The mayor of Denver and the governor of Colorado are not going to be neighbors after all.
This fall, Mayor John Hickenlooper pitched the idea that the stately and gracious Grant-Humphreys mansion, on Pennsylvania Street next to Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion (East Eighth Avenue and Logan), would make a fine residence for the mayor. (Not for him; he is quite satisfied with his historic Park Hill home. But for a future mayor whose own home might be too small for entertaining.)
“Right next to the governor’s mansion . . . two powerful elected officials as neighbors,” he enthusiastically told an unenthused Colorado Historical Society board committee last Friday. “It could be a way of diminishing friction between Denver and Colorado’s top men.”
Both grand houses were built by eminently successful pioneers and gifted to the state. But Denver already has an official mayoral residence, Cableland, the 19,500-square- foot contemporary mansion near Colorado Boulevard and Leetsdale Drive, a gift to the city from cable- TV magnate Bill Daniels in 1997. Perhaps the most generous philanthropist to Denver, Daniels stipulated the $7 million house could also be a place for non-profits to hold fund- raisers. Almost $12 million has been raised there since 1986.
But no mayor has lived in 22-year- old Cableland, designed as much for events as for a bachelor’s sumptuous home. (Wilma Webb, whose husband Wellington was mayor when the gift was made, said she would have loved to live there, but no one ever asked her.)
When Hickenlooper got his idea “to borrow” the Grant-Humphreys house, he started checking. Would the Daniels Fund agree to sell Cableland, probably adding the proceeds to its scholarship fund for Denver public school students? Would the state attorney general OK leasing the Grant-Humphreys manse if the Colorado Historical Society agreed?
Built in 1902 by James Benton Grant, Colorado’s second governor, the meticulously crafted 30-room mansion was inspired by the handsome plantations of his native Alabama. In 1917, it was bought by Albert E. Humphreys, a mining, coal and oil pioneer. In the late ’40s, it was inherited by his son, Ira B. Humphreys, whose family donated it to the Historical Society in 1976.
It is a beloved party site for those who appreciate authentic historic ambience. The revenue from weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs, memorial services, retreats, corporate events and rentals help maintain the structure. Changing it into a mayoral residence does not fit the desires of the original donor, board members have noted.
“We hold the house in trust for the people of Colorado, have made it available for them in many ways,” Historical Society member Joe Halpern said. “Residency is the sticking point.” Other board members agreed.
Perception in the state is that Denver gets all the goodies, so handing over a state property to the city could be unpopular. With families losing homes in this economy, Denver looking for a new mayoral home seems like bad timing. And changing it to a home does not meet the society’s mission, the board believes.
On Thursday, Bart Berger, chairman of the society’s board, sent a polite letter to Mayor Hickenlooper rejecting his proposal.
Denver Post columnist Joanne Ditmer has been writing on environmental and urban issues for The Post since 1962.
