End comes for historic house
1890 mansion had been home to telegraph pioneer
John C. Ensslin
Published December 4, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.
The long fight to save the historic Woodward house from the wrecking ball ended Monday as demolition began on the state- owned building.
The former mansion at 1530 Sherman St., just north of the state Capitol, has been fenced off.
It will be gone by the end of the month, said state Rep. Joel Judd, D-Denver, who fought for several years to find a different outcome.
Judd said several of its ornate architectural details have been salvaged by the Colorado Historical Society, which also created an extensive photographic record of the building's interior.
Judd said he is sad to see the end so near.
"To be honest, we have had a pretty bad track record with this house in terms of coming up with a good plan for it," he said.
The building was designed in 1890 by prominent Denver architect Frank Edbrooke, who also designed the Brown Palace. The mansion was home to Benjamin F. Woodward, who helped bring the first telegraph lines to Colorado.
The state acquired the building in 1941. At one time it housed the state Game and Fish Commission. It also housed the state archives from 1963 to 1976. It has been vacant ever since.
By 2004, state officials estimated it would cost $4.5 million to fix up the property. There was a plan to convert it to office space, but funding failed to materialize.
The building's demise saddened Amy Zimmer, who works next door at the Department of Education. Zimmer, who writes about historic buildings, launched her own campaign to save the building that she had come to admire over the years.
She was able to go inside the building about a month ago. Parts of the ceiling were water-damaged and sagging, but there were still many nice details, such as the wood paneling and bay windows, she said.
"It's such a shame that the house has been neglected for so long," Zimmer said. "And now it's just going to be a parking lot."
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