David House

The house built by the early 20th-century Douglas businessman E. T. David crowns a hill at the east end of Center Street. The street originally was, and remains, the nerve center of the Douglas business world. David, then, commanded an overview of both the developing city and the open plains, further to the west, that he hoped it might eventually come to replace. He thus enjoyed direct visual feedback on the fruits of his efforts to develop the city—efforts that were various, and almost uniformly successful.

After a failed ranching venture in the brutal Wyoming winter of 1886, and following stints as a land appraiser and ranch superintendent, David moved his family to Douglas in 1907, where he purchased the established Florence Hardware Company, a main supplier of material for early Douglas buildings. Subsequently, he was a key figure in the construction of the LaBonte Hotel on Walnut Street, which was one of the most important and elaborate buildings in early Douglas. Also politically active, he served as mayor of the city from 1912 to 1913 and, earlier, had been influential in the creation of the political entity of Converse County, in 1888.

One of the fruits of David’s success was the hilltop house on South 6th Street, which he built in 1907. The hill was made to fit the house by excavating a level area across the originally-rounded crest; then the sterile, clayey surface of the newly-leveled site was overlain with 38 truckloads of fertile topsoil. Viewed from street level, only the upper story and arching roof lines of the house are visible, with the exterior wraparound porch and entire lower floor being obscured by the gentle slope of David Hill.