Here’s What’s Happening Now
We will fill the house with relationships . . . relationships . . . relationships! We have created a truly comfortable, inviting, and safe community space. Currently several community boards meet in the house. We’d love for you to join us! Additionally, we have 3 office spaces for rent, one large office is still available. So far, we have two wonderful tenants, open space for community meetings, and a kitchen for preparing community meals. Lots of other creative and important ideas have been considered such as emergency housing, spaces for classes, a youth center for adjacent Greeley West High School, and many more. If you or your organization is looking for a partner with an adaptive space, let’s chat!
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was a local girl, born on June 14, 1882 to Greeley contractor Franklin W. Smith and his wife Mary. According to historian Peggy Ford Waldo, she graduated from Greeley High School in 1899 and then studied architecture by “mail order” via the International Correspondence School. Her program of studies paid off when she was hired in 1901 by Bearrensen Brothers as “the only lady architect in Denver.” Two years later she moved back to Greeley where she set up her own practice in association with her father’s firm, Hall & Smith Contractors (“A Lady Architect,” Greeley Tribune, 29 January 1903). Between 1903 and 1910, when she and her family moved to San Diego, she designed many commercial and residential buildings praised as both aesthetically pleasing and practical.
Journey of the House
How You Can Help
Family of Christ Presbyterian Church
Located in Greeley, CO, we are a small but very active congregation. Among our members, we support over 60 different charitable and non-profit organizations. All are welcome in our open and affirming faith community. In addition to the Bessie Smith Community House, we also run a food pantry called Vecinos, offer a big and bounteous Community Garden, sponsor the thriving Greeley Garage Sale Theatre, and nurture bees on the church property. We have earned the Better Business Bureau’s certificate as a Wise Giving Charity.
We practice our faith by following in the path of Jesus – acting with compassion, providing hospitality to the stranger, and working for justice. We are comfortable with questions and reject the rigidness that sometimes comes with dogmatic certainty. We take seriously our commitment to care for one another, the Earth, and the marginalized in our surrounding community.
