Bungalows, Foursquares, and The Park Hill Porch
Group Moving Forward On Historic Landmark Designation
By Neil Funsch
Special to the GPHN
Summer is here, and with the hot weather the efforts of the local Historical Park Hill Landmark Committee and its supporters to establish protection for the neighborhood continues.
Before I cover what we have been up to and where we are going I’d like to recap what it is that is being protected beyond just the aesthetic character of Park Hill.
The original Park Hill neighborhood has been judged as historically significant by the United States Department of the Interior National Park Service according to two criteria. First, it’s a rare living example of historical community planning and development in U.S. urban areas. It served as one of Denver’s first exclusively residential areas and one of Denver’s first “streetcar suburbs.”
The neighborhood is also significant for its architecture. It is a living example of popular architectural styles for a period of 60 years, from the 1890s to the mid-20th century when the area was 95 percent completed. As such it is considered a valuable and irreplaceable area for the study of residential architecture.
A little background, a little history
The area was bought and platted by Baron Von Winckler in April of 1887. That means, next year Park Hill will celebrate its 130th birthday. The area covers 32 blocks, from Colorado Boulevard to the east side of Dahlia, and from the north side of Montview Boulevard to 26th Avenue.
There are approximately 700 homes in the district, with roughly 95 percent of the homes built between 1893 and 1941 and another 4 percent built between 1945 and 1954.
A wide variety of residential housing forms, styles and sizes occur in this first Park Hill district and trace the historical development of residential architectural styles. The predominantly brick dwellings vary from small two-bedroom single-bath bungalows to multi-story architect designed mansions.
Also included are many small and large English/Norman Colonial Revival forms. The majority of these are in good to excellent condition and maintain a high degree of historic integrity relative to their original construction.
The first homes built were along and close to Montview Boulevard and Ash and Albion streets. These were nearly all architect-designed homes and considered a transitional style from the Victorian/Queen Anne to the early editions of the Foursquare and Bungalow styles. Much of the district’s building occurred in the two periods immediately before and after American involvement in World War I (1917 to 1918) and prior to the Great Depression of 1929.
By 1934 the majority of lots had been purchased and only infill properties remained. The process of completing these infills continued fitfully through the 1940s and 50s, through today. Currently, only about six open lots remain.
Architectural expressions
The styles of housing changed with the years, as a new century looked for new ways to express itself architecturally. During the initial mansion phase in the first decades of the new century, the large Foursquare (sometimes referred to as the Denver Square) and smaller Bungalow appeared in a response to demand for a new type of house.
These styles, along with Colonial revivals and others, were made available to the public in the Sears’ catalogues, as well as local Denver architectural pattern books for small houses beginning in the 1920s.
Several of the styles deserve special note. The Bungalow as it appears in Park Hill is an adaption of the California Bungalow, which was built of wood in great numbers on the West Coast as recreational or second homes. Since a Denver City ordinance required buildings to be constructed of brick, the design was locally adapted for brick exteriors and a distinctive Park Hill Bungalow look appeared.
Another unique local adaption was the Park Hill Porch, which usually extends full width across the front of the home with two corner brick piers that not only support the porch roof but continue through the roof to form to expended piers with capstones. This porch is evident in Bungalows, Foursquares and large architect –designed dwellings throughout the district and the rest of Park Hill.
Neighborhood at risk
That architectural heritage is currently at risk from unrestrained development. The Park Hill Landmark Committee has been busy both in spreading the word and soliciting the opinions of the residents. Indeed in this pre-election period before November the Committee seeks to reach out to every resident because it is important that all voices be heard.
To that end the committee has held public community meetings, created a website – historicparkhill.org – knocked on every door in the district and distributed flyers, held block parties and a fund raiser and published articles in the Greater Park Hill News and The Denver Post. Committee members have also been busy photographing and inventorying every home and building.
At this point we have spoken to nearly 60 percent of the area’s residents and continue the efforts to speak with every resident living in the proposed district in person. A mailing is planned this summer to every home with a form that can be returned to the committee so that everyone can be heard.
Democratic process at work
The process going forward is as follows:
1. Submit a completed application (after inventory and outreach is completed due for completion before the end of this year) to the staff of the Landmark Preservation Commission who will review the application.
2) When the staff has completed a review, it will be turned over the Landmark Preservation Commission who will notify property owners and hold a hearing.
3) If the Landmark Preservation Commission is in favor of historic designation it then goes to Denver City Council, which will ultimately decide if the district will be granted Landmark status.
In the end the people will decide … Happy Independence Day everyone!
Neil Funsch has been a mortgage broker for 21 years, the last eight in Park Hill. He is a member of the Historic Park Hill Committee and can be reached at 303-229-2684 or neil.funsch@gmail.com.