George Joseph Charpiot (1884-1955) was the favorite nephew of Eugenie P. Underhill and lived at 402 S Lincoln with his sister, Eugenie Jones in the 1890’s and made his longtime residence at 1320 Steele street. George was an avid inventor and engineer and was always trying to find a solution to solve the problem. Too cumbersome to retrieve golf balls in a pond? He’s found an invention for that. Working folks don’t have access to their safe deposits at the bank? He founded a 24 hour bank for that. His most notable invention was that he was the founder of the Charpiot Safe Company. He wanted to solve the major problem in the wild west of bank robbers, bank heists and more. So he aimed to invent the burglar proof safe, and even invented one that opens with your voice! The Charpiot safes were built here in Colorado and they had offices on Glenarm Street and Blake street. Employees had their fingerprints burned off so that their prints would not show up on crime scenes. His safes are located in city halls all over the country and in the original Wells Fargo banks. You can still see the Charpiot safes in our city hall and state buildings today! They manufactured the safes on Glenarm Street up until the 1950's. In 1907, as the worshipful master of Oriental Lodge no. 87 Masons, he brought the "Golden Trowel" to Denver which was a great achievement for the lodge.
Sources:
Private research collection
