The Hiwan Homestead Museum is a historic house museum in Evergreen, Colorado. [1]
Hiwan Homestead | |
 | |
| Location | Evergreen, Colorado |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°38′21″N105°19′26″W / 39.6391623°N 105.3238051°W |
| Built | 1893-1918 |
| Architectural style | Rustic |
| Website | Hiwan Heritage Park |
| NRHP reference No. | 74000583 |
| Added to NRHP | 9 April 1974 |
It is located at 4208 S. Timbervale Drive in Evergreen. [1]
The property was purchased in the late 1880s by Mary Neosho Bailey Williams, widow of General Thomas Williams. The only structure on the property at the time was a hay barn, which Mary and her daughter Josepha hired local carpenter John "Jock" Spence to convert into a three-room cabin, finished in 1893. They named the property Camp Neosho, after Mary's middle name. [2]
After Mary passed away in 1914, the Douglases contracted Jock Spence to expand the house to a total of seventeen rooms. The expansion was completed in 1918. The house remained in the ownership of the Williams-Douglas family until Josepha's passing in 1938. The house was sold to the Buchanan family, which used the building as the headquarters for Hiwan Ranch, and their descendants who lived in the home until 1973. [2]
In 1974, Jefferson County purchased the property, [3] marking the first usage of county Open Space funds in the area. The county commissioners asked the Evergreen Mountain Area Historical Society (then the Jefferson County Historical Society) to supply volunteers to provide tours, exhibits and educational programs for the museum, which opened to the public on August 3, 1975. [4] Heritage Grove, a four-acre parcel adjacent to the property, was purchased separately in 1977. [5]
Jeffco Public Schools students visit the museum as part of the fourth grade Colorado history unit, [6] an optional field trip program which began in 1976. [7]
The Rocky Mountain rustic style log building utilizes local pine, fir, and granite. Its architectural features are described in its National Register of Historic Places nomination: [8]
"Two two-story octagonal towers are prominently featured, one at each end of the house. . . . As the building grew, it was built to accommodate large standing trees, making for unusual room arrangements and architectural features. Seven stone fireplaces and chimneys are included. A main stairway is of solid log puncheon construction, and the stone masonry and wood joinery are of the highest quality throughout. Logs were peeled and oiled, and roof lines are made to conform with the rambling nature of the structure. All foundations are of stone masonry, in fine condition. Most of the interior shows the log wall finish or is wood paneled. Scattered through the house are fine Indian motif designs painted by the noted anthropologist Eric Douglas, and the second story room in the west octagon tower exhibits the Gothic arches used to create the chapel atmosphere desired by Canon Douglas, noted Episcopalian liturgist who inherited the house from Mrs. Williams as her son-in-law."
Other structures built by Jock Spence in the area include the Church of the Transfiguration chapel (c. 1900, moved to its current site in 1961), the Evans–Elbert Ranch residence (1908), the Bell Tower at Church of the Transfiguration (1911), the Anne Evans Mountain Home (1911), Greystone Lodge (1917), and Center Stage (1924, originally the Evergreen Conference Meeting House).
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 582,910, making it the fourth-most populous county in Colorado. The county seat is Golden, and the most populous city's Lakewood.
Evergreen is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Jefferson County, Colorado, U.S. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Evergreen post office has the ZIP Codes 80439 and 80437. At the 2020 census, the population of the Evergreen CDP was 9,307. The Evergreen Metropolitan District provides services.
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Morrison is a home rule municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 396 at the 2020 census.
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Jefferson County School District R-1 is a school district in Jefferson County, Colorado. The district is headquartered at the Jeffco Public Schools Education Center in West Pleasant View, an unincorporated area of the county near Golden in the Denver metropolitan area. Jeffco Public Schools serves almost 81,000 students in 166 schools. It is the second-largest school district in Colorado, having been surpassed in 2013 by Denver Public Schools, which has an enrollment of approximately 81,000.
Evergreen High School is a public high school in the JEFFCO Public Schools district in Evergreen, Colorado, United States. Until Conifer High School opened in 1996, the school served students in both Evergreen and Conifer. Evergreen High School is known for being "a school of excellence" in its academic, athletic and extracurricular activities. Evergreen has won two Blue Ribbon Awards from the United States Department of Education in 2007 and 2015.
Midway House, also known as Broken M Bar Ranch and Meyer Ranch, is an 1889 Queen Anne ranch house located near Aspen Park, Colorado. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
South Table Mountain is a mesa on the eastern flank of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Castle Rock, the 6,338-foot (1,932 m) summit of the mesa, is located on private property in Jefferson County, Colorado, 0.56 miles (0.9 km) directly east of downtown Golden.
The Lariat Loop National Scenic and Historic Byway is a National Scenic Byway and a Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Jefferson County, Colorado, USA. The byway is a 40-mile (64 km) loop in the Front Range foothills west of Denver through Golden, Lookout Mountain Park, Genesee Park, Evergreen, Morrison, Red Rocks Park, and Dinosaur Ridge. The Lariat Loop connects to the Mount Evans Scenic Byway at Bergen Park.
Jules Jacques Benois Benedict was one of the most prominent architects in Colorado history, whose works include a number of well-known landmarks and buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Elk Meadow Park is a park and trail system in Evergreen, Colorado managed by Jefferson County Open Space. This program began acquiring these ranchlands in 1977 to create the extensive protected area, which is made larger by adjacent public lands. Contiguous to Elk Meadow Park on the west is Bergen Peak Park, a "conservation/wilderness" area that is part of the Denver Mountain Parks system. Through a cooperative effort between the two park management entities, the Too Long Trail in Elk Meadow Park continues to Bergen Peak, at 9,708 ft. Noble Meadow, a conservation easement adjacent to Elk Meadow Park on the northwest along Squaw Pass Road, has no public access. The Bergen Peak Wildlife Area, managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, is next to the Park's southwestern boundary.
Thomas R. Williams was an American antebellum-era Army officer and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was killed as he commanded the Union troops at the Battle of Baton Rouge.
Lakewood is the home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 155,984 at the 2020 U.S. Census, making Lakewood the fifth most populous city in Colorado and the 167th most populous city in the United States. Lakewood is a suburb of Denver and is a principal city of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor.
Bear Creek is a tributary of the South Platte River in central Colorado in the United States. It begins as a small creek up in the Mount Blue Sky Wilderness in Summit Lake and makes its way through Evergreen, CO, Kittredge, CO, Idledale, CO and Morrison, CO before entering Bear Creek Lake Park, managed by the City of Lakewood, Colorado.
Evergreen Conference District is a music conference center in Jefferson County, Colorado, near Evergreen. It was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places on May 1, 1979. The district is located at Highway 74 along Bear Creek.
Josepha Williams Douglas (1860–1938), also commonly known as Josepha Williams, was a physician and co-operator of the Marquette-Williams Sanitarium in Denver, Colorado. She was one of the first female doctors in the state. She, as well as her mother Mary Neosho Williams, purchased a number of tracts of land in the Evergreen, Colorado area, at least some of which were ultimately donated for the Evergreen Conference District. Douglas was the daughter of Civil War General Thomas Williams and wife of Canon Charles Winfred Douglas, a plainsong musical expert and Episcopalian priest.
Frederic Huntington Douglas also known as Eric Douglas. "was one of the first scholars to recognize the artistic achievements of American Indians as well as the arts of Africa and Oceania."
Evans–Elbert Ranch, also called the Elbert-Austin Ranch, was built as a 300-acre family retreat and ranch in Upper Bear Creek near Evergreen in Clear Creek County, Colorado by John Evans, Colorado's second territorial governor. Covering most of Corral Creek, Metz, and Vance valleys, it was a mountain cattle ranch.