%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Anne Evans http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/anne-evans <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Anne Evans</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-10-14T12:44:12-06:00" title="Wednesday, October 14, 2020 - 12:44" class="datetime">Wed, 10/14/2020 - 12:44</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/anne-evans" data-a2a-title="Anne Evans"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fanne-evans&amp;title=Anne%20Evans"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Anne Evans (1871–1941) was a Colorado civic leader and patron of the arts who transformed the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> cultural community. Among her numerous activities, Evans started and helped guide the <strong>Denver Art Museum</strong> to national prominence, assisted in the development of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-public-library"><strong>Denver Public Library</strong></a>, led the restoration of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/central-city-opera-house"><strong>Central City Opera House</strong></a> and the establishment of the Central City Opera Festival, supported arts education at the <strong>University of Denver</strong>, and provided leadership in the creation of Denver’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/civic-center"><strong>Civic Center</strong></a> area. An artist herself, Evans was also influential in collecting and promoting American Indian art, making the Denver Art Museum the first in the nation to showcase Indian art and establish a Native Arts Department.</p> <h2>Early Years</h2> <p>Anne Evans was born in London, England, on January 23, 1871, while her family was on a trip abroad. She was the second daughter (the first died in childhood) and the youngest of four children born to <strong>Margaret Patten Gray</strong> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-evans"><strong>John Evans</strong></a>.</p> <p>Anne Evans’s family was one of the most prominent in Colorado. Her father, John Evans, had arrived in 1862 to serve as <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>territorial</strong></a> governor. Before that, he had been a physician, businessman, and educational benefactor in Illinois, where he founded Northwestern University in Evanston, a town that was named for him. He later founded the University of Denver (DU). Forced to resign his governorship in 1865 for his role in precipitating the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sand-creek-massacre"><strong>Sand Creek Massacre</strong></a>, he became a successful railroad and real estate developer. John and Margaret Evans were devoted Methodists who actively promoted a variety of cultural, philanthropic, and religious causes.</p> <p>Anne Evans was educated at Miss Mary Street’s School and Wolfe Hall in Denver. Her family appreciated the arts and encouraged her evident talents. The Evans home served as a centerpiece of Denver society, hosting arts gatherings and parties. The family spent winters at their house downtown and summers at the Evans Ranch near <strong>Evergreen</strong>.</p> <p>As a child, Anne was known as a “tomboy,” that is, a girl who enjoyed active games and the outdoors. At age fifteen, she was sent to Illinois for a year in the care of her much older cousin Cornelia Gray Lunt, with the aim of turning her into a more conventional young society woman. During this transformative year, Anne’s wilder nature was somewhat tamed and “Cousin Nina,” who was an art patron and civic leader, and who never married, became a lifelong role model for young Anne.</p> <h2>The Artist Years</h2> <p>As a teenager, Evans attended college preparatory classes at DU in 1887 before leaving Colorado for three years of study at the Misses Ferris School in Paris and the Willard School in Berlin. During her years in Europe, Evans honed her art skills and gained an appreciation for art history and cultural institutions devoted to art. In 1891 Evans returned home to Denver, where she began to pursue her own painting career and become involved in the art community.</p> <p>In 1895 twenty-four-year-old Anne Evans was accepted in the Art Students’ League, a prestigious art school in New York City. She spent four years (not sequential) enrolled in rigorous art classes in New York during the school year, while returning to Evans Ranch in Colorado for the summer.</p> <p>After the death of John Evans in 1897, Evans and her mother moved in with her brother <strong>William Evans</strong> at <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/byers-evans-house"><strong>1310 Bannock Street</strong></a>. The house was remodeled with a large addition to create living space for the two women. Evans lived in the house during winters for the rest of her life. She never married. She enjoyed being part of her brother’s active household and her role as Aunt Anne to his children. She helped to manage the Evans Investment Company with her mother and brothers. Following the death of her mother in 1903, she inherited a modest income that guaranteed her financial security.</p> <p>In addition to her family, Evans had a close, lifelong friendship with Mary Kent Wallace, who founded <strong>Kent Denver School</strong>. The women traveled together, spent time at the Evans Ranch, and were both active members of the Denver branch of the Theosophical Society, a religious group that incorporates beliefs from Eastern and Western religions.</p> <h2>The Heart of Denver Arts and Culture</h2> <p>While the men in the Evans family made their mark in Colorado business and politics, Anne Evans devoted her life to arts and culture, starting with her influential role in the creation of Civic Center as a home for the Denver Public Library and Denver Art Museum.</p> <p>A member of the exclusive Artists’ Club of Denver, Evans belonged to a group at the forefront of producing and promoting the arts in Colorado. She nurtured a nascent artistic community in Denver by encouraging and providing financial assistance to artists, especially young artists who were just beginning their careers. She supported her friends, luminaries of the Denver art scene, by personally commissioning works of art, recommending their works to others, or assisting them in applying for art projects. As she moved from being an active artist to an enthusiastic patron and supporter of the arts, she led the Artists’ Club to acquire a permanent art collection and host art exhibitions in a variety of locations.</p> <p>In 1904 Mayor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/robert-w-speer"><strong>Robert Speer</strong></a> appointed Evans to the newly created Denver Art Commission, charged with transforming Denver in line with his <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/city-beautiful-movement-denver"><strong>City Beautiful</strong></a> ideals. One of the commission’s major goals was to create a Civic Center to serve as the heart of the Denver community. Civic Center took shape slowly over a generation, but its first building, the city’s grand new Greek Revival public library, opened in 1910. Evans, who had also been appointed to the Denver Public Library Commission in 1907, is credited for working out an agreement for the Artists’ Club to get space in the new library for a permanent gallery. This was a first step toward her ultimate goal of getting a dedicated building for art exhibitions at Civic Center.</p> <h2>Denver Public Library</h2> <p>Evans served as president of the library commission in 1910–15, becoming the first woman in the country to hold such a position. She oversaw the construction of the first four branch libraries and made sure that each new building’s budget included funds for commissioned works of art. During her decades on the library commission, serving until 1940, she provided leadership and vision as the library grew and adapted to the changing needs of the growing city.</p> <h2>Denver Art Museum</h2> <p>In 1922 the Artists’ Club gallery moved away from Civic Center, when the group received an unexpected donation of the Chappell House mansion at 1300 Logan Street. The Denver Artists’ Club was renamed the Denver Art Museum, with Evans serving as executive secretary and interim director. She was involved in all aspects of running the museum, including hiring museum directors, locating and negotiating to buy artworks for the collection, overseeing the expansion of the building, and fundraising.</p> <p>During this period, Evans developed an intense interest in American Indian culture and began to collect and promote indigenous art as fine art rather than folk art. Her efforts to have American Indian art recognized and placed in art museums elevated the Denver Art Museum to national recognition. In 1925, under her direction, the Denver Art Museum was the first in the nation to showcase an exhibition of American Indian art, which included items from Evans’s private collection. She headed a museum committee to acquire American Indian art, and by 1930 the museum hired a full-time curator for its Native Arts Department, the first of its kind in the nation. Later she donated her entire collection of Santos—Native American Christian religious art and other items that included paintings, pottery, and kachinas—to the museum, expanding the collection.</p> <p>In addition to her promotion of American Indian art, Evans also played a major role in the movement to restore and preserve the mission churches of New Mexico. Working with native peoples, artist communities in Colorado and New Mexico, and architects, Evans raised funds and awareness to preserve these historic buildings.</p> <p>Within a decade, the Denver Art Museum had outgrown the Chappell House. In 1932 Evans negotiated for gallery space in the new City and County Building at Civic Center and secured a commitment from the city to build a freestanding art museum nearby. In 1948 Denver bought land for the museum at Fourteenth Avenue and Acoma Street, but the building was not completed until 1971.</p> <h2>University of Denver</h2> <p>Evans followed her parents’ legacy of leadership at the University of Denver. Evans’s father had founded the institution, and her mother had insisted it have a School of Fine Arts. Anne Evans served on the three-member advisory board of the Art Department from 1932 until her death. Evans also served on the board of the University <strong>Civic Theatre</strong> starting in 1929. The university honored Evans with an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1914 and an honorary doctorate in fine arts in 1939, citing her services to the university and the larger Denver community.</p> <h2>Central City Opera</h2> <p>In 1931, while serving on the University Civic Theatre board, Evans and her fellow board member <strong>Ida Krause McFarlane</strong> convinced DU to accept the gift of the dilapidated Central City Opera House. Built in 1878, the once-elegant opera house had served as a cultural icon in the gold-mining town known as the “richest square mile on earth.” The opera house featured frescoes on the ceiling, a huge chandelier, beautiful murals, and near perfect acoustics, but by 1930 it had fallen into disrepair and was abandoned. Evans believed that reviving the opera house as a fully functioning theater would promote the arts in Colorado while also preserving the state’s cultural and architectural heritage.</p> <p>Serving on the first board of directors of the Central City Opera House Association, Evans focused on raising funds for the project. She used her connections to convince Denver’s elite to volunteer, support, and contribute to the restoration. Within a year, the crumbling, abandoned theater was transformed to its former glory. The Central City Opera House’s grand opening in 1932 was a huge success, as were the following seasons. Until the late 1930s, when a general manager was hired, Evans and McFarlane were primarily responsible for the success and growth of the Central City Opera Festival.</p> <p>The opera revitalized and perhaps even saved <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/central-city%E2%80%93black-hawk-historic-district"><strong>Central City</strong></a>, which had been in danger of becoming a ghost town. The board was able to lure top Broadway talent to the restored venue during the summers, when New York theaters went dark. In an early version of today’s summer festivals in resorts such as <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/aspen"><strong>Aspen</strong></a> and <strong>Vail</strong>, the most famous opera singers and actors of the day came to Colorado to perform at the opera house.</p> <h2>Evans Ranch</h2> <p>Throughout her life, Evans spent her summers with family and friends on the Evans Ranch, located near Upper Bear Creek above Evergreen. Visitors enjoyed hiking trails, climbing nearby <strong>Mt. Evans</strong> (named for her father), riding horses, giving dinner parties, and putting on elaborate theatrical productions.</p> <p>When the original ranch cottage burned down in 1909, Evans built <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/anne-evans-mountain-home"><strong>her own mountain home</strong></a> on the property. It was located on a site with magnificent mountain views in all directions. The rustic house had unique vertical log construction and featured American Indian art inside. It provided ample sleeping rooms and large spaces for performances, entertaining, and social events. The house was restored in the 1990s and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.</p> <h2>Later Years and Legacy</h2> <p>In 1940, when Evans was sixty-nine years old, she suffered a heart attack. She began to limit her activities. Later that year, she donated her remaining Indian collection to the Denver Art Museum and her mountain properties to her nephew and niece. She gave her personal library to the University of Denver.</p> <p>On January 6, 1941, Anne Evans died of a heart attack. Newspapers throughout the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountains"><strong>Rocky Mountain</strong></a> region, as well as the <em>New York Times</em>, carried obituaries lauding her contributions to the cultural life of Colorado. Easily one of the most important figures in the history of Denver arts and culture, Evans helped establish many of the core institutions that continue to serve the city today. Her energy and vision made Denver into the cultural capital of the Rocky Mountain region.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>For unknown reasons, Evans requested that all her personal effects be destroyed upon her death. Her heirs complied with her wishes and destroyed all her letters, artwork, notes, and photographs. The Evans house at 1310 Bannock Street was donated to <strong>History Colorado</strong> in 1981 and now serves as the Colorado Center for Women’s History at the Byers-Evans House. Visitors can tour the restored house and see Anne Evans’s sitting room and bedroom, as well as two surviving works of art by Evans that escaped destruction.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/duncan-elizabeth" hreflang="und">Duncan, Elizabeth</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/anne-evans" hreflang="en">Anne Evans</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-evans" hreflang="en">John Evans</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-art-museum" hreflang="en">Denver Art Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-public-library" hreflang="en">Denver Public Library</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/central-city-opera" hreflang="en">central city opera</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/central-city-opera-house-association" hreflang="en">Central City Opera House Association</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-civic-theatre" hreflang="en">Denver Civic Theatre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/university-denver" hreflang="en">University of Denver</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/evans-ranch" hreflang="en">Evans Ranch</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/byers-evans-house" hreflang="en">Byers-Evans House</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradobusinesshalloffame.org/anne-evans.html">Anne Evans</a>,” Colorado Business Hall of Fame, n.d.</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.cogreatwomen.org/project/anne-evans/">Anne Evans</a>,” Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame, n.d.</p> <p>Clifford E. Rinehart, “Evans, Anne,” in <em>Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary</em>, ed. Edward T. James, vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971).</p> <p>Barbara Edwards Sternberg, <em>Anne Evans—A Pioneer in Colorado's Cultural History: The Things That Last When Gold Is Gone </em>(Denver: Buffalo Park Press with Center for Colorado and the West at Auraria Library, 2011).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Gail M. Beaton, <em>Colorado </em><em>Women: A History</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2012).</p> <p>Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Denver: Mining Camp to Metropolis </em>(Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1990).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Anne Evans (1871–1941) was a Colorado civic leader and patron of the arts. She transformed the <strong>Denver</strong> cultural community. Evans assisted in the development of the <strong>Denver Public Library</strong>. She also led the restoration of the <strong>Central City Opera House</strong>. Evans supported arts education at the <strong>University of Denver</strong>. She provided leadership in the creation of Denver’s <strong>Civic Cent</strong>er area. Evans was also collected and promoted American Indian art. She made the <strong>Denver Art Museum</strong> the first in the nation to showcase Indian art and establish a Native Arts Department.</p> <h2>Early Years</h2> <p>Anne Evans was born in London, England, on January 23, 1871, while her family was on a trip abroad. She was the youngest of four children born to <strong>Margaret Patten Gray</strong> and <strong>John Evans</strong>.</p> <p>Anne Evans’s family was one of the most prominent in Colorado. Her father, John Evans, had arrived in 1862 to serve as <strong>territorial</strong> governor. Before that, he had been a physician and businessman in Illinois. John Evans founded Northwestern University in Evanston. The town was named for him. He later founded the University of Denver (DU). John Evans was forced to resign his governorship in 1865 for his role in the <strong>Sand Creek Massacre</strong>. He later became a successful railroad and real estate developer. John and Margaret Evans were devoted Methodists. They promoted a variety of cultural, charitable, and religious causes.</p> <p>Anne Evans was educated at Miss Mary Street’s School and Wolfe Hall in Denver. Her family respected the arts and encouraged her talents. The Evans home served as a centerpiece of Denver society. The Evans hosted arts gatherings and parties. The family spent winters at their house downtown and summers at the Evans Ranch near <strong>Evergreen</strong>.</p> <p>Anne was known as a “tomboy,” or a girl who enjoyed active games and the outdoors. At age fifteen, she was sent to Illinois for a year. She lived with her much older cousin, Cornelia Gray Lunt. The goal was to turn Anne into a young society woman. During this year, Anne’s wilder nature was tamed. “Cousin Nina,” was an art patron and civic leader. She became a lifelong role model for young Anne.</p> <h2>The Artist Years</h2> <p>As a teenager, Evans attended college preparatory classes at DU. She left Colorado for three years of study at the Misses Ferris School in Paris and the Willard School in Berlin. During her years in Europe, Evans honed her art skills. She gained an appreciation for art history and cultural institutions devoted to art. In 1891 Evans returned home to Denver. She began to pursue her own painting career and become involved in the art community.</p> <p>In 1895 twenty-four-year-old Anne Evans was accepted in the Art Students’ League. It was a prestigious art school in New York City. She spent four years enrolled in art classes in New York during the school year. She returned to Evans Ranch in Colorado for the summer.</p> <p>John Evans died in 1897. Afterwards, Anne Evans and her mother moved in with her brother <strong>William Evans</strong> at <strong>1310 Bannock Street</strong>. A large addition was added to create living space for the two women. Evans lived in the house during winters for the rest of her life. She never married. She enjoyed being part of her brother’s active household. She helped to manage the Evans Investment Company with her mother and brothers. Following the death of her mother in 1903, she inherited a modest income. It guaranteed her financial security.</p> <p>Evans had a lifelong friendship with Mary Kent Wallace. Wallace founded <strong>Kent Denver School</strong>. The women traveled together. They spent time at the Evans Ranch.</p> <h2>The Heart of Denver Arts and Culture</h2> <p>Anne Evans devoted her life to arts and culture. She started with her role in the creation of Civic Center as a home for the Denver Public Library and Denver Art Museum.</p> <p>Evans was a member of the exclusive Artists’ Club of Denver. The group was at the forefront of producing and promoting the arts in Colorado. She nurtured an artistic community in Denver by providing financial assistance to artists. Evans supported her friends by commissioning works of art. She also recommended their works to others. Evans assisted them in applying for art projects. She led the Artists’ Club to acquire a permanent art collection. They also hosted art exhibitions in a variety of locations.</p> <p>In 1904 Mayor <strong>Robert Spe</strong>er appointed Evans to the newly created Denver Art Commission. The commission was charged with transforming Denver in line with Speer's <strong>City Beautiful</strong> ideals. One of the commission’s major goals was to create a Civic Center to serve as the heart of the Denver community. Civic Center took shape slowly. Its first building, the city’s grand new Greek Revival public library, opened in 1910. Evans had also been appointed to the Denver Public Library Commission in 1907. She worked out an agreement for the Artists’ Club to get a permanent gallery space in the new library. This was a first step toward her goal of getting a dedicated building for art exhibitions at Civic Center.</p> <h2>Denver Public Library</h2> <p>Evans served as president of the library commission in 1910–15. She was the first woman in the country to hold such a position. She oversaw the construction of the first four branch libraries. Evans also made sure that each new building’s budget included funds for commissioned works of art. She served until 1940. Evans provided leadership and vision as the library grew.</p> <h2>Denver Art Museum</h2> <p>In 1922 the Artists’ Club gallery moved away from Civic Center. The group received an unexpected donation of the Chappell House mansion at 1300 Logan Street. The Denver Artists’ Club was renamed the Denver Art Museum. Evans served as executive secretary and interim director. She was involved in all aspects of running the museum. Evans hired museum directors. She located and negotiated to buy art. Evans also oversaw the expansion of the building and fundraising.</p> <p>During this period, Evans developed an interest in American Indian culture. She began to collect and promote indigenous art as fine art rather than folk art. Her efforts to have American Indian art placed in art museums elevated the Denver Art Museum to national recognition. In 1925, under her direction, the Denver Art Museum was the first in the nation to showcase an exhibition of American Indian art. The exhibit included items from Evans’s private collection. She headed a museum committee to acquire American Indian art. By 1930 the museum hired a full-time curator for its Native Arts Department. It was the first position of its kind in the nation. She later donated her entire collection of Native American art to the museum.</p> <p>Evans also played a major role in the movement to restore and preserve the mission churches of New Mexico. Working with native peoples, artist communities, and architects, Evans raised funds and awareness to preserve these historic buildings.</p> <p>Within a decade, the Denver Art Museum had outgrown the Chappell House. In 1932 Evans negotiated for gallery space in the new City and County Building at Civic Center. She secured a commitment from the city to build a freestanding art museum nearby. In 1948 Denver bought land for the museum at Fourteenth Avenue and Acoma Street. The building was not completed until 1971.</p> <h2>University of Denver</h2> <p>Evans followed her parents’ legacy of leadership at the University of Denver. Evans’s father founded the institution. Her mother had insisted it have a School of Fine Arts. Anne Evans served on the three-member advisory board of the Art Department from 1932 until her death. Evans also served on the board of the University <strong>Civic Theatre</strong> starting in 1929. The school honored Evans with an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1914. She was given an honorary doctorate in fine arts in 1939.</p> <h2>Central City Opera</h2> <p>In 1931, while serving on the University Civic Theatre board, Evans and a fellow board member convinced DU to accept the gift of the rundown Central City Opera House. The opera house was built in 1878. It had served as a cultural icon in the gold-mining town. The opera house featured a huge chandelier, beautiful murals, and near perfect acoustics. By 1930 it was abandoned. Evans believed that reviving the opera house as a theater would promote the arts in Colorado. It would also preserve the state’s cultural heritage.</p> <p>Evans focused on raising funds for the project. She used her connections to convince Denver’s elite to contribute to the restoration. Within a year, the crumbling theater was restored to its former glory. The Central City Opera House’s grand opening in 1932 was a huge success. Until the late 1930s, Evans and <strong>Ida Krause McFarlane</strong> were primarily responsible for the success and growth of the Central City Opera Festival.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The opera revitalized <strong>Central City</strong>. It had been in danger of becoming a ghost town. The board was able to lure top Broadway talent to the restored venue during the summers. The most famous opera singers and actors of the day came to Colorado to perform at the opera house.</p> <h2>Evans Ranch</h2> <p>Throughout her life, Evans spent her summers with family and friends on the Evans Ranch. The ranch is located near Upper Bear Creek above Evergreen. Visitors enjoyed hiking trails. They climbed nearby <strong>Mt. Evans</strong>, which was named for Anne's father. There were also dinner parties and elaborate theatrical productions.</p> <p>The original ranch cottage burned down in 1909. Afterwards, Evans built <strong>her own mountain home</strong> on the property. It was located on a site with magnificent mountain views in all directions. The rustic house had unique vertical log construction. It featured American Indian art inside. There were ample sleeping rooms and large spaces for performances, entertaining, and social events. The house was restored in the 1990s. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.</p> <h2>Later Years and Legacy</h2> <p>In 1940, when Evans was sixty-nine years old, she suffered a heart attack. She began to limit her activities. Later that year, she donated her remaining Indian collection to the Denver Art Museum. Evans gave her mountain properties to her nephew and niece. She gave her personal library to the University of Denver.</p> <p>On January 6, 1941, Anne Evans died of a heart attack. Newspapers throughout the Rocky Mountain region carried obituaries praising her additions to cultural life in Colorado. Evans helped establish many of the institutions that serve the city today. Her energy and vision made Denver into the cultural capital of the <strong>Rocky Mountain</strong> region.&nbsp;</p> <p>For unknown reasons, Evans asked that all her personal effects be destroyed upon her death. Her heirs complied with her wishes. They destroyed all her letters, artwork, notes, and photographs. The Evans house at 1310 Bannock Street was donated to <strong>History Colorado</strong> in 1981. It serves as the Colorado Center for Women’s History. Visitors can tour the restored building. They can see Anne Evans’s sitting room and bedroom, as well as two surviving works of art by Evans.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Anne Evans (1871–1941) was a Colorado civic leader and patron of the arts. She transformed the <strong>Denver </strong>cultural community. Evans started and helped guide the <strong>Denver Art Museum</strong> to national prominence. She assisted in the development of the <strong>Denver Public Library</strong>. Evans also led the restoration of the <strong>Central City Opera House</strong>. She supported arts education at the <strong>University of Denver</strong>. She provided leadership in the creation of Denver’s <strong>Civic Center</strong> area. Evans was also collected and promoted American Indian art. She made the Denver Art Museum the first in the nation to showcase Indian art and establish a Native Arts Department.</p> <h2>Early Years</h2> <p>Anne Evans was born in London, England, on January 23, 1871, while her family was on a trip abroad. She was the youngest of four children born to <strong>Margaret Patten Gray</strong> and <strong>John Evans</strong>.</p> <p>Anne Evans’s family was one of the most prominent in Colorado. Her father, John Evans, had arrived in 1862 to serve as <strong>territorial</strong> governor. Before that, he had been a physician and businessman in Illinois. John Evans founded Northwestern University in Evanston. The town was named for him. He later founded the University of Denver (DU). John Evans was forced to resign his governorship in 1865 for his role in the <strong>Sand Creek Massacre</strong>. He later became a successful railroad and real estate developer. John and Margaret Evans were devoted Methodists. They promoted a variety of cultural, charitable, and religious causes.</p> <p>Anne Evans was educated at Miss Mary Street’s School and Wolfe Hall in Denver. Her family respected the arts and encouraged her talents. The Evans home served as a centerpiece of Denver society. The Evans hosted arts gatherings and parties. The family spent winters at their house downtown and summers at the Evans Ranch near <strong>Evergreen</strong>.</p> <p>Anne was known as a “tomboy,” or a girl who enjoyed active games and the outdoors. At age fifteen, she was sent to Illinois for a year. She lived with her much older cousin, Cornelia Gray Lunt. The goal was to turn Anne into a young society woman. During this year, Anne’s wilder nature was tamed. “Cousin Nina,” was an art patron and civic leader. She became a lifelong role model for young Anne.</p> <h2>The Artist Years</h2> <p>As a teenager, Evans attended college preparatory classes at DU. She left Colorado for three years of study at the Misses Ferris School in Paris and the Willard School in Berlin. During her years in Europe, Evans honed her art skills. She gained an appreciation for art history and cultural institutions devoted to art. In 1891 Evans returned home to Denver. She began to pursue her own painting career and become involved in the art community.</p> <p>In 1895 twenty-four-year-old Anne Evans was accepted in the Art Students’ League. It was a prestigious art school in New York City. She spent four years enrolled in art classes in New York during the school year. She returned to Evans Ranch in Colorado for the summer.</p> <p>John Evans died in 1897. Afterwards, Anne Evans and her mother moved in with her brother <strong>William Evans</strong> at <strong>1310 Bannock Street</strong>. A large addition was added to create living space for the two women. Evans lived in the house during winters for the rest of her life. She never married. She enjoyed being part of her brother’s active household. She helped to manage the Evans Investment Company with her mother and brothers. Following the death of her mother in 1903, she inherited a modest income. It guaranteed her financial security.</p> <p>In addition to her family, Evans had a lifelong friendship with <strong>Mary Kent Wallace</strong>. Wallace founded Kent Denver School. The women traveled together. They spent time at the Evans Ranch. Both active members of the Denver branch of the Theosophical Society. The society was a religious group that incorporated beliefs from Eastern and Western religions.</p> <h2>The Heart of Denver Arts and Culture</h2> <p>Anne Evans devoted her life to arts and culture. She started with her role in the creation of Civic Center as a home for the Denver Public Library and Denver Art Museum.</p> <p>Evans was a member of the exclusive Artists’ Club of Denver. The group was at the forefront of producing and promoting the arts in Colorado. She nurtured an artistic community in Denver by encouraging and providing financial assistance to artists. She supported her friends by commissioning works of art. Evans also recommended their works to others. She assisted them in applying for art projects. As she moved from being an active artist to an enthusiastic supporter of the arts, she led the Artists’ Club to acquire a permanent art collection. They also hosted art exhibitions in a variety of locations.</p> <p>In 1904 Mayor <strong>Robert Speer</strong> appointed Evans to the newly created Denver Art Commission. The commission was charged with transforming Denver in line with his <strong>City Beautiful</strong> ideals. One of the commission’s major goals was to create a Civic Center to serve as the heart of the Denver community. Civic Center took shape slowly. Its first building, the city’s grand new Greek Revival public library, opened in 1910. Evans, who had also been appointed to the Denver Public Library Commission in 1907. She is credited for working out an agreement for the Artists’ Club to get space in the new library for a permanent gallery. This was a first step toward her goal of getting a dedicated building for art exhibitions at Civic Center.</p> <h2>Denver Public Library</h2> <p>Evans served as president of the library commission in 1910–15. She was the first woman in the country to hold such a position. She oversaw the construction of the first four branch libraries. Evans also made sure that each new building’s budget included funds for commissioned works of art. She served until 1940. She provided leadership and vision as the library grew.</p> <h2>Denver Art Museum</h2> <p>In 1922 the Artists’ Club gallery moved away from Civic Center. The group received an unexpected donation of the Chappell House mansion at 1300 Logan Street. The Denver Artists’ Club was renamed the Denver Art Museum. Evans served as executive secretary and interim director. She was involved in all aspects of running the museum. Evans hired museum directors. She located and negotiated to buy art. Evans also oversaw the expansion of the building and fundraising.</p> <p>During this period, Evans developed an intense interest in American Indian culture. She began to collect and promote indigenous art as fine art rather than folk art. Her efforts to have American Indian art placed in art museums elevated the Denver Art Museum to national recognition. In 1925, under her direction, the Denver Art Museum was the first in the nation to showcase an exhibition of American Indian art. The exhibit included items from Evans’s private collection. She headed a museum committee to acquire American Indian art. By 1930 the museum hired a full-time curator for its Native Arts Department. It was the first position of its kind in the nation. She later donated her entire collection of Native American art to the museum.</p> <p>Evans also played a major role in the movement to restore and preserve the mission churches of New Mexico. Working with native peoples, artist communities, and architects, Evans raised funds and awareness to preserve these historic buildings.</p> <p>Within a decade, the Denver Art Museum had outgrown the Chappell House. In 1932 Evans negotiated for gallery space in the new City and County Building at Civic Center. She secured a commitment from the city to build a freestanding art museum nearby. In 1948 Denver bought land for the museum at Fourteenth Avenue and Acoma Street. The building was not completed until 1971.</p> <h2>University of Denver</h2> <p>Evans followed her parents’ legacy of leadership at the University of Denver. Evans’s father had founded the institution. Her mother had insisted it have a School of Fine Arts. Anne Evans served on the three-member advisory board of the Art Department from 1932 until her death. Evans also served on the board of the University <strong>Civic Theatre</strong> starting in 1929. The university honored Evans with an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1914. She was given an honorary doctorate in fine arts in 1939.</p> <h2>Central City Opera</h2> <p>In 1931, while serving on the University Civic Theatre board, Evans and a fellow board member convinced DU to accept the gift of the rundown Central City Opera House. The opera house was built in 1878. It had served as a cultural icon in the gold-mining town. The opera house featured a huge chandelier, beautiful murals, and near perfect acoustics. By 1930 it was abandoned. Evans believed that reviving the opera house as a theater would promote the arts in Colorado. It would also preserve the state’s cultural heritage.</p> <p>Evans focused on raising funds for the project. She used her connections to convince Denver’s elite to contribute to the restoration. Within a year, the crumbling theater was restored to its former glory. The Central City Opera House’s grand opening in 1932 was a huge success. Until the late 1930s, Evans and <strong>Ida Krause McFarlane</strong> were primarily responsible for the success and growth of the Central City Opera Festival.</p> <p>The opera revitalized <strong>Central City</strong>. It had been in danger of becoming a ghost town. The board was able to lure top Broadway talent to the restored venue during the summers. The most famous opera singers and actors of the day came to Colorado to perform at the opera house.</p> <h2>Evans Ranch</h2> <p>Throughout her life, Evans spent her summers with family and friends on the Evans Ranch. The ranch is located near Upper Bear Creek above Evergreen. Visitors enjoyed hiking trails. They climbed nearby <strong>Mt. Evans</strong>, which was named for Anne's father. There were also dinner parties and elaborate theatrical productions.</p> <p>The original ranch cottage burned down in 1909. Afterwards, Evans built <strong>her own mountain home</strong> on the property. It was located on a site with magnificent mountain views in all directions. The rustic house had unique vertical log construction. It featured American Indian art inside. There were ample sleeping rooms and large spaces for performances, entertaining, and social events. The house was restored in the 1990s. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.</p> <h2>Later Years and Legacy</h2> <p>In 1940, when Evans was sixty-nine years old, she suffered a heart attack. She began to limit her activities. Later that year, she donated her remaining Indian collection to the Denver Art Museum. Evans gave her mountain properties to her nephew and niece. She gave her personal library to the University of Denver.</p> <p>On January 6, 1941, Anne Evans died of a heart attack. Newspapers throughout the <strong>Rocky Mountain</strong> region carried obituaries praising her additions to cultural life in Colorado. Evans helped establish many of the institutions that serve the city today. Her energy and vision made Denver into the cultural capital of the Rocky Mountain region.&nbsp;</p> <p>For unknown reasons, Evans asked that all her personal effects be destroyed upon her death. Her heirs complied with her wishes. They destroyed all her letters, artwork, notes, and photographs. The Evans house at 1310 Bannock Street was donated to <strong>History Colorado</strong> in 1981. It serves as the Colorado Center for Women’s History. Visitors can tour the restored building. They can see Anne Evans’s sitting room and bedroom, as well as two surviving works of art by Evans.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Anne Evans (1871–1941) was a Colorado civic leader and patron of the arts. She transformed the <strong>Denver</strong> cultural community. Evans started and helped guide the <strong>Denver Art Museum</strong> to national prominence. She assisted in the development of the <strong>Denver Public Library</strong>. Evans also led the restoration of the <strong>Central City Opera House</strong> and the creation of the Central City Opera Festival. She supported arts education at the <strong>University of Denver</strong> and provided leadership in the creation of Denver’s <strong>Civic Center</strong> area. Evans was also influential in collecting and promoting American Indian art. She made the Denver Art Museum the first in the nation to showcase Indian art and establish a Native Arts Department.</p> <h2>Early Years</h2> <p>Anne Evans was born in London, England, on January 23, 1871, while her family was on a trip abroad. She was the youngest of four children born to <strong>Margaret Patten G</strong>ray and <strong>John Evans</strong>.</p> <p>Anne Evans’s family was one of the most prominent in Colorado. Her father, John Evans, had arrived in 1862 to serve as <strong>territorial </strong>governor. Before that, he had been a physician, and businessman in Illinois. John Evans founded Northwestern University in Evanston. The town was named for him. He later founded the University of Denver (DU). John Evans was forced to resign his governorship in 1865 for his role in precipitating the <strong>Sand Creek Massacre</strong>. He later became a successful railroad and real estate developer. John and Margaret Evans were devoted Methodists. They actively promoted a variety of cultural, charitable, and religious causes.</p> <p>Anne Evans was educated at Miss Mary Street’s School and Wolfe Hall in Denver. Her family respected the arts and encouraged her talents. The Evans home served as a centerpiece of Denver society. The Evans hosted arts gatherings and parties. The family spent winters at their house downtown and summers at the Evans Ranch near <strong>Evergreen</strong>.</p> <p>Anne was known as a girl who enjoyed active games and the outdoors. At age fifteen, she was sent to Illinois for a year. She was in the care of her much older cousin Cornelia Gray Lunt. The aim was to turn Anne into a more conventional young society woman. During this year, Anne’s wilder nature was tamed. “Cousin Nina,” was an art patron and civic leader. She became a lifelong role model for young Anne.</p> <h2>The Artist Years</h2> <p>As a teenager, Evans attended college preparatory classes at DU. She left Colorado for three years of study at the Misses Ferris School in Paris and the Willard School in Berlin. During her years in Europe, Evans honed her art skills. She gained an appreciation for art history and cultural institutions devoted to art. In 1891 Evans returned home to Denver. She began to pursue her own painting career and become involved in the art community.</p> <p>In 1895 twenty-four-year-old Anne Evans was accepted in the Art Students’ League. It was a prestigious art school in New York City. She spent four years (not sequential) enrolled in rigorous art classes in New York during the school year. She returned to Evans Ranch in Colorado for the summer.</p> <p>John Evans died in 1897. Afterwards, Anne Evans and her mother moved in with her brother <strong>William Evans</strong> at <strong>1310 Bannock Street</strong>. A large addition was added to create living space for the two women. Evans lived in the house during winters for the rest of her life. She never married. She enjoyed being part of her brother’s active household and her role as Aunt Anne to his children. She helped to manage the Evans Investment Company with her mother and brothers. Following the death of her mother in 1903, she inherited a modest income. It guaranteed her financial security.</p> <p>In addition to her family, Evans had a close, lifelong friendship with Mary Kent Wallace. Wallace founded <strong>Kent Denver School</strong>. The women traveled together. They spent time at the Evans Ranch. Both active members of the Denver branch of the Theosophical Society, a religious group that incorporates beliefs from Eastern and Western religions.</p> <h2>The Heart of Denver Arts and Culture</h2> <p>While the men in the Evans family made their mark in Colorado business and politics, Anne Evans devoted her life to arts and culture. She started with her role in the creation of Civic Center as a home for the Denver Public Library and Denver Art Museum.</p> <p>Evans was a member of the exclusive Artists’ Club of Denver. The group was at the forefront of producing and promoting the arts in Colorado. She nurtured an artistic community in Denver by encouraging and providing financial assistance to artists. She supported her friends by personally commissioning works of art. Evans also recommended their works to others. She also assisted them in applying for art projects. As she moved from being an active artist to an enthusiastic patron and supporter of the arts, she led the Artists’ Club to acquire a permanent art collection and host art exhibitions in a variety of locations.</p> <p>In 1904 Mayor <strong>Robert Speer</strong> appointed Evans to the newly created Denver Art Commission, charged with transforming Denver in line with his <strong>City Beautiful</strong> ideals. One of the commission’s major goals was to create a Civic Center to serve as the heart of the Denver community. Civic Center took shape slowly over a generation, but its first building, the city’s grand new Greek Revival public library, opened in 1910. Evans, who had also been appointed to the Denver Public Library Commission in 1907, is credited for working out an agreement for the Artists’ Club to get space in the new library for a permanent gallery. This was a first step toward her ultimate goal of getting a dedicated building for art exhibitions at Civic Center.</p> <h2>Denver Public Library</h2> <p>Evans served as president of the library commission in 1910–15, becoming the first woman in the country to hold such a position. She oversaw the construction of the first four branch libraries and made sure that each new building’s budget included funds for commissioned works of art. During her decades on the library commission, serving until 1940, she provided leadership and vision as the library grew and adapted to the changing needs of the growing city.</p> <h2>Denver Art Museum</h2> <p>In 1922 the Artists’ Club gallery moved away from Civic Center, when the group received an unexpected donation of the Chappell House mansion at 1300 Logan Street. The Denver Artists’ Club was renamed the Denver Art Museum, with Evans serving as executive secretary and interim director. She was involved in all aspects of running the museum, including hiring museum directors, locating and negotiating to buy artworks for the collection, overseeing the expansion of the building, and fundraising.</p> <p>During this period, Evans developed an intense interest in American Indian culture and began to collect and promote indigenous art as fine art rather than folk art. Her efforts to have American Indian art recognized and placed in art museums elevated the Denver Art Museum to national recognition. In 1925, under her direction, the Denver Art Museum was the first in the nation to showcase an exhibition of American Indian art, which included items from Evans’s private collection. She headed a museum committee to acquire American Indian art, and by 1930 the museum hired a full-time curator for its Native Arts Department, the first of its kind in the nation. Later she donated her entire collection of Santos—Native American Christian religious art and other items that included paintings, pottery, and kachinas—to the museum, expanding the collection.</p> <p>In addition to her promotion of American Indian art, Evans also played a major role in the movement to restore and preserve the mission churches of New Mexico. Working with native peoples, artist communities in Colorado and New Mexico, and architects, Evans raised funds and awareness to preserve these historic buildings.</p> <p>Within a decade, the Denver Art Museum had outgrown the Chappell House. In 1932 Evans negotiated for gallery space in the new City and County Building at Civic Center and secured a commitment from the city to build a freestanding art museum nearby. In 1948 Denver bought land for the museum at Fourteenth Avenue and Acoma Street, but the building was not completed until 1971.</p> <h2>University of Denver</h2> <p>Evans followed her parents’ legacy of leadership at the University of Denver. Evans’s father had founded the institution, and her mother had insisted it have a School of Fine Arts. Anne Evans served on the three-member advisory board of the Art Department from 1932 until her death. Evans also served on the board of the University <strong>Civic Theatre </strong>starting in 1929. The university honored Evans with an honorary doctor of letters degree in 1914 and an honorary doctorate in fine arts in 1939, citing her services to the university and the larger Denver community.</p> <h2>Central City Opera</h2> <p>In 1931, while serving on the University Civic Theatre board, Evans and her fellow board member <strong>Ida Krause McFarlane</strong> convinced DU to accept the gift of the dilapidated Central City Opera House. Built in 1878, the once-elegant opera house had served as a cultural icon in the gold-mining town known as the “richest square mile on earth.” The opera house featured frescoes on the ceiling, a huge chandelier, beautiful murals, and near perfect acoustics, but by 1930 it had fallen into disrepair and was abandoned. Evans believed that reviving the opera house as a fully functioning theater would promote the arts in Colorado while also preserving the state’s cultural and architectural heritage.</p> <p>Serving on the first board of directors of the Central City Opera House Association, Evans focused on raising funds for the project. She used her connections to convince Denver’s elite to volunteer, support, and contribute to the restoration. Within a year, the crumbling, abandoned theater was transformed to its former glory. The Central City Opera House’s grand opening in 1932 was a huge success, as were the following seasons. Until the late 1930s, when a general manager was hired, Evans and McFarlane were primarily responsible for the success and growth of the Central City Opera Festival.</p> <p>The opera revitalized and perhaps even saved <strong>Central City</strong>, which had been in danger of becoming a ghost town. The board was able to lure top Broadway talent to the restored venue during the summers, when New York theaters went dark. In an early version of today’s summer festivals in resorts such as <strong>Aspen </strong>and <strong>Vail</strong>, the most famous opera singers and actors of the day came to Colorado to perform at the opera house.</p> <h2>Evans Ranch</h2> <p>Throughout her life, Evans spent her summers with family and friends on the Evans Ranch, located near Upper Bear Creek above Evergreen. Visitors enjoyed hiking trails, climbing nearby <strong>Mt. Evans</strong> (named for her father), riding horses, giving dinner parties, and putting on elaborate theatrical productions.</p> <p>When the original ranch cottage burned down in 1909, Evans built <strong>her own mountain home</strong> on the property. It was located on a site with magnificent mountain views in all directions. The rustic house had unique vertical log construction and featured American Indian art inside. It provided ample sleeping rooms and large spaces for performances, entertaining, and social events. The house was restored in the 1990s and listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.</p> <h2>Later Years and Legacy</h2> <p>In 1940, when Evans was sixty-nine years old, she suffered a heart attack. She began to limit her activities. Later that year, she donated her remaining Indian collection to the Denver Art Museum and her mountain properties to her nephew and niece. She gave her personal library to the University of Denver.</p> <p>On January 6, 1941, Anne Evans died of a heart attack. Newspapers throughout the <strong>Rocky Mountain</strong> region, as well as the <em>New York Times</em>, carried obituaries lauding her contributions to the cultural life of Colorado. Easily one of the most important figures in the history of Denver arts and culture, Evans helped establish many of the core institutions that continue to serve the city today. Her energy and vision made Denver into the cultural capital of the Rocky Mountain region.&nbsp;</p> <p>For unknown reasons, Evans requested that all her personal effects be destroyed upon her death. Her heirs complied with her wishes and destroyed all her letters, artwork, notes, and photographs. The Evans house at 1310 Bannock Street was donated to <strong>History Colorado</strong> in 1981 and now serves as the Colorado Center for Women’s History at the Byers-Evans House. Visitors can tour the restored house and see Anne Evans’s sitting room and bedroom, as well as two surviving works of art by Evans that escaped destruction.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 14 Oct 2020 18:44:12 +0000 yongli 3427 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Helen G. Bonfils http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/helen-g-bonfils <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Helen G. Bonfils </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-09-14T16:28:40-06:00" title="Monday, September 14, 2020 - 16:28" class="datetime">Mon, 09/14/2020 - 16:28</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/helen-g-bonfils" data-a2a-title="Helen G. Bonfils "><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fhelen-g-bonfils&amp;title=Helen%20G.%20Bonfils%20"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a well-known Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The</em><em> Denver Post</em></strong> and for her contributions to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and later benefactress of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation, which supports the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-center-performing-arts"><strong>Denver Center for the Performing Arts</strong></a>, the largest nonprofit theater organization in the country. Her other charitable works included endowing scholarships, creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, and funding the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-zoo"><strong>Denver Zoo</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889, the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Kansas in 1894 and then to Denver in 1895, where Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The successful newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s extravagant upbringing. She attended the Miss Wolcott School, an elite private girls’ school in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> and then continued to finishing school at National Park Seminary in Maryland. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows together at the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tabor-grand-opera-house"><strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elitch-gardens"><strong>Elitch Gardens</strong></a>, which sparked Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult and performed at the Elitch Theatre when she was starting out. She also helped organize the <strong>University of Denver</strong>’s Community Theater, then known as the Civic Theatre, where she later performed. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally, but Bonfils recognized the need for formal theater companies to keep talent engaged and shows running year-round, not just during summer months. Over the course of her life she orchestrated the creation of five theaters and performance companies, including the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre"><strong>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</strong></a> as a new home for the Denver Civic Theatre in 1953.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post</em> amassed great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance that would be paid out in installments. However, Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance because her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, had married without her parents’ approval. Helen inherited majority shares of <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate in the form of a trust but was offended that Helen had been appointed by her mother as the trust administrator. May sued Helen and won, gaining access to about $12,000 per year (roughly $225,000 today). Even with this concession, May remained bitter about her parents’ desertion and favoritism. Family strife and sibling jealousy were recurring themes in Helen Bonfils’s life. The sisters rarely spoke, and they publicly criticized each other throughout their adult lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The</em> <em>Denver </em><em>Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966, when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not commonly recognized as business leaders in the 1930s, but it is clear from the company’s organization and decision-making that Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em> during her long tenure. She made a point of hiring female editors and ensured that the paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. Under her leadership, the paper also gave back to the Denver community more than it had under her father’s management. The paper started sponsoring free community events, such as summer operettas in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cheesman-park"><strong>Cheesman Park</strong></a>. These events were a huge hit and allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ discord negatively affected the newspaper. May publicly criticized the <em>Post</em> while Helen ensured that May’s charitable works and important news were never reported. In 1960 May escalated their fight by selling her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr., a publishing magnate who planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed, but the sale nevertheless caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>While managing her father’s newspaper, Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre, where the English producer had recently been hired. His connection to the Denver theater scene—and particularly to the first theater where she had performed as a young woman—relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils, who set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City, with their biggest hit being <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City during the height of its popularity. She continued to recruit talent and produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years, until he passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change of scenery. She took some time off from <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London with well-known producers Haila Stoddard and <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>. With Seawell, Bonfils produced <em>Sail Away</em> (1962), <em>The Hollow Crown</em> (1963), and Tony Award–winning <em>Sleuth </em>(1971). Bonfils appreciated Seawell’s work ethic so much that she asked him to move to Denver and become the chairman of <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em> when she was appointed president in 1966.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the midst of her theatrical success, Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis, her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. To avoid appearing too scandalous, she set Davis up to manage an oil company, making him appear more respectable. Though their marriage seemed mutually beneficial, Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was ailing. Some Denver historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir, so she determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today as part of Vitalant, a nationwide network of donation centers. At the same time she started the blood bank, Bonfils funded the completion of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/holy-ghost-catholic-church"><strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church</strong></a> in honor of her parents. She also organized sponsorship for specialized wings at Denver hospitals. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League and contribute to the creation of the Denver Zoo. These ventures marked the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving, which was spurred in part by competition with her sister’s charities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s most substantial charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado and endow arts scholarships. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, which was named in honor of her parents.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death in 1972, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post</em> and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, envisioned and oversaw construction of a new arts complex around the Municipal Auditorium downtown. Seawell’s plan was in many ways a continuation of Bonfils’s lifelong project of promoting the performing arts in Denver. He made the Bonfils Foundation a subsidiary of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as the campus was then known. (The campus is now the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-performing-arts-complex"><strong>Denver Performing Arts Complex</strong></a>, while the Denver Center for the Performing Arts focuses on theatrical programming.) By 1979 construction was complete, including the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. When Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post</em> a year later, the profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue to fund the performing arts center. Meanwhile, the smaller Bonfils Memorial Theatre on East Colfax Avenue became a community theater for a few years before eventually becoming home to the <strong>Tattered Cover Book Store</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy in Denver and her love for the theater continue through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which is now the largest nonprofit theater organization in the United States.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/helen-bonfils" hreflang="en">Helen Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-post" hreflang="en">the denver post</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/frederick-bonfils" hreflang="en">Frederick Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bonfils-family" hreflang="en">Bonfils family</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-civic-theatre" hreflang="en">Denver Civic Theatre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bonfils-memorial-theatre" hreflang="en">Bonfils Memorial Theatre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-center-performing-arts" hreflang="en">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Vivian Epstein, <em>A History of Colorado’s Women for Young People</em> (Denver: Vivian Epstein, 1978).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.cogreatwomen.org/project/helen-bonfils/">Helen Bonfils</a>,” n.d., Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.denvercenter.org/about-us/history-of-dcpa/">History of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a>,” n.d., Denver Center for the Performing Arts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel, <a href="https://bonfils-stantonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BSF-History-Book_0419_FINAL_low-res.pdf"><em>The Legacy Continues: The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Story</em></a> (Denver: Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, 2018).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel, “May Bonfils and Her Lost Belmar Mansion,” <em>Colorado Heritage</em> (Fall 2018).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Arian Osborne, “<a href="https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/digital-colorado/colorado-histories/20th-century/helen-bonfils-co-owner-denver-post-philanthropist/">Helen Bonfils: Denver Post Co-owner and Philanthropist</a>,” Colorado Virtual Library, April 5, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://duarchives.coalliance.org/agents/people/664">George Somnes</a>,” University of Denver Archives, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jeanne Varnell, <em>Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame</em> (Chicago: Johnson Books, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Eva Hodges Watt, <em>Papa's Girl: The Fascinating World of Helen Bonfils</em> (Lake City, CO: Western Reflections, 2007).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ed Will, “<a href="https://extras.denverpost.com/scene/bonfils1104.htm">Performing Arts Greats: Helen Bonfils</a>,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em>, November 4, 1999.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Gail M. Beaton, <em>Colorado Women: A History</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2012).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bill Hosokawa, <em>Thunder in the Rockies: The Incredible </em>Denver Post (New York: Morrow, 1976).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong>. She contributed to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and benefactress. Her other charitable works included creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank and funding the <strong>Denver Zoo</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889. She was the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Denver in 1895. Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s wealthy upbringing. She attended an elite private girls’ school in <strong>Denver</strong>. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows at the <strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong> and <strong>Elitch Gardens</strong>. This started Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult. Helen performed at the Elitch Theatre. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally. Bonfils saw the need for shows to run year-round. Over the course of her life she helped create five theaters and performance companies.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The Denver Post</em> created great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance. Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance after her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, married without her parents’ approval. Helen received majority shares of <em>The Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate. The money was in the form of a trust. May was offended that her mother gave Helen control over the trust. May sued Helen and won. May received about $12,000 per year (about $225,000 today). May remained bitter. The sisters rarely spoke. They publicly criticized each other throughout their lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The Denver Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966. That's when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not often recognized as business leaders in the 1930s. However, Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em>. She hired female editors. The paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. The paper also gave back to the Denver community more. The paper started sponsoring free community events. These events were a huge hit. They allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ fighting hurt the newspaper. In 1960 May sold her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr. He planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed. However, the sale caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre. His connection to the Denver theater scene relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils. She set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City. Their biggest hit was <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City. She continued to produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years. He passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change. She took time off from <em>The Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis. He was her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was failing. Some historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir. She determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League. She contributed to the creation of the Denver Zoo. This was the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s biggest charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post</em> and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, oversaw construction of a new arts complex downtown. By 1979 construction was complete. The building included the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post</em> a year later. The profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue funding the performing arts center.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy continues through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong>. She contributed to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and benefactress of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation. Her other charitable works included endowing scholarships, creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, and funding the <strong>Denver Zoo</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889. She was the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Denver in 1895. Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s extravagant upbringing. She attended the Miss Wolcott School, an elite private girls’ school in <strong>Denver</strong>. She continued to finishing school at National Park Seminary in Maryland. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows together at the <strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong> and <strong>Elitch Gardens</strong>. This sparked Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult and performed at the Elitch Theatre. She also helped organize the <strong>University of Denver</strong>’s Community Theater where she later performed. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally. Bonfils recognized the need for formal theater companies to keep talent engaged and shows running year-round. Over the course of her life she orchestrated the creation of five theaters and performance companies. These included the <strong>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</strong> as a new home for the Denver Civic Theatre in 1953.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The Denver Post</em> created great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance. However, Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance because her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, married without her parents’ approval. Helen received majority shares of <em>The Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate. The money was in the form of a trust. May was offended that her mother made Helen the trust administrator. May sued Helen and won, gaining access to about $12,000 per year (roughly $225,000 today). Even with this concession, May remained bitter. Family strife and sibling jealousy were recurring themes in Helen Bonfils’s life. The sisters rarely spoke. They publicly criticized each other throughout their adult lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The Denver Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966. That's when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not commonly recognized as business leaders in the 1930s. However, it is clear that Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em>. She hired female editors. The paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. The paper also gave back to the Denver community more than it had under her father’s management. The paper started sponsoring free community events, such as summer operettas in <strong>Cheesman Park</strong>. These events were a huge hit. They allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ fighting negatively affected the newspaper. In 1960 May escalated their fight by selling her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr. He planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed. However, the sale caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre, where the English producer had recently been hired. His connection to the Denver theater scene relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils. She set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City. Their biggest hit was <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City during the height of its popularity. She continued to recruit talent and produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years. He passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change. She took some time off from <em>The Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London with well-known producers Haila Stoddard and <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>. With Seawell, Bonfils produced <em>Sail Away</em> (1962), <em>The Hollow Crown</em> (1963), and Tony Award–winning <em>Sleuth</em> (1971). Bonfils appreciated Seawell’s work ethic so much that she asked him to move to Denver and become the chairman of <em>The Denver Post</em> when she was appointed president in 1966.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the midst of her theatrical success, Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis, her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. To avoid appearing too scandalous, she set Davis up to manage an oil company. This made him appear more respectable. Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was ailing. Some Denver historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir. She determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today. Bonfils also funded the completion of <strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church</strong> in honor of her parents. She also organized sponsorship for specialized wings at Denver hospitals. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League. She contributed to the creation of the Denver Zoo. These ventures marked the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s most substantial charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post </em>and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, oversaw construction of a new arts complex around the Municipal Auditorium downtown. By 1979 construction was complete, including the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. When Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post </em>a year later, the profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue to fund the performing arts center.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy in Denver and her love for the theater continue through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which is now the largest nonprofit theater organization in the United States.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a well-known Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong> and for her contributions to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and later benefactress of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation. Her other charitable works included endowing scholarships, creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, and funding the <strong>Denver Zoo</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889, the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Kansas in 1894 and then to Denver in 1895, where Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The successful newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s extravagant upbringing. She attended the Miss Wolcott School, an elite private girls’ school in <strong>Denver</strong>. She continued to finishing school at National Park Seminary in Maryland. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows together at the <strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong> and <strong>Elitch Gardens</strong>, which sparked Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult and performed at the Elitch Theatre when she was starting out. She also helped organize the <strong>University of Denver</strong>’s Community Theater, then known as the Civic Theatre, where she later performed. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally, but Bonfils recognized the need for formal theater companies to keep talent engaged and shows running year-round, not just during summer months. Over the course of her life, she orchestrated the creation of five theaters and performance companies, including the <strong>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</strong> as a new home for the Denver Civic Theatre in 1953.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The Denver Post</em> amassed great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance that would be paid out in installments. However, Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance because her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, had married without her parents’ approval. Helen inherited majority shares of <em>The Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate in the form of a trust but was offended that Helen had been appointed by her mother as the trust administrator. May sued Helen and won, gaining access to about $12,000 per year (roughly $225,000 today). Even with this concession, May remained bitter about her parents’ desertion and favoritism. Family strife and sibling jealousy were recurring themes in Helen Bonfils’s life. The sisters rarely spoke, and they publicly criticized each other throughout their adult lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The Denver Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966, when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not commonly recognized as business leaders in the 1930s, but it is clear from the company’s organization and decision-making that Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em> during her long tenure. She made a point of hiring female editors and ensured that the paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. Under her leadership, the paper also gave back to the Denver community more than it had under her father’s management. The paper started sponsoring free community events, such as summer operettas in <strong>Cheesman Park</strong>. These events were a huge hit and allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ discord negatively affected the newspaper. May publicly criticized the <em>Post </em>while Helen ensured that May’s charitable works and important news were never reported. In 1960 May escalated their fight by selling her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr., a publishing magnate who planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed, but the sale nevertheless caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>While managing her father’s newspaper, Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre, where the English producer had recently been hired. His connection to the Denver theater scene—and particularly to the first theater where she had performed as a young woman—relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils, who set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City, with their biggest hit being <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City during the height of its popularity. She continued to recruit talent and produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years, until he passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change of scenery. She took some time off from <em>The Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London with well-known producers Haila Stoddard and <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>. With Seawell, Bonfils produced <em>Sail Away</em> (1962), <em>The Hollow Crown</em> (1963), and Tony Award–winning Sleuth (1971). Bonfils appreciated Seawell’s work ethic so much that she asked him to move to Denver and become the chairman of <em>The Denver Post</em> when she was appointed president in 1966.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the midst of her theatrical success, Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis, her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. To avoid appearing too scandalous, she set Davis up to manage an oil company, making him appear more respectable. Though their marriage seemed mutually beneficial, Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was ailing. Some Denver historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir, so she determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today as part of Vitalant, a nationwide network of donation centers. At the same time, she started the blood bank, Bonfils funded the completion of <strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church</strong> in honor of her parents. She also organized sponsorship for specialized wings at Denver hospitals. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League and contribute to the creation of the Denver Zoo. These ventures marked the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving, which was spurred in part by competition with her sister’s charities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s most substantial charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado and endow arts scholarships. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, which was named in honor of her parents.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death in 1972, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post </em>and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, envisioned and oversaw construction of a new arts complex around the Municipal Auditorium downtown. Seawell’s plan was in many ways a continuation of Bonfils’s lifelong project of promoting the performing arts in Denver. He made the Bonfils Foundation a subsidiary of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as the campus was then known. (The campus is now the <strong>Denver Performing Arts Complex</strong>, while the Denver Center for the Performing Arts focuses on theatrical programming.) By 1979 construction was complete, including the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. When Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post</em> a year later, the profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue to fund the performing arts center. Meanwhile, the smaller Bonfils Memorial Theatre on East Colfax Avenue became a community theater for a few years before eventually becoming home to the <strong>Tattered Cover Book Store</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy in Denver and her love for the theater continue through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which is now the largest nonprofit theater organization in the United States.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 14 Sep 2020 22:28:40 +0000 yongli 3418 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Bonfils Memorial Theatre http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Bonfils Memorial Theatre</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-10-07T16:34:33-06:00" title="Friday, October 7, 2016 - 16:34" class="datetime">Fri, 10/07/2016 - 16:34</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre" data-a2a-title="Bonfils Memorial Theatre"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fbonfils-memorial-theatre&amp;title=Bonfils%20Memorial%20Theatre"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Bonfils Memorial Theatre on East Colfax Avenue was built by <strong>Helen Bonfils</strong> for the <strong>Denver Civic Theatre</strong> in 1953. As the first theater for live performances built in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> in forty years, the cream-colored building staged more than 400 productions before it closed in 1986. It sat mostly unoccupied for two decades before the St. Charles Town Company converted it into a new home for the <strong>Tattered Cover Book Store</strong> in 2006.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>A New Home for the Civic Theatre</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Established in 1929, the University Civic Theatre was an amateur theater company that drew support from wealthy local arts patrons such as <strong>Margery Reed</strong>, Florence Martin, and Helen Bonfils, the publisher of the <strong><em>Denver Post</em></strong>. Originally based out of Margery Reed Hall on the <strong>University of Denver </strong>(DU) campus, the Civic Theatre functioned in its early years as an intimate club with only a few hundred members.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1940s Civic Theatre membership rapidly expanded into the thousands, making a new home necessary. Plans for a new building were first drawn up during World War II. In 1942 Helen Bonfils gave a building at 1425 Cleveland Place to DU as the site for the Civic Theatre’s new home. Wartime restrictions made it illegal to build or remodel theaters, however, so in the meantime the university remodeled the building for other uses.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After the war, Bonfils and the Civic Theatre allowed DU to keep 1425 Cleveland Place and started to search for a new site. By 1948 they had found one at East Colfax Avenue and Elizabeth Street, across from the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/city-park">City Park</a> Esplanade</strong> and <strong>East High School</strong>. Soon a ten-room house at the site was moved to a different location, and construction on the new theater began.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>At first the Civic Theatre hoped to have its new home ready in time for the 1950–51 season, but building restrictions during the Korean War delayed the project for several years. The new theater finally opened on October 14, 1953, with a production of <em>Green Grow the Lilacs</em> for 500 guests to kick off the Civic Theatre’s twenty-fifth season. At the same time, the Civic Theatre changed its name from University Civic Theatre to Denver Civic Theatre to mark its move away from the university campus.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent Helen Bonfils a telegram of congratulations on opening night. She had bankrolled the $1.25 million building using funds from her father’s <strong>Frederick G. Bonfils</strong> Foundation, which he established to support educational and cultural organizations. She named the building the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, in memory of her parents, and rented it to the Civic Theatre for one dollar a year.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The building’s architect was <strong>John K. Monroe</strong>, whom Helen Bonfils knew from his work for the <strong>Archdiocese of Denver</strong>, particularly the Bonfils-funded <a href="/article/holy-ghost-catholic-church"><strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church </strong></a>downtown. For the Civic Theatre, Monroe designed a one-story Art Moderne building with a tall, rectangular stage fly loft structure at the rear. Encased in cream-colored brick and buff-colored terra cotta trim, the building’s exterior was characterized by a clean, almost classical look that was balanced by the curve of the aluminum entrance canopy on Elizabeth Street.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The audience entered the theater under the Elizabeth Street canopy and passed through a travertine lobby with a Prussian blue rug, wood-paneled walls, pumpkin-colored plaster, and tall windows facing Colfax. The west side of the lobby had a shrine to London’s Abbey Theater. A grand staircase led down from the main lobby to the lower lobby, which had a bar and restrooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The theater itself sat 550 people and featured gray walls, red carpet, and a Prussian blue curtain that came down behind its proscenium arch. It was the best-equipped amateur theater in the country, complete with nine dressing rooms and an electronic lighting switchboard that was a smaller version of the system used in New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House. Monroe designed it to be used for a variety of productions, including plays, operas, movies, concerts, and lectures. It could also be used as a television studio, making it perhaps the oldest building in Denver designed with television production in mind.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The main artistic force behind the Civic Theatre during its years in the Bonfils Memorial Theatre was <strong>Henry Lowenstein</strong>. Initially hired in 1956 as a stage designer, he later became a producer and influenced a generation of Denver actors, stagehands, and theatergoers.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Changes</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>When Helen Bonfils died in 1972, the theater became part of the <strong>Bonfils Foundation</strong>. <em>Denver Post</em> chairman and publisher <strong>Donald Seawell</strong> controlled the foundation, and in 1974 he pushed for the creation of the <strong>Denver Center for the Performing Arts</strong> (DCPA), a massive complex of theaters and concert halls on Fourteenth Street downtown (now known as the Denver Performing Arts Complex). The Bonfils Memorial Theatre came under the umbrella of the DCPA governing board, which started the professional Denver Center Theatre Company at its downtown complex and kept the Bonfils building as a community theater.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>With the rise of professional theater at the DCPA, interest in community theater at the Bonfils building waned. In 1984 the DCPA governing board, concerned about the Bonfils Theatre’s operating deficit, decided to close the main stage. Cabaret and children’s theater performances continued for a few more years, but without the main stage it had even less hope of balancing its operating budget. In 1986 the theater was renamed in honor of longtime producer Lowenstein, but six months later the DCPA board voted unanimously to close it for good. Lowenstein and the Denver Civic Theatre moved to a former silent movie theater on Santa Fe Drive.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Rebirth as Tattered Cover</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the Bonfils Theatre closed, it sat mostly unused for nearly twenty years. Local residents wanted to save the building, but it proved impossible to find a tenant. The building was occasionally used for filming and other short-term projects. When the 1950s television show <em>Perry Mason</em> was revived in the 1980s, for example, it briefly filmed at the theater and other Denver locations.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In May 2005, Charles Woolley of the St. Charles Town Company bought the theater and adjacent parking lot from the Bonfils Foundation for $1.9 million. He got it listed on the National Register of Historic Places the next year. Meanwhile, with the help of preservationists from the Colorado Historical Society (now <strong>History Colorado</strong>) and the National Park Service and financing from the <strong>Denver Urban Renewal Authority</strong>, the company embarked on a $14 million project to preserve the theater as part of a redevelopment that would include a bookstore, record store, and art cinema in one large complex called the Lowenstein Cultureplex.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 2006 the St. Charles Town Company started to convert the theater into a new home for Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store. The exterior was cleaned, repaired, and slightly reconfigured for retail use. The interior saw more significant changes—it was, after all, being converted from a theater to a book store—but many historic details and finishes were retained. It is still possible to see the building’s theatre heritage in the book store’s recessed reading area at the foot of the former stage. Offices, dressing rooms, and rehearsal space on the east and west sides of the theater were converted into a restaurant and a coffee shop, respectively. Historic Denver awarded the St. Charles Town Company a Community Preservation Award for its work on the theater.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On the site of the former parking lot just west of the theater, the company built a new structure that housed the Twist and Shout music store, Neighborhood Flix Cinema and Café, and a 230-space parking garage. Neighborhood Flix closed in 2008 but reopened two years later as the Sie FilmCenter, home of the <strong>Denver Film Society</strong>.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/helen-bonfils" hreflang="en">Helen Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/tattered-cover-book-store" hreflang="en">Tattered Cover Book Store</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-civic-theatre" hreflang="en">Denver Civic Theatre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-center-performing-arts" hreflang="en">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-k-monroe" hreflang="en">John K. Monroe</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henry-lowenstein" hreflang="en">Henry Lowenstein</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/donald-seawell" hreflang="en">Donald Seawell</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bonfils-foundation" hreflang="en">Bonfils Foundation</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://renewdenver.org/projects/lowenstein-theatre/">Lowenstein Theater</a>,” Denver Urban Renewal Authority.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John Moore, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2009/06/26/a-history-of-the-bonfils-theatre/">“A History of the Bonfils Theatre,”</a> <em>The Denver Post</em>, March 20, 2005.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elizabeth J. K. Morris, “A History of the Denver Civic Theatre, 1929–1968” (master’s thesis, University of Colorado–Boulder, 1968).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Presenting the Bonfils Memorial Theatre on the Occasion of the Dedication, October, Nineteen-Hundred Fifty-Three</em> (Denver: Bonfils Memorial Theatre, 1953).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rodd L. Wheaton, Michael Paglia, and Diane Wray, “Bonfils Memorial Theater,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (March 10, 1995).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Eva Hodges Watt, <em>Papa’s Girl: The Fascinating World of Helen Bonfils</em> (Lake City, CO: Western Reflections, 2007).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 07 Oct 2016 22:34:33 +0000 yongli 1933 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org