Mining engineer Raymond G. Bettenson and his wife Gertrude built this classic, side-gable Craftsman style bungalow between 1910 and 1914. Raymond grew up just a block away in a handsome Queen Anne cottage. His childhood neighborhood still had open space remaining between the School of Mines hill and the empty lots of the still-developing West Side subdivisions. He would have watched those empty lots fill in with modern apartment houses and Craftsman style bungalows like this one. The well-preserved house has changed little since its construction. Its tapered brick porch columns, second-story shingle siding, gabled dormer, and exposed rafter tails in the eaves are key stylistic features. Raymond and Gertrude left for California after 1916, and Delia Davis and her husband Dr. John J. Davis purchased the house in 1917. John was a dentist with offices in the Owsley Block downtown. He openly advertised his prices, offering porcelain or gold crowns for four dollars and a full set of teeth for ten dollars. Delia and John raised their daughter Russell Delia here and remained in residence until their retirement in 1954.
Images