Byers-Evans House Museum

Elite '08

143

186

Carrie R.

Denver, CO

A fascinating house with amazing ties to local history is open to you for just $5!

The name Byers-Evans comes from the only two families to ever own and inhabit the house in the hundred years from the time it was built until it was given to the Colorado Historical society in the 1980s.

Built in 1883 for William Byers, the editor of Denver's first newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News. In 1889, he sold the house to the son of John Evans (the second governor of the Colorado territory), William Evans, who was president of the Denver Tramway Company. The Evans family added onto the house 5 times, most significantly in 1900.

Anyway, the fascinating thing is that Margaret Evans donated the house and all the belongings! So, unlike the Molly Brown house, which has had to be recreated, this house was simply restored to look as it did between 1912 and 1924, and it is filled with the family's actual belongings. There is actually ORIGINAL 1912 wallpaper in the music room. Beautiful original English tile in the parlor fireplace. Amazing, fun stuff, really!

Another note: this house, although sprawling, was not a mansion, but an upper-middle class home, and the docents make you feel as if you knew the inhabitants personally.

The gift shop is very small, and the highlight there is the art pottery, made in Colorado Springs by Van Briggle, that are reproductions of items in the house which were featured on Antiques Roadshow.

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