GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — With all the improvements the city has been making to our little town, I often find myself driving and thinking, “Where the hell am I?”

As I was heading south on Riverside Parkway, I went whizzing through the Crawford Subdivision, right past the old house on the corner of Lawrence and Hale avenues. “Where am I and wow I just drove by that brick house that Christopher Brown had asked me about.” Off to do research.

I found out right off the bat that the house belonged to the other Crawford guy, Joseph A.K. Crawford, who came to Grand Junction from Nova Scotia by way of the Gunnison. The Canadian-Scot was a railroad worker and emigrated to America to work on the narrow gauge railroad over Marshall Pass. He came to the Grand Valley with two good friends, W.A. Lynch and Nelson Pritchard. Their first residence in September of 1882 was a tent on Colorado Avenue, west of Third Street.

The town was a little rough so they laid logs up the side of the tent to turn stray bullets. With a thousand dollars in his pocket from the railroad, Mr. Crawford got industrious and in 1888 he and Mr. Lynch and Mr. Pritchard filed a claim on land on the riverbanks of the Gunnison River near where it meets with the then-called Grand River and dug a coal mine and named it the Haligonian after his hometown.

The mine was in Mr. Pritchard's name as he was the only American citizen of the three; Mr. Crawford not becoming one until 1883. After trouble getting the coal across the river and some difficult dealings with the railroad, they sold out. Then J.A.K Crawford homesteaded 160 acres between J and K roads and 21 and 22 roads in Fruita. There was no water in the ditches yet so he had a hard time “proving up.” The government tried to take the land back but by then the water came and he planted an orchard of 100 trees and received his patent in 1891 from President Benjamin Harrison.

Mr. Crawford partnered up with one of the other Mr. Crawfords, Thomas B. Crawford, brother of Gov. George Crawford. Thomas B. and J.A.K. bought 18 acres of land from John Shockleton of Kansas in 1890 for $2,000. This land is thereafter known as the J.A.K. Crawford and Thomas B. Crawford Subdivision located in the Riverside District.

Thomas B. Crawford came to Grand Junction early on. In 1883, he was an insurance man and stakeholder in the Grand Junction Town and Improvement Co. along with his brother, George, “The Father of Grand Junction.” (Guess that makes Thomas B. the uncle.) While dabbling in real estate, Thomas B. goes on to hold many prominent positions such as Secretary-Treasurer of the Town Company, County Commissioner in 1883, and was appointed Postmaster by 1886.

With the help of his old friend, Nelson Pritchard, Joseph A.K. Crawford got into the brick-making business around 1888. His big brick house at Hale and Lawrence sits on a bluff and if you drive behind it now and go down the alley which at one time was called Crawford Avenue, you can see where he dug away at the bluff to get the dirt to make his bricks. Early city directories call this area Crawford's Cave.

The bricks were used to build the Park Opera House, St. Joseph's Church, the old City Hall/Jail/Fire Station on the southeast corner of Sixth and Colorado and the Odd Fellows Hall which is the building that originally housed Bailey's Cash Store and is now Roper Music. The city's first sidewalks were made of brick. Known as Crawford's Brickyard, thousands of bricks were made daily with the workers wearing overalls cut off at the knees and barefoot, dripping in mud while working between the mud machines and the drying grounds. It was quite a site to see.

J.A.K. Crawford lived in the big brick house which was built in 1911 with his wife, Jennie, who was a native Norwegian, and four daughters who all became teachers. Maude never married, taught high school, and stayed in the home at 545 Lawrence. Margaret, better known as Jessie, married Coe Vanderen and lived next door at 537 Lawrence. Gladys married clothier Sanford of Sanford-Rush, and Vivian married and moved to California. Jessie's house at 537 Lawrence has been torn down recently. Jennie lived in the family home until 1949.

The other landmark brick house at the end of the block at 417 Lawrence was built in 1883. I don't know the original owners and it must have been there before the Crawford's Subdivision was formed. I hope the doors on the upstairs floor are locked. I'd hate to try to step outside for some fresh air.

The Crawford Avenue that was half a block west of Lawrence isn't the only Crawford Avenue in town. Crawford's Addition is located on the other side of the tracks, eight blocks away and sits between Sixth and 15th avenues and between South Avenue and Crawford Avenue which is now Fourth Avenue. There is one short block still named Crawford. J.A.K. also speculated in some Fruitvale land around D 1/2 and 31 Road, now the Fruitwood Subdivision.

So, there you have it. That's almost all I know thanks to Dave Sundal, and R.E. Tope's Grand Junction History written for the town's 75th Anniversary in 1961 and a file in the Loyd Files Library that had some written history of Pritchard and Crawford. And thanks always to amazing Lavada Palmer at the County Assessor's Office who helps me when I go in to look up something and say “Where the hell am I?”

So do a drive-by. Before the Parkway was built, the big brick houses sat in an out-of-the-way area. Progress does open up some interesting avenues. If anyone knows the history of the other brick house, I'd like to know about it.

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Call me at 970-260-5226 if you need a tour guide, or e-mail me at Priscilla.Mangnall@gmail.com.