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Preserving The Historic Home Of A Pioneering Doctor In Colorado

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6min 33sec
Courtesy of Denver Public Library
Dr. Justina Ford was the first African-American woman to be licensed as a medical doctor in Colorado. She estimated she delivered some 7,000 babies during her 50-year pioneering medical career in the early 1900s..

There's a 2-story, brick home in Denver that looks like something straight out of the old west. It's now home to the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center in Colorado. But it used to be home to a pioneering doctor. Dr. Justina Ford was the first African-American woman licensed as a medical doctor in the state of Colorado.

Dr. Ford lived, and worked, in the home starting in the early 1900s. And now, it needs some TLC. The windows are showing signs of age. The brickwork's in rough shape. And money to fix it up, $150,000, could come through if this site, on the Historic Register, gets enough votes in a national competition. To learn more about the home's impressive former occupant, we turn to museum volunteer Terry Gentry.