Redoing electrical systems, replacing main structural beams and ghost-busting would be enough to scare most first-time homebuyers back into apartment living.
But the 110-year-old dilapidated Doyle Benton House at 1301 Lafayette St. deeply touched Tamar Gerber’s soul.
“The house was so sad; it was crying out for some kind of help,” says Gerber, who successfully embarked on an ambitious, costly project to restore the house to its historic roots.
The massive four-story structure once was home to two of Denver’s elite society families at the turn of the century.
James Doyle, founder of Teller County’s Portland Gold Mine, Colorado’s most prolific mine, bought it in 1896. A decade later, Frank Benton, a prominent cattle rancher on the Western Slope and one of the founders of the National Western Stock Show, Rodeo & Horse Show, purchased the house, living in it with his family until it was sold in 1970.
But it soon fell from grace along with the Capitol Hill neighborhood surrounding it. An overgrown yard hid its once grand facade. Inside, the home was butchered and shabbily modified into four apartments.
Gerber saw through its bedraggled disposition and uncovered richness of character featured in its five original fireplaces, carriage house, coal tunnel and amazing woodwork – all emblematic of Denver Foursquare homes.
But preservation specialists say her choice to restore rather than renovate is unusual in a time in which older houses are more likely to be turned into office space, lofts or a bed-and-
breakfast.
“It takes a great deal of financial commitment and willingness to find the right materials to historically match and re-create what was lost,” says Dale Heckendorn, national register coordinator with the Colorado Historical Society.
Gerber, a corporate financier, purchased the 4,000-square foot home last year for nearly $600,000. But the restoration project would demand another $300,000 – the cost of a newly built home in Denver – to restore the electrical system, update the plumbing, make it structurally sound, update the kitchen and master suite, add period cabinetry, new appliances and redo six bathrooms.
“I was clueless,” she says. “I was aware it had some electrical issues, but I didn’t understand that restoring it would mean pulling all of its innards out.”
When the house was converted into four apartments, bedrooms were torn up and turned into kitchens. Temporary jacks held up the floor beneath the kitchen, while electrical conduits had been run along the house’s exterior. Holes had been bashed through three layers of brick wall as well as the house’s foundation to create access doors to the attic and basement apartments.
Contractors also discovered that the sag in the floor was caused by a buckling piece of the Colorado Southern railroad that had been used as a main structural beam.
To top it off, one of the crew members swears he had a frightening encounter with a ghost.
Determined to restore and not renovate the house, Gerber hired Randy Swan, president of the Cygnet Group, a historic preservation company, to complete the restoration.
Swan, the former special-
projects coordinator for the Colorado State Historical Society, knew how to stabilize the structure. He hired staff like carpenter Richard Jaggi, who specialized in restoration, and located materials that duplicated original features indicative of a 19th-century house – such as panel doors, windows and even a butler’s pantry.
Swan says Gerber picked an extreme case of a fixer-upper, but that more people like her are needed if Denver hopes to preserve the 100 or so remaining century-old houses.
“We can’t expect the museums to buy enough of these properties,” Swan says. “There just isn’t enough money out there. I don’t want what’s left to become artificial memories.”
John Benton, 49, the great- grandson of Frank Benton, says Gerber did for his old family house what his family couldn’t.
“She put her heart and soul into it, and I hope she’s fortunate enough to be able to live there for a long time.”
Staff writer Sheba R. Wheeler can be reached at 303-820-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com.
