About
Community Outreach Service Center, is an organization about people working together for a better community. Since 1988, have proudly served the homeless, returning, and marginalized citizens in the Denver Metro Area. We support by providing resources for employment, housing, peer support, basic needs, and community wealth building. ​Its founders are staples of the Five Points community. Mrs. Eddie Woolfolk and her husband and Pastor Emeritus, Robert “Bob” Woolfolk are co-founders of Community Outreach Service Center and why the organization has been providing for the Five Points/Curtis Park community.
The Legacy of Pistol Pete
Negro League Baseball and Thomas “Pistol Pete” Albright
Thomas Alphonso Albright was born on December 23, 1909 in Crockett County, Texas to Will and Luella Albright. Thomas had relocated to Denver by 1930, and he was living at 2948 High St. with his wife Izetta J., their daughter Thomasina, and Izetta’s mother Laura Dickson. By 1934, Thomas and Izetta had two more children, Louis and Donald, and the entire family had moved to 3022 Welton St. Although Thomas’s occupations on the 1930 and 1940 U.S. Census records were listed as a soda dispenser and clerk for a drug store, he was well-known throughout Denver and East Coast markets as a standout semiprofessional/ professional baseball player.
Thomas Albright pitched and batted righthanded, stood five feet 10 inches, and weighed 225 pounds. Early in his career, he was awarded the nickname “Pistol Pete” for his impressive pitching skills. In 1929, he pitched professionally for the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Albright returned to Denver the following season and played for the White Elephants, Home Owned Stores, and other teams from 1930 until 1933. A Denver Post article from 1933 outlined the upcoming action at Merchants Park by saying, “It’s going to be a busy week for the White Elephants, who are out to
regain their reputation as the best Negro club in the west. Sunday they meet their old rival, Pistol Pete Albright and his All-Stars at Merchants [P]ark at 3 o’clock. It will be their fourth meeting. Albright’s club, formerly known as Home-Owned Stores, has won twice. Manager Ross and his Elephants expect to even the series.”6 In 1936, Thomas again pitched professionally, but this time for the New York Cubans. Following what was his final professional season, he came back to Denver where he performed dual roles of pitching and managing the White Elephants, Home Owned, and Barnett Fuel until around 1941 when he was drafted by the United States Army to serve in World War II.
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After the war, Thomas purchased the house at 3022 Welton St. from Florence Slade in 1945. For a time, his life continued to involve sports as he worked as a boxing promotor for Keith Nuttal, protégé of World Boxing Champion Henry Armstrong. By 1950, Thomas was a porter for the Denver Rio Grande Railroad and eventually retired in the 1970s. During the years he spent working a less celebrated occupation, he accumulated enough wealth to purchase additional property. In 1966, Thomas bought one of the neighboring houses at 3020 Welton St. Ten years later, he purchased the house at 3026 Welton St., on the other side of his primary residence, and kept both as rental properties. Thomas died on June 29, 1986 in Denver, Colorado at the age of 76 and was buried in Fairmount Cemetery. His wife took ownership of all three properties, retaining them until her death in 1993.
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Based on historic records, Albright appeared to live a relatively modest life despite his successful baseball career. However, the impact he had on his community of Five Points, Denver, and other cities is immeasurable. For Black kids to see someone who looked like them portrayed positively in the local sports pages and on the national stage throughout the Great Depression years he played would have been impactful. It is not hard to imagine pickup baseball games in the neighborhood with kids declaring they were “Pistol Pete” before running out to a makeshift pitching mound.
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The Properties
3020 Welton Street
This house was built around 1887, and the original owner is unknown. In 1900, George Brown, a stone cutter, lived there with his wife Paula and his stepson Robert Gates. According to assessor records, Austrian immigrant John Tumler, also a stone cutter, purchased the property in 1914. Through at least
1930, Tumler owned and lived in the house with his German wife Emma and their children Hans Otto and Elizabeth. By 1940, Emma and Otto were the only ones still living in the house. In 1966, the property was purchased by Thomas Albright, who also owned and lived in the house at 3022 Welton St.
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3022 Welton Street
Built around 1888, the original owner of this house is unknown. The earliest occupant was Charles L. Record, a plumber, who lived there in 1905 with his sister Leona and a servant. After marrying Amelia in 1910, Record remained there for several years before moving out and renting the property. In 1919, an
African American woman by the name of Florence Slade, whose occupation was listed as laundress, purchased the property and rented out rooms to several people over her decades of ownership. Slade was responsible for building the existing front porch. Around 1934, Thomas Albright and his wife Izetta J. lived in the house with their children Thomasina, Louis, and Donald. Albright’s mother-in-law, Laura Dickson, also lived with them. In 1945, Albright purchased the property from Slade.
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3026 Welton Street
This house was built in 1887 and originally owned by Francis X. Koch, who appeared to alternate between renting it out and living in it himself. In 1900, the house was being rented by William Little, a stock buyer. Little lived there with his wife Nellie, and their son Harry. By 1910, the Austrian-born Koch,
whose occupation was a tinner, lived there once more with his wife Adele and their daughter Pauline, a stenographer. In 1920, Koch and his wife were still living in the house with their son Joseph, a clerk for one of the railroads. A few years later, Joseph and his wife Mildred were the occupants of the property.
The 1930 census has no record of the address, but a couple by the name of Otis D. and Myrtle O. Gee were recorded as the property’s owners in the 1930 householder directory. By 1940, Myrtle (now Thomas), a hotel maid, was the sole owner of the house. In 1966, the property was purchased by Thomas
Albright, who also owned and lived in the house at 3022 Welton St.
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The Future
The importance of supportive housing.
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Charity’s House Apartments, LLLP – COSC’s first permanent supportive housing program partnered with Charity's House Apartments, LLLP (building owners) and Blueline Development, Inc (property management) at 3022 Welton Street to provide peer supportive navigation services for 36 formerly homeless, incarcerated individuals with permanent housing as to support them in sustaining housing and becoming self-sufficient.
The first tenants moved in July 2023, and COSC Peer Support Professionals were there providing them supportive navigation services to meet their needs to become self-sufficient.
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