Julia Greeley, Denver’s Angel of Charity, was enslaved until 1865, Greeley arrived in Denver in the 1870s and found work as a domestic servant, first for the Gilpin Family, the territorial Governor. When she wasn’t working, she assisted poor families in her neighborhood. If she did not have enough of her own, she begged for food, fuel, or clothing to give to those who needed it. She did this at night to avoid embarrassing those she helped. She was a devoted member of the Catholic Church, a member of Sacred Heart Parish, whose steeple is visible from here, and joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901. At her funeral in 1918, hundreds came to pay their respects, helping us understand how many Denverites knew of her service. She rented a room in this building from 1903-1916, when it served as a boarding house.
