Highlights:
- Jack Crawford is selling a home that has been in his family for almost a half century.
- The home is listed for $3.95 million by Susan Henderson of Kentwood City Properties.
- Dana Crawford bought the home in 1967.
It was love at first sight ― or at least love after the first steps, for Dana Crawford.
“Just about three steps into the house and there was no question this was it,” said Crawford, perhaps the best known real estate historic preservationist in Denver.
This home, saved by Dana Crawford in 1967, is being sold by her son Jack for $3.95 million.
“It really is a glorious house,” said Crawford, who among other things saved Larimer Square from the wrecking ball.
For the first time in almost a half century, the house is leaving the Crawford House.
Susan Henderson, a broker with Kentwood City Properties is listing the seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom home for $3.95 million.
“We’re asking $514 per square foot for it,” Henderson said, well below the recent sale price of $600 to $700 per square foot for homes in the area.
“This has such a high price because it is such a big house,” Henderson said. “With such low inventory levels, brokers on knocking on the door of homes in Country Club asking what it would take for them to sell.”
It is remarkable to find a home that has been in one family for such a long time, she said.
“It has been in the Crawford family for 46 years,” Henderson noted.
She is selling it for Dana Crawford’s son, Jack, who bought it from his mother in 1991.
It was 1967 when Dana Crawford first stepped into the mansion at 685 Emerson St.
Dana and her husband John, (who has since passed away), paid $41,000 ($285,442 in today’s dollars), for the 10,000-square-foot plus home.
Buying the home, completed in 1904, was seen as pioneering move by historic preservationist pioneer Dana Crawford.
“Now, 6th and Emerson seems like a pretty good address, but back then all my friends thought we were crazy,” Crawford said.
“You are buying where?” they asked incredulously.
In addition, the house, painted baby blue, had been subdivided into apartments.
“I think it had 12 or 13 units,” Crawford said.
“There were “exit” signs in the hall and a fire escape in the back. We bought it contingent on them removing the fire escape.”
Over the decades, she lovingly returned it to its previous glory. In fact, it most likely exceeds its original grandeur. when it was built for Harry Crowe James, a banker and miner who was an original board member of what is now the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. An avid hunter, he was responsible for man of the dioramas in the museum.
It was designed by George Louis Bettcher, architect for the Denver Turnverein as well as a collection of stately mansions in Country Club and hotels, including the Rossonian in Five Points.
The house is flawless, said Henderson.
“It’s a mini-Downton Abbey,” she exclaimed. “Sometimes you walk into an old house you kind of cringe, because it has not been updated. This one has had all the updates. It really is the best of both worlds.”
For example, the main floors has “burglar lights” controlled from hidden switches on the second floor arch through a curbed beam, as well as original marble steps that seep to the second floor, illuminated by two leaded-glass windows.
The living room’s fireplace has the original marble hearth, while the music room and south-facing solarium over the years have been jungle-tight with trees, palm fronds and flowering plants.
The story goes that James, the original owner, would send his wife to Europe to glean the latest in architectural design, which led, for example, to the curved ceiling and border detail work in the ladies lounge/cribbage room on the north side of the house.
The dining room is adorned with an ornate plaster Firenze ceiling as well as an Italian chandelier from the 1920s.
Natural light floods the third floor and a circular staircase provides access into the finished basement that has been used as a guest room, theater room and study.
A bonus space is the 1,000-square-foot carriage house that still has rings mounted on the vaulted ceiling that were originally used to hoist carriages for wheel and axle reapirs. It has been rented in the past as an apartment, although Jack has been using it as an office.
A one-of-a-kind feature is a lattice-patterned window that was salvaged from the Chappell house, which was razed to maek way for the Carlo Ponti wing of the Denver Art Museum.
Jack Crawford already has placed a home under contract in Park Hill that has 3,600 square feet plus a finished basement.
“We are looking at this as a strategic downsizing,” Crawford said, as his kids have gotten older, with two of them in college.
“You can’t beat demographics,” he said. “Kids grow up and move on and you have to create your own lives. We are recognizing this move makes ense.”
Asked if it is hard to let go after so many years of the house being in his family, he said he has “deeply mixed feelings. It was a great place to raise a family. I have misgivings mixed with an opportunity. There are serendipitous and economic moments that you have to grab a hold of.”
His mother also wasn’t too sentimental about the house leaving the family.
“It’s a huge house,” she said. “With half his kids in college, it make a lot of sense for him. You have to move on.”
One thing Jack didn’t have to give a second thought to was who was going to sell his home.
“I’ve known Susan since I rescued her from a bully in second grade.”
For a slide show of the home, please visit this Susan Henderson link.
Interested in buying a hone in Capitol Hill? Please visit COhomefinder.com.
Have a story idea or real estate tip? Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com. InsideRealEstateNews.com is sponsored by Universal Lending, Land Title Guarantee and 8z Real Estate. To read more articles by John Rebchook, subscribe to the Colorado Real Estate Journal.
Related Posts:
The post Home saved by Dana Crawford hits market appeared first on Inside Real Estate News.