WHEAT RIDGE — Eighteen months after the 94-year-old Olinger mansion appeared to have been saved, the landmark could have a date with the wrecking ball.
The Wheat Ridge City Council will consider an amended development plan tonight for the mansion property at Wadsworth Boulevard and West 29th Avenue.
If approved, the white-brick Italianate mansion with the red-tile roof would be demolished.
It was built in 1914 by George and Margaret Olinger, who founded Crown Hill Cemetery and were involved in developing the Bonnie Brae, Olinger Gardens and Indian Hills neighborhoods.
“An agreement was that if we didn’t push for a historic landmark designation, that the mansion would be preserved in perpetuity,” said Claudia Worth of the Wheat Ridge Historical Society. “I guess in Wheat Ridge that’s 18 months.”
Developer and owner Andy Miller said in 2006 that landmark status would be too restrictive on plans to build a restaurant and office complex on the 4.6-acre site.
The City Council denied landmark status but supported conditions for development, including: keeping the mansion in its current location and condition, moving or reconstructing a 300-foot-long rose arbor along Wadsworth and giving a 114-year-old farmhouse and barn on the site to an organization that would move them.
The farmhouse and rose arbor have been torn down, and the barn was purchased and moved by a nearby resident.
Selling the 3,300-square-foot mansion has been difficult. Because the mansion and the adjacent chapel were associated with the mortuary business, City Manager Randy Young said, “It’s not something anyone is dying to use.”
The historical society advertised the mansion on its website, and Worth said there have been inquiries from a multiple-sclerosis foundation, some churches and a restaurateur.
A restaurant is interested in building a structure north of the mansion, Young said.
The historical society filed another request for landmark designation, but a proposal to hold a hearing died for lack of support.
Young said that a landmark-designation hearing will be conducted the same night as the hearing on the amended development plan.
Ann Schrader: 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a production error, it originally was published with a photo of the Olinger chapel at West 29th Avenue and Wadworth, instead of the Olinger mansion.
