Colorado Springs stop in Black Motorist 'Green Book' listed on National Register of Historic Places
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado stop that gave Black tourists a safe place to rest in the mid-20th century “Green Book” is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The former home of Dr. Isaac Moore, Sr. on 738 North Spruce Street in Old Colorado City was listed by the National Park Service July 28 on the National Register of Historic Places. The light blue, two-story, 4-bed, 2-bathroom home constructed in 1901 is currently owned by private residents who are not related to Dr. Moore.
Though he died in 1931, Moore’s house operated as a safe home for Black travelers before the Green Book was officially published. Four other homes in Colorado Springs were listed in the 1939 edition of the Green Book, the first edition to list Moore’s residence. Previously, the Moore Home had been listed as a safe stop for Black travelers in the 1930 edition of the Hackley and Harrison hotel and apartment guide.
Schyleen Qualls, 76, Moore’s step-granddaughter, remembers what traveling was like for Black families in the 1950s and 60s.
“My parents specifically bought a station wagon because once we passed Oklahoma City, there was no place that we would be allowed to stay,” Qualls said about sleeping in the back of the car in places where hotels barred Black people.
Moore arrived in Colorado Springs in 1920 to provide care for the city’s Black population and he remained the city’s only practicing Black physician until his death in 1931. He opened his home to Black travelers during the same time period.
“That’s in my lifetime,” Qualls said. “To know what was happening when Doctor Moore and his wife Catherine were living, it was even more important that they were there to be of service to their community.”
After Dr. Moore's death, his home was owned by Black residents John Wesley Childress Sr. and his wife Blanche, who continued to host travelers overnight as a tourist home. This is why, in the 1939 and 1940 editions of the Green Book, Dr. Moore’s remained listed as the homeowner.
Many African-Americans traveled out west for education for their children, better jobs, and to be recognized as citizens with the same rights as their white counterparts, said Leah Witherow, curator of history for the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum.
While Black people who traveled west did not encounter Jim Crow segregation like in the South where it was enshrined into law, Witherow said they still faced “de jure” discrimination where segregation was carried out in practice.
“And so instead you had to find out where you could work, where you could eat, where you could go to school, where you could worship all by word of mouth,” Witherow said.
“Certain neighborhoods weren't open to people of color in Colorado Springs, in Denver, in Pueblo. And we know that this did a lot of harm.”
Today, 80% of The Green Book listings–including homes, night clubs, beauty parlors, and taxi services–are gone or completely beyond recognition, according to Candacy Taylor, author of the book "Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America.” Of the brick-and-mortar Green Book locations that still exist, Taylor said, only between three and five percent remain in operation.
A big misunderstanding about how racism worked in America, Taylor said, is that the Jim Crow south was the most dangerous place for Black Americans. However, there were more “sundown towns” – places that were life-threatening for Black travelers to be after dark – in the west and the midwest than in the south. This was due in part to the lack of Black residents outside of the south, she said.
“The Green Book was more than just a travel guide,” Taylor said. “It’s a great resource on how to understand the resiliency and integrity of the Black community.”
Husband-and-wife architectural historians Tom and Laurie Simmons submitted the application to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024 through a History Colorado grant.
The National Register of Historic Places application for Dr. Moore’s home has been “...one of the most interesting and important projects I think we’ve done in our career as historians,” Tom Simmons said.
“This is a very uncertain and kind of perilous time for this type of historical research,” Tom Simmons said, referring to the documentation of Black history and the history of people of color in America.
The Underrepresented Communities Grant to continue the African American Travel Site project that was awarded to History Colorado in January of this year to continue landmarking some of these Green Book locations face an uncertain future due to federal funding cuts by the Trump Administration, Simmons said.
The National Register of Historic Places designation for Dr. Moore’s house is significant because traditionally, landmarks and historic preservation focused on the history of white American history in the United States, he said.
“And the idea, in much more recent years… is to look at those areas of history that haven't been recognized and to recognize them as being a part of the full history of the United States,” Simmons said. “And that's what this project represented.”
Colorado houses 29 National Historic Landmarks, according to the National Parks Service, which is in the process of updating its website to include recent designations. Nationally, there are more than 2,600 landmarks including buildings, sites, structures, and districts designated for historic preservation.
Among the benefits of the designation for the Moore home are incentives for its current owners to write off any construction improvements as a tax credit, a benefit in Colorado but not all states, according to Simmons.
Next May, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum will commemorate Dr. Moore’s story in its “Freedom to Thrive: The American Experiment in Colorado Springs” exhibit. The installation will focus on people who fought to make change in Colorado Springs.
The Green Book archive can be found at the NYPL Digital Collections for further reading.
Type of story: News
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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.