Main Street, Grand Junction, Colorado
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Voice Recording
Pearl Porter discusses the history of her father’s optometry practice in Grand Junction, her grade school education, and other aspects of her upbringing in early Twentieth century Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play Christmas Memories,...
Format:
Compound
Mary Cox talks about her education at the Bryant School and elsewhere in Grand Junction, about corsets and other aspects of school fashion, the history of the Riverside Neighborhood, attending community dances and Glenwood Springs’ Strawberry Days, and boys swimming in the Colorado River. She also discusses old downtown businesses, going to movies at the Majestic Theater, a brothel that advertised at the Mesa County Fairgrounds during a baseball...
Format:
Voice Recording
Jennie Dixon describes her early life and family history, including interactions with Native Americans and her parents’ lives before living in Mesa County, Colorado. She discusses working as a professional printer for newspapers, and her short stint working at the Fair Store as a “floorwalker,” where she would shop undercover to catch shoplifters. Jennie also provides information on restaurants around Main Street in Grand Junction, local artist...
Format:
Voice Recording
Ruth Smith and Isabella Cunningham, former reporters for The Daily Sentinel, recall their careers at the newspaper during the 1920’s through 1940’s. Cunningham talks about covering railroad news and events, including the institution of a sixteen-hour-day law for workers. They remember two young children that were killed when playing with dynamite in Fruitvale. They describe the annual Christmas party for needy children that was put on each year...
Format:
Voice Recording
Bill Callahan, Creston Bailey, and James Shaw discuss the history of early Twentieth century Grand Junction. The three men talk about their fathers: Thomas F. Callahan, the owner of Callahan’s Mortuary (now Callahan-Edfast); Dwight B. Bailey, the owner of the D.B. Bailey grocery store; and James Scott Shaw, a rancher, miner, and owner of the Midland Garage. They talk about Main Street businesses, including Sampliner’s. They remember the wagons...
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Voice Recording
Clarence Prinster talks about his father’s meat market and grocery store in La Junta, and about the Prinster brothers moving to Grand Junction in the 1920’s to start a grocery store at their father’s urging. He talks about the founding of the first City Market grocery store at 400 Main Street in 1922, the Prinster’s purchase of the store in 1924, and renovations made. He speaks about the lard rendering business housed first in a shed behind...
Format:
Voice Recording
Stephen Johnson talks about his education and background as a horticulturalist, and opening Johnson’s House of Flowers in Montrose, Colorado in 1919. He speaks about moving to Grand Junction, where he opened a florist business of the same name in 1937. He describes his love of practical jokes, shopping with his sons for school clothes on Main Street, and the different businesses there. He talks about his son Bob Johnson, his friendship with Al Look...
Format:
Voice Recording
William Ela talks about his family’s arrival in the Little Dolores River area of Mesa County in 1881 and their establishment of the 2-V Ranch. He tells stories about his grandfather, the pioneer rancher and Grand Junction town mayor William Phillips Ela. He remembers his grandfather’s horse Looney and his escapades. He speaks about the dangers of travel to and from Glade Park in the early days. He recalls stories passed down about his ancestors’...
Format:
Voice Recording
Fred Bowman and Helen (Bowman) Lane discuss their father’s opening of the first slaughterhouse in Grand Junction, the history of downtown buildings, and the lives of young people in early Twentieth century Mesa County. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Compound
During a panel discussion of the Mesa County Historical Society, Kenneth Baird discusses the settlement and incorporation of Grand Junction, the creation of the Grand Junction Town Company, early city government, town building, and early municipal ordinances. Professor Don Mackendrick talks about James W. Bucklin’s draft of a new city charter in 1910, which established a commission form of government. He mentions progressive reforms that put the...
Format:
Voice Recording
Eugene Perry talks about his childhood in Grand Junction’s Riverside neighborhood. He speaks about working for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad from the time he was thirteen years old, his career building track as a section foreman, and the history of D&RG in Grand Junction. He discusses landmarks such as Bowman’s slaughterhouse, the Pest House, and the town’s ice houses. He reminisces about a youth curfew that was in place in Grand Junction...
Format:
Voice Recording
In a lecture to the Grand Junction Lions Club, given just days before he died, prominent water law attorney Silmon Smith talks about his life and the history of Grand Junction (the lecture was broadcast hours later on KREX radio). He remembers his family’s arrival in the town in the 1890’s and early development in Grand Junction. He recalls a colorful Main Street filled with saloons. He speaks about his father Frank Smith’s respiratory illness,...
Format:
Voice Recording
Inez Prinster discusses the history of Grand Junction, Colorado buildings, businesses and people in a presentation for the Mesa County Historical Society. This recording is made available via signed release by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
*Photograph from the 1947 Mesa College annual.
Format:
Voice Recording
Merian Rosenthal talks about Jewish life in Grand Junction, Colorado during the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Her husband Burt Rosenthal and brother Hershel Sedalnick also chime in. They reminisce about several people from Grand Junction’s Jewish community, including those with the surnames Spector, Liff, Leff, Harris, Loeffler, Sampliner, Minowitz, Rigg, Waldoffel, and Schneider. They discuss the first established religious services for Jews in...
Format:
Compound
Glenn McFall discusses downtown businesses and business owners in Grand Junction, Colorado, as well as the shoe store he worked at for nine years, McConnell-Lowes. Glenn also talks about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan in the Grand Valley area, the Mesa County Pest House and Smallpox outbreaks, the social scene and where people went to go dancing, the Mesa County Fair, horse racing and gambling, bailing rowdy cowboys out of the local jail, Eddie...
Format:
Voice Recording
In the third of nine recordings, John Goulet, a former advertising salesman with the Daily Sentinel newspaper, relates his experiences and travels in Grand Junction and Western Colorado in the 1950’s and 1960’s. He talks about traveling to Black Canyon with his friend Al Look. He remembers many of the merchants that he met as an advertising salesman. He describes Grand Junction’s Diamond Jubilee celebration of its 75th anniversary as a city....
Format:
Voice Recording
Olive Jean (Mann) Gordon discusses the early buildings, businesses and people of Grand Junction, Colorado. The interview was conducted by the Mesa County Oral History Project, a collaboration of Mesa County Libraries and the Museums of Western Colorado.
Format:
Voice Recording
Local artist and former director of the Art Center of Western Colorado Dave Davis talks about his beginnings as an artist and his move to Grand Junction, Colorado from Boulder. He speaks about his role in creating Art on the Corner, Grand Junction’s outdoor sculpture exhibit, in 1984. He discusses his directorship of the Art Center, which began in 1986, and his role in helping the organization gain financial solvency and regain regional relevance...
Format:
Voice Recording
To mark the centennial celebration of the town of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1981, the Mesa County Oral History Project wrote and recorded several radio plays about local history. Beginning on September 26, 1981, local radio stations KSTR, KREX-AM, KREX-FM, and KMSA broadcast the plays. Authors of the plays used interviews recorded by the Mesa County Oral History Project as inspiration. This archival recording contains the play Glimpses of Old Grand...
