Central Denver’s Wyman Historic District is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, bisected by East Colfax Avenue, graced with mature hardwoods and — most important — dotted with grand homes, many designed by noted architect William Lang.
Thanks to all the lore, trees and decades-old patina, it is sometimes hard to imagine that the neighborhood was once prairie. When the first lots were staked in the 1880s, it was in the middle of a grassy, windblown landscape.
An upcoming walking tour of 19 significant Wyman neighborhood houses will resurrect the district’s history for 21st-century Mile High residents.
Sponsored by Denver’s Old House Society, the one-hour tour begins and ends at the Castle Marne at 1572 Race St. The towering Marne, now a bed and breakfast, is one of the jewels of the Wyman neighborhood, which is bounded by East 17th and East 10th avenues, Franklin Street and the alley between York and Josephine streets.
“This area was annexed in 1886, and was touted as Denver’s first major subdivision with city sewer, water and other services,” Jim Peiker, who co-owns the Marne with his wife, Diane, said during a recent stroll through his neighborhood. “It was considered a drive.”
About 400 free-standing structures, homes and businesses are in the Wyman district. Many of them are of acute interest to Denver’s Old House Society.
Founded two years ago, the organization works to educate owners of vintage homes (50-plus years old) about maintenance, restoration and protecting their neighborhoods.
“One of the best ways we know of doing that is showing the old houses and talking about their history and what went into their construction,” said Elizabeth Wheeler, the organization’s executive director.
Eleven of the homes on the one- hour tour, which winds along Race, Vine and High streets, were designed by William Lang. Lang, an Ohio native who lived in Chicago before moving to Denver, did not have a long career. He died in 1897 at age 51, hit by a train in Illinois. But the man was prolific.
A largely self-taught architect who also designed the Ghost Building at 18th and Stout streets, which has long housed the Rocky Mountain Diner, Lang created about 150 Denver houses during the late-19th century. Fewer than 100 remain, including the Molly Brown House. Most are in the Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque styles.
“Lang is kind of the glue holding this tour together,” Peiker said. “He’s not the only architect who worked here, but many of his finest works are in this neighborhood.
“A Lang house comes with quite a cachet,” he added.
While Lang never built the same house twice, he did infuse them with signature traits. He was fond of round windows, often cutting off the bottom curve so that the glass resembled the sun just dipping below the horizon.
Turrets and stone filigrees were also employed. The three stone pillars on the porch are topped with carvings of lotus flowers in various stages of bloom. “He lavished carvings on his buildings as grace notes,” Peiker said.
Lang liked to face his houses in rough-hewn stone. The Marne is a classic example, featuring Castle Rock rhyolite with a rustic treatment.
The Marne was built in 1889. Its showy grandeur epitomized the boom times in Denver during that era.
But 1893 marked a watershed in the city’s architecture. That year saw the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which had briefly put the nation’s currency on a dual gold and silver standard. Silver’s devaluation helped fuel the Panic of 1893, which wreaked havoc on Colorado’s mining-intensive economy.
Subsequent Denver houses were built in a less showy style, at least on their exteriors, reflecting the new austerity of a chastened public.
That change is reflected in the Milheim House at 1515 Race St., built in 1893 by an unknown architect. Except for a carved flourish atop the entrance to the porch, it’s a plain Denver Square. Inside it’s a study in lavishness.
The Milheim House, also part of the tour, boasts an interesting history. Originally located at 1355 Pennsylvania St. across from the Molly Brown House, this residence was moved in one piece to its present site in 1989. At 583 tons, it is the heaviest structure ever moved in Denver as a single unit.
“The story is that the new owners had poured a new concrete pad so that the house would sit a bit higher and show better from the street,” Peiker said. “But as the house was pulled into the street, a city inspector ruled that the concrete needed more time to cure.
“When the owner asked what he was supposed to do in the meantime, the inspector said, ‘My advice is that first thing tomorrow morning, you go down and get a parking permit for your house.’ “
The Wyman neighborhood abounds with such lore.
Next door to the Marne is another Lang-designed house, built in 1890. In 1971 the house served as the world headquarters of The Divine Light Mission, headed by 14-year-old Indian guru Maharaj-Ji.
“You’d have young people prostrating themselves out on the lawn, and many evenings the maharaj would lead them down the street to an ice- cream parlor where he’d buy a cone,” Peiker said.
Peiker’s own house reflects a neighborhood with a history of dreamers.
Built for investment banker Wilbur Raymond, the house boasts ornate woodwork and a third-floor ballroom with 18-foot ceilings.
The house was bought in 1918 by Adele van Cise, a widow who divided it into apartments. (She lived in the dining room.) It was called the Marne Apartments because Van Cise’s son, Philip, said the house reminded him of castles he had seen along France’s Marne River during World War I.
“When we bought it in 1988, we knew it was going to be our castle,” Peiker said. “And that’s how ‘Castle Marne’ entered circulation.”
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com
Wyman house tour
The Old House Society’s tour of the Wyman Historic District will be from 10 a.m.- noon July 24. The one-hour tour covers about four blocks along Race, Vine and High streets.
The tour begins and ends at the Castle Marne at 1572 Race St. Participants will be divided into small groups with a tour guide. A garden party will follow at the Marne. Comfortable shoes are suggested.
Tickets can be purchased for $10 at or at King Soopers stores. Participants are limited to the first 200 ticket holders.
