LAKEWOOD —One of the oldest Victorian houses in Lakewood sits right off West Colfax Avenue between Carr and Estes streets, but you wouldn’t know it from driving the busy thoroughfare.
A boxy storefront, built in the 1940s and ’50s and now painted bright green, yellow and purple, blocks the view.
But take a step through the doorway marked “The Orchid,” walk down a short hallway and you’re at the front door of the Wight-Starkweather House.
It’s original to the house, too, built in 1872.
The house, painstakingly restored by Don Jelniker and his wife, is now home to a new business, the Orchid Wine Cave and Holistic Center.
The wine boutique fills the first floor, with 179 new- and old-world wines in stock. Up above, the bedrooms of the old house have been converted into the holistic center, with massage rooms, steam shower and dry sauna.
“You would never know this was here,” Jelniker said as he gave a tour on a recent afternoon. “It’s Lakewood’s hidden Victorian.”
When Jelniker and his sister, Pam, purchased the building at 8642 and 8644 W. Colfax Ave., eight years ago, though, the house had seen better days. The two also own and operate The Grow Store on the west side of the storefront, a business his sister and her husband started a number of years ago.
When the house was built in 1872, the story goes, it was the first residence in Lakewood to have two bathrooms with running water.
Its owner, Joseph Wight, was Lakewood’s postmaster, and in the 1890s, the post office burned down at Colfax and Wadsworth.
That’s why there are two doors leading from the house’s foyer today, Jelniker said. Wight ended up moving the post office into his home, dividing the front room into two rooms and cutting a second entrance, on the left, for customers. The door to the right led to the living quarters.
The Starkweather family bought the home in the early 1900s. By the 1950s, the family had removed the veranda shown in historic photographs and replaced it with the storefront that’s now visible from Colfax.
The house itself, though, was left intact behind the storefront, accessed via hallway and its original front door.
Over the years, the house has been rented out by the room, used for commercial offices and as a music rehearsal space.
“The building was in ruins when we came into this place,” Jelniker said. “The walls had serious water damage. The walls hadn’t been painted in who knows how long.
“We decided to bring it back to life,” he said. “I think we’ve done that.”
The Orchid Wine Cave opened to the public in June with a mission to educate its customers and “promote quality wines at affordable prices,” Jelniker said.
Weekly wine tastings are held on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and every wine for sale has a printed placard with information about the specific variety and vineyard.
At any given time, 10-20 percent of the wines are organic; on a recent afternoon, Jelniker even had a wine in stock, a California red blend, listed as vegan.
Old-world wines — bottles from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Australia, Chile, Argentina — fill the racks in the old front room, while new-world wines — California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado — are displayed in the old kitchen.
“My objective is to be a wine boutique,” Jelniker said. “I don’t want to be a liquor store. We have enough liquor stores around here.
“I want to teach people — it’s not rocket science,” he said. “You don’t have to be a snob about it. When it’s drank in moderation, it can be really fun.”
Growing up in Lakewood, Jelniker said he also remembers the days when West Colfax was a really vibrant area.
“I’m just trying to do my part to clean up Colfax and give it a good name,” he said.
Businesses like the Orchid are a great example of the “renaissance” going on along West Colfax in Lakewood, said Bill Marino, executive director of Lakewood-West Colfax Business Improvement District.
In the last six months or so, at least four new businesses have opened in the area, including the Orchid, Five Star Bakery, Pho 2 Love and Kazoku Sushi.
“You talk about the years gone by — that would have been 10 years of activity and all that has happened in the last six months,” Marino said. “West Colfax is absolutely going through a renaissance.”
The Orchid is a great addition to the energy that’s being created by the new light rail and city and community leaders, he said.
“What a cool destination in a 1872 Victorian house — you’re transformed in era when you go up that front step,” Marino said.
The Orchid Wine Cave, 8642 W. Colfax Ave., is open noon-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Wine tastings are held 2-7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
