftsman movement of the early twentieth century stressed comfort and utility through the use of natural materials. Craftsman homes were always two or more stories. An example of an early craftsman home, at 907 11th Street, was that of Charles Bartlett Dyke, principal of the University Hill School. Another example was the William R. Black house at 1080 10th Street. Black was a real estate broker and banker who was active in the development of University Hill. The continued growth of the University of Colorado encouraged a second construction boom in the 1920s. Families of college students moved to Boulder, and homes were built for professors and their families. A 1924 junior high addition, called University Hill Intermediate School, greatly enlarged University Hill School. Large fraternity and sorority houses...

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