To spot the Nettleton-Mead House, look straight ahead for a two-story cream house with a wide porch, teal trim, and an impressive wooden door right in the center-almost like the house is giving you a fancy wink.
Here it stands: built in 1872, the Nettleton-Mead House once belonged to Edwin S. Nettleton, the mastermind who made sure thirsty pioneers could water their crops by designing Greeley’s canals. Imagine the air buzzing with excitement as people gathered on this porch, talking about dreams as wide as the Colorado sky. After Nettleton’s day, the house welcomed Alexander Mead and his bold daughter, Ella-who wasn’t afraid to shake things up. In 1920, Ella Mead did something revolutionary: she founded one of the first birth control clinics in the whole country, making this very house a headquarters for hope and heated debate! Its Italianate style-those brackets and columns-makes it look like it could be a villa awaiting an opera singer. The house became a time capsule, so important it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. So while it might look peaceful, you’re standing next to a landmark where people changed the course of local-and even national-history.
