Walter S. Cheesman
Walter Scott Cheesman rode an ox cart from Chicago to Denver in 1861, where he joined his brother in the drug store business. He became an enthusiastic and effective booster of his new city, helping bring railroad service to Denver, developing the town's fledgling real estate industry and rising to local and regional prominence. After the tragic loss of his wife and two year old son, he remained single for many years. At the age of 47 he remarried, to the beautiful and charming widow Alice Foster Sanger. Two years later their daughter, Gladys, was born and from the moment he saw her, Walter Cheesman was devoted to her. While still a teenager, Gladys helped her father design a wonderful new house for the family. But in 1907, just as he was planning to begin construction of the landmark mansion atop Denver's Logan Hill, Mr. Cheesman died. Gladys and her mother proceeded with the plans, and the result was a graceful, soaring home of three stories that soon became the envy of Denver high society. From outside the wrought iron fence, citizens marveled at the mansion's west portico with its two-story Roman Ionic colonnade, at the widow's walk and the elegant arched windows. The Cheesman home became the talk of Denver.
Shortly after the home was completed in 1908, Gladys married her childhood sweetheart, John Evans, grandson of the second territorial governor of Colorado. They shared the house with Mrs. Cheesman for several years until they built a house of their own. They added unique features through the years: a fountain-centered rose garden, a lily pool with pergola, and a solarium constructed in 1915 over what had become known as the Palm Room.
Mrs. Cheesman died in 1923 and the house was sold to Claude K. Boettcher, a leading western businessman. Mr. Boettcher presented the deed to his wife Edna as a Valentine's Day present in 1924. Where the Cheesman-Evans era had focused on expanding the mansion and its grounds, the Boettcher family toured the world acquiring furnishings and objets d'art, many of which remain part of the modern mansion collection. Among their finest additions was a Waterford cut crystal chandelier that hung in the White House ballroom in 1876, when President Grant presided over America's centennial celebration (and Colorado's admission to the Union). The Boettchers expanded the Palm Room to enclose the former porch into a magnificent bay, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the fountain and gardens, with the view reaching to Pike's Peak, 70 miles to the south. They added two small wings to the Palm Room, and remodeled the upstairs bedroom suites, eliminating the solarium. Charles Lindbergh, a close friend of the Boettchers' son, was such a frequent visitor that one of the new bedroom suites was dubbed Charlie's Room. Another guest was a future president, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Source: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovernorsResidence/GRES/1212052629678
Shortly after the home was completed in 1908, Gladys married her childhood sweetheart, John Evans, grandson of the second territorial governor of Colorado. They shared the house with Mrs. Cheesman for several years until they built a house of their own. They added unique features through the years: a fountain-centered rose garden, a lily pool with pergola, and a solarium constructed in 1915 over what had become known as the Palm Room.
Mrs. Cheesman died in 1923 and the house was sold to Claude K. Boettcher, a leading western businessman. Mr. Boettcher presented the deed to his wife Edna as a Valentine's Day present in 1924. Where the Cheesman-Evans era had focused on expanding the mansion and its grounds, the Boettcher family toured the world acquiring furnishings and objets d'art, many of which remain part of the modern mansion collection. Among their finest additions was a Waterford cut crystal chandelier that hung in the White House ballroom in 1876, when President Grant presided over America's centennial celebration (and Colorado's admission to the Union). The Boettchers expanded the Palm Room to enclose the former porch into a magnificent bay, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the fountain and gardens, with the view reaching to Pike's Peak, 70 miles to the south. They added two small wings to the Palm Room, and remodeled the upstairs bedroom suites, eliminating the solarium. Charles Lindbergh, a close friend of the Boettchers' son, was such a frequent visitor that one of the new bedroom suites was dubbed Charlie's Room. Another guest was a future president, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Source: http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovernorsResidence/GRES/1212052629678
