Colorado Governor's Mansion

Colorado Governor's Mansion
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	400 E. 8th Ave., Denver, Colorado
Coordinates:	39°43′43″N 104°58′53″W / 39.72861°N 104.98139°W / 39.72861; -104.98139Coordinates: 39°43′43″N 104°58′53″W / 39.72861°N 104.98139°W / 39.72861; -104.98139
Area:	1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built:	1904
Architect:	Willis A. Marean and Albert J. Norton
Architectural style:	Colonial Revival
Governing body:	State
NRHP Reference#:	69000039[1]
Added to NRHP:	December 3, 1969

The Colorado Governor's Mansion, also known as the Cheesman-Boettcher Mansion, is a historic U.S. residence in Denver, Colorado. It is located at 400 East 8th Avenue. On December 3, 1969, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

History

This building is located in Denver on the southeast corner of 8th Avenue and Logan Street. The exact address is 400 E. 8th Avenue. The Governor's Mansion is also known as the Cheesman-Evans-Boettcher Mansion for its former owners.

The building was built during 1908 after a design by Denver architects Willis A. Marean and Albert J. Norton. The house was built originally as a residence for the widow and the daughter of Denver real estate tycoon Walter Scott Cheesman.

The mansion was designed to accommodate two families. On November 8, 1908, Cheesman's daughter, Gladys, married John Evans II, the grandson of John Evans, the second territorial governor of Colorado. The widowed mother and young couple lived together until the birth of the Evans' first child, after which they relocated. On January 2, 1923, Alice Foster Sanger Cheesman died.

Claude K. Boettcher purchased the mansion on February 23, 1923. Boettcher was the owner of much property that eventually included sugar, livestock, cement, potash, steel, securities, utilities, and transportation. Boettcher was famous for his lavish parties which included President Dwight D. Eisenhower during 1952. Boettcher died on June 9, 1957, and his wife during 1958.

The house was inherited by the Boettcher Foundation. The foundation offered the house to the State of Colorado as an Executive Residence. The building needed a great deal of work, and for nine months during 1959, three agencies of the State rejected the offer. On the last day of 1959, Governor Stephen McNichols accepted the building as a gift to the state.

Since then, it has been the residence of Governors Stephen L.R. McNichols, John Love, John D.Vanderhoof, Richard D. Lamm, Roy R. Romer, William Owens, and William Ritter. The building was restored during the 1980s as directed by Edward D. White, Jr ^[2]

Architecture

The Cheesman-Evans-Boettcher Mansion is a formal, late Georgian Revival house. The building is surrounded by a wrought iron fence with cannonball finials on the brick posts. The walls of the mansion are red brick. There is a white wooden frosting under a hipped roof with prominent gabled dormers. The cornice is pedimented and dentiled. The west side portico has massive, two-story fluted Ionic columns. There is a dramatic entry way with grouped columns that support a porch which becomes a balustraded second-story balcony. The semicircular sunroom was added by suggestion of Mrs. Cheesman during 1915, and it overlooks a small park now known as "Governor's Park." ^[3]

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 
2. ^ Jean Walton Smith and Elaine Colvin Walsh, 1979 Queen of the Hill: The private life of the Colorado Governor's Mansion Denver, Colorado, Volunteers of the Colorado Historical Society, Privately Published, Second Edition 2006, 62 p., No ISBN
3. ^ Thomas J. Noel Buildings of Colorado New York, Oxford University Press, 669 p. ISBN 0-19509076-4 pp. 75-76

External links

• Governor's Residence at the Boettcher Mansion