It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Governor’s Residence and Governor Polis invited Coloradans to join in the holiday cheer this year during the public holiday tours of the Governor’s Residence. “Come rock around the Christmas Trees at the Governor’s Residence Holiday Tours on December 12th and 13th from 10am to 2pm. I invite you to come tour the historic home adorned in trees, ornaments, and holiday cheer. Free for all, these holiday tours are the best time of the year to visit Colorado’s Home. Happy Holidays Colorado!” said Governor Jared Polis.
Colorado Governor’s Mansion
The Colorado Governor’s Mansion, also known as the Cheesman-Boettcher Mansion, is a historic U.S. mansion in Denver, Colorado. It is located at 400 East 8th Avenue. On December 3, 1969, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The building was built in 1908 after a design by Denver architects Willis A. Marean and Albert J. Norton. The house was originally built as a residence for the widow and the daughter of Denver real estate tycoon Walter Cheesman.
The mansion was designed to accommodate two families. On November 8, 1908, Cheesman’s daughter, Gladys, married John Evans II, the grandson of John Evans, the second territorial governor of Colorado. The widowed mother and young couple lived together until the birth of the Evans’ first child, after which they relocated. On January 2, 1923, Alice Foster Sanger Cheesman died.
Claude K. Boettcher purchased the mansion on February 23, 1923. Boettcher was the head of a financial empire that eventually included sugar, livestock, cement, potash, steel, securities, utilities, and transportation. Boettcher was famous for his lavish parties
which included President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. Boettcher died on June 9, 1957, and his wife in 1958. The house was inherited by the Boettcher Foundation. The foundation offered the house to the State of Colorado as an Executive Residence. The building needed a great deal of work, and its fate remained uncertain for nine months in 1959 as three agencies of the State rejected the offer. On the last day of 1959, Governor Stephen McNichols accepted the building as a gift to the state.
From then until January 2011, it has been the residence of Governors Stephen L. R. McNichols, John Love, John D.Vanderhoof, Richard D. Lamm, Roy R. Romer, William Owens, and William Ritter. The building was restored in the 1980s under the direction of Edward D. White Jr.
Upon taking office in January 2011, Governor John Hickenlooper and his family decided to maintain their private residence in Denver instead of moving to the Governor’s Mansion, though Hickenlooper did move into the mansion on a part-time basis after he separated from his wife in 2012 Hickenlooper’s successor, Jared Polis, also chose to only live in the mansion on a part-time basis, staying there during legislative sessions while retaining his home in Boulder as his primary residence.