The Boettcher Mansion on Lookout Mountain, Colorado

I'm sharing some places I visited this past summer that I did not have an opportunity to blog about,  while I am recovering from foot surgery.

Charles Boettcher (1852–1948) was one of Colorado’s most important early businessmen and philanthropists.  He owned many lucrative businesses, one of which was a cement company. He donated cement to a businessman building a road to the top of a prominent foothill west of Golden, Colorado, known as Lookout Mountain. When the property on top of the mountain became available Boettcher bought sixty-two acres and built Lorraine Lodge, now known as Boettcher Mansion, in 1917 as a summer retreat. It stands as a particularly elaborate example of the rustic foothills lodges that were popular among wealthy Denverites in the early twentieth century. (All photos in this post will enlarge if clicked on.)

Boettcher hired a popular architectural firm of the time; known as Fisher and Fisher, who designed many buildings in Denver. For “Lorraine Lodge,” the Fishers used local harvested stone and wood from the site to construct the massive retreat.  The estate, which included the main residence, carriage house, gazebo, and well house, emphasized traditional Arts and Crafts craftsmanship in its design. Large east-facing windows allowed Boettcher to take in the view of Denver, and rooms at the lodge could accommodate fifteen to twenty guests.

The grounds around the mansion are beautifully landscaped, both in the rear...

....and front.

Since the mansion was completed in 1917, many pine trees have grown and have obscured the view of Denver, but have added to the beauty of the location.

 Please click to enlarge--photos of Charles Boettcher and his granddaughter Charline Humphreys Breeden.

After Boettcher and his wife, Fannie, officially separated in 1920, the property became Boettcher’s personal retreat and for the next three decades, he stayed at the lodge each year from June to September, using it as a base for hunting and entertaining. Upon Boettcher’s death in 1948, the estate passed to his granddaughter, Charline Humphreys Breeden. Breeden raised her family at the lodge before making plans in the late 1960s to donate the house and surrounding grounds to Jefferson County for public use. When she died in 1972, the 110-acre property officially became county land.

Jefferson County built a nature trail on the grounds and opened the lodge to the public in 1975 as a combined conference and nature center. In the 1980s the entire property was managed by Jefferson County’s Open Space program, but in 1989 Lorraine Lodge was renamed Boettcher Mansion and became its own entity within the Jefferson County Parks Department. These changes were intended to help differentiate the mansion, which had become a popular conference and wedding venue, from the Lookout Mountain Nature Center, which moved into a new building on the property in the 1990s.

In the collage above you can see, what was know as the Fireside Room (left) in the mansion, is now a large banquet room that can accommodate 200 people.  Boettcher Mansion has become a popular wedding venue site

The Boettcher Mansion retains some of the original Stickley classic furnishings.

Many rooms inside the mansion can be used as meeting rooms for conferences...

...and there is also an up to date, state of the art kitchen inside for catering purposes.

There is also a gift shop in the mansion as well as many interesting framed historical photos, period newspaper clippings, and information in the hallways. In the upper right on the collage above, you can see a photo of Chief Colorow. He often roamed this part of Colorado and liked to camp on Lookout Mountain.  You can read more about him on this blog post--click here.

Boettcher Mansion and the Lookout Mountain Nature Center continue to share the open-space park at the top of the mountain, which has grown from Boettcher’s original 62-acre purchase to the 134-acre Lookout Mountain Nature Preserve.  

I really enjoyed my visit to Boettcher Mansion and learning more about its history, and I hope you did too!

Further information:

The Boettcher Mansion

900 Colorow Road

Golden, 80401

Phone: 720-497-7630

Hours

Monday - Friday

8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

(Nights, weekends, and holidays by

appointment or reservation.)

PS: I am reaching the end of my foot surgery recovery and hope to be back to wearing shoes again soon, and be able to get back to a normal schedule. We have so many wonderful places to hike in Colorado and I'm looking forward to being able to walk well again. I really hope this surgery will help to make hiking comfortable for me. Thanks for all your good wishes!

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