1011 Clarkson Street was built in 1907 for Arthur and Maria Lafferty at a cost of $3,000. Building permit number 486 lists A.W. Reynolds as the architect. Audley W. Reynolds is best known for designing the National Register-listed Austin Building, constructed in 1904 at the southeast corner of Colfax Avenue and Josephine Street.
Arthur Lafferty was born in Ireland in 1851, and immigrated to the United States in the early 1870s. By 1880, he was working as a policeman in Leadville and married to his wife Maria. Maria was the sister of Thomas F. Walsh, who discovered the highly-productive Camp Bird Mine outside of Ouray. The mine made Walsh a very rich man. According to Arthur Lafferty’s 1916 obituary, he oversaw several of Thomas Walsh’s mines before moving to Denver with Maria. Arthur and Maria lived at 1011 Clarkson Street for just one year before Maria died in 1908. It appears that, while Arthur held on to the house, he opted to live in various Denver hotels for the rest of his days. According to his obituary, he was half-owner of the Columbia Hotel at the time of his death.
