Welcome to the Governor's Residence at the Boettcher Mansion
Colorado's Home
Governor Jared Polis expresses his sincere thank you for your interest in the Colorado Governor's Residence, and encourages you to visit this elegant house, known fondly as "Colorado's Home". Built as a private residence in 1908, the house has been available for use by Governors since 1960, serving both as a family home, and site for official Governor's functions. The 2006 renovation of the original Carriage House, and addition of the Tebo Visitors Center and Viki and Jack Thompson Gardens, has brought this stately house to a new level of beauty and service to the people of Colorado.
Non-profit organizations, government offices, corporations and individuals may, for a fee, use the Residence and Carriage House to host private events. Free public tours are scheduled throughout the year. Please see the tabs above for more detailed information.
History
Walter Scott Cheesman came 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 Alice Foster Sanger and two years later their daughter, Gladys. While still a teenager, Gladys helped her father design a 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.
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.
Claude Boettcher died in 1957, his wife Edna the following year. She left the house to a private family foundation, requesting that this beautiful mansion be offered to the State of Colorado to be used as a governors' residence. Initially, several state agencies rejected the gift, and after two years of trying to give the mansion to the state, the foundation hired someone to catalog the contents of the house in preparation for an auction. The house itself would be razed because the value was in the land. But in the closing days of 1959, Governor Stephen McNichols gratefully accepted the mansion on behalf of the state.
