An important piece of Colorado Springs history is lost to fire

This long-empty house at 418 E. Cucharras Street was destroyed by a fire on Thanksgiving day. Unoccupied since the mid-'90s, I never paid it much attention. There's not much that makes this street a neighborhood anymore. There is a tiny, ramshackle bungalow next door that is still occupied as far as I know; across the street is a shelter/outreach center for homeless youth, and just up from that is a recording studio and one more brave homeowner right up next to the railroad tracks. Other than that, this little stretch of Cucharras is not traveled much.

I'm sure I've driven past 418 E. Cucharras before, and it never registered that it was anything but a big old empty house. I never knew that it was a fascinating and important part of our city's history. You see, back during the days of racial segregation, this was a boarding house that catered to African Americans. It was part of a sort of nationwide "underground railroad" of the 1940s and '50s for travelers who needed lodging but happened to be black, in a time when most hotels did not welcome them. Taking any kind of trip was extremely challenging for blacks in terms of something as simple as lodging. Thankfully, a publication evolved called "The Negro Motorist Green Book". It listed hotels and rooming houses (or as the book called them, "tourist homes") across the nation that were hospitable to African Americans (it also listed things like restaurants and service stations, etc).  Think about how easy it is for us to make a hotel reservation with the click of a mouse. It never occurred to me that blacks back then did not have the option of just checking into any old hotel. It's a sobering thought, and it makes me angry to contemplate it. I can't imagine living with that kind of discrimination every day.

Interestingly, there is another home in downtown Colorado Springs that served the same purpose, and it's located at 509 N. Royer Street. I was easily able to locate it and take a photo for you (see the bottom of this post).

One of my favorite local bloggers, "Side Streets" Bill Vogrin, wrote an interesting piece on this once-bustling boarding house here: Colorado Springs Loses Historic Haven to Traveling Blacks, and a few days later he wrote a great follow up to it, having located a grandson of the original innkeepers, George and Mayme Roberts: A House Where History Blossomed. I'm sorry to say that this structure is beyond repair and will certainly be demolished, but its destruction has opened a sobering door in our history that had long been closed, and that can't be a bad thing.

Sadly, the structure is beyond repair.

This angle shows how huge the house was. It must have been a beehive of activity in its heyday!

George and Mayme Roberts proudly posing in front of their home. (Image via the Gazette, courtesy of the Roberts' grandson, George Williamson.)

The Negro Motorists' Green Book, in which this home and one other in Colorado Springs were listed. (Image via Wikipedia.)

Here is the section of the Green Book that shows the homes in Colorado Springs. (Image via the Gazette.) Click on the image for a closer view. If you are in the US, no doubt there is a listing for your city in here too.

Here is the L.C. Alford home at 509 N. Royer Street that served the same purpose. (Note: in the Green Book it's listed as "Boyer Street", but there is no Boyer Street in Colorado Springs, so I assume that was a typo.)