When newlyweds Mark and Courtney Messenbaugh ventured out of their Washington Park rental to house hunt, they never dreamed they would find home in Lakewood.
“Is this my life? Am I going to be a suburbanite?” Courtney, a political consultant, remembers wondering as they signed the papers on their three-bedroom, four-bath town home in the Belmar neighborhood.
The couple are nothing if not the poster children for hip: both in their 30s, both stylish and accomplished, both Denver natives who had separately migrated to the urban buzz of New York and Chicago.
“I didn’t even own a car in my adult life,” says Courtney, cradling newborn son Harrison in her arms.
The couple met at a party in 2002 when they were home for the holidays. They went their separate ways, forged a long-distance romance and eventually married and returned to Colorado. When it came time to house hunt, the neighborhoods they once perceived as cool and politically in step with their left leanings – Washington Park, Lower Downtown – were out of their price range.
That’s when they found themselves in a newly built town home in Belmar with its brownstone-meets-
loft vibe. Equally important was the walking proximity not only to good coffee but a theater showing independent films.
Mark, a self-described political junkie, also finds delight in the microcosm of his neighborhood. While he and his wife sink Democratic yard signs into their tiny patch of grass with gusto, their neighbor around the corner is Alan Philp, executive director of the Republican Trailhead Group.
“I’d love to have a dinner party with him, have a couple glasses of wine and really mix it up,” he says with eyes twinkling. “We like it when people disagree with us. This is a fun district to live in, especially if you’re interested in politics and trying to figure out which way the country is going.”
– Jenny Deam
