%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Richthofen Castle http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/richthofen-castle <!-- 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">Richthofen Castle</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="2020-07-08T16:10:24-06:00" title="Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - 16:10" class="datetime">Wed, 07/08/2020 - 16:10</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/richthofen-castle" data-a2a-title="Richthofen Castle"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Frichthofen-castle&amp;title=Richthofen%20Castle"></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>Richthofen Castle (7020 E. Twelfth Avenue) was completed in 1886 for <strong>Baron Walter von Richthofen</strong> and is now one of <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver">Denver</a></strong>’s oldest and most celebrated buildings. Thought to be the design of Denver architect Alexander Cazin, it is a Romanesque Revival residence modeled after Castle Karpnicki near Breslau, Silesia. When it was built, the mock medieval fortress crowned the treeless east Denver skyline. Its clear view of the mountains inspired the name of the surrounding suburban town of <strong>Montclair</strong>, which Richthofen and associates platted in 1885.</p> <h2>The Castle</h2> <p>The 38-room, 15,000-square-foot castle has 8 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 5 fireplaces, a bar, a drawing room, a library, servants’ quarters, a butler’s pantry, a billiards room, and a music parlor. The exterior walls are <strong>Castle Rock</strong> <strong>rhyolite</strong> (lava rock). A square, three-story tower rising from the roofline is emblazoned with the Richthofen coat of arms—two lions crowning a judge’s head, symbolizing Richthofen’s translation as “house of justice.” On the northwest corner is a two-foot-high red sandstone bust of Frederick Barbarossa, the medieval emperor who first unified the German states. A gatehouse with living quarters for servants originally included a large water-storage tank for the artesian well that provided the castle’s drinking water. The Montclair Lateral Ditch from the Highline Canal surrounded the castle. Richthofen called it his “moat.”</p> <p>Completed in 1886 for an estimated $20,000 to $32,000, the castle became one of the first officially designated Denver landmarks in 1973 and is the cornerstone of the Montclair Historic District designated in 1975. The castle is also listed in the National Register of Historic Places (1975) and is protected by a facade easement with Historic Denver, Inc.</p> <h2>Baron Walter von Richthofen</h2> <p>Richthofen Castle has always been a private residence and a tribute to the prominent German clan of castle builder Walter Von Richthofen. He was a kinsman of the renowned geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, for whom Colorado’s Mount Richthofen was named. He was also related to Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-world-war-i">World War I</a></strong> flying ace celebrated as the “Red Baron.”</p> <p>Walter von Richthofen was born in Kriesenitz, Silesia, in 1848. After enlisting in the Prussian army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, he sailed for New York. In 1878 he arrived in Denver, which was thriving thanks to the state’s silver boom. He decided to settle in the Mile High City, where he bounced from one business scheme to the next. Eventually he decided to develop land east of Denver. In 1885 he and fellow investors founded the Montclair Town and Improvement Company and began selling land in the town, which was bounded roughly by today’s Quebec Street to Holly Street between Montview Boulevard and East Sixth Avenue.</p> <p>After the <strong>Panic of 1893</strong> froze such suburban developments, Richthofen reinvented Montclair as a health spa, the Colorado Carlsbad, which soon failed. The Molkerei (1888), two blocks west of the castle, is a remnant of the health spa days; it is now restored as the Montclair Civic Building. Denver annexed Montclair in 1902.</p> <h2>Subsequent Owners</h2> <p>The Baron sold the estate in 1891 to fellow German entrepreneur John von Mueller (later Miller) for $104,000. Mueller defaulted after the 1893 crash, however, and Richthofen repossessed the castle. After his death in 1898, his wife sold it in 1903 to <strong>Edwin Beard Hendrie</strong>, owner of <strong>Hendrie and Bolthoff Manufacturing</strong>, for only $40,000. In 1910 Hendrie decided to change the “mass of colored glass and bad taste” of what he called the “German architectural monstrosity.” The family retained prominent Denver architects Maurice B. Biscoe and Henry Harwood Hewitt to redesign the Prussian castle. They used the same original Castle Rock rhyolite for a new west wing, which almost doubled the size of the castle. They also added stucco and a half-timbered second floor, and topped the roof with red tile.</p> <p>Hendrie’s son-in-law, William West Grant, subsequently moved into the castle. In 1924 the Grants hired another leading Denver architect, <strong>Jules Jacques Benoit Benedict</strong>, to expand the castle again. Like Biscoe and Hewitt, he used Castle Rock rhyolite, stucco, and half timbering in a large, two-story south wing addition. In 1937 John Thams Jr., owner of the Elephant Corral downtown, bought the castle. He sold it in 1946 to Etienne Perenyi, a nobleman who fled Hungary after Soviet Russia seized his country. The Perenyis sold off nearly all of the grounds, and modern houses sprang up on all sides of the castle. In 1954 the Perenyis sold the gatehouse on Pontiac Street to James and Miriam Buchanan, who converted it to their residence.</p> <p>Othniel J. Seiden bought the castle in 1971. He and his family lived there during the 1970s, and he wrote a booklet about it called <em>Denver’s Richthofen Castle</em>. Jerry and Esther Priddy owned the castle from 1984 to 2012. They acquired much of Richthofen’s original furniture for the castle, and they also decorated the yard with a two-thirds-size replica of the famous red triplane used by Richthofen’s relative in World War I.</p> <p>In 2012 the castle was purchased for $3.49 million by Robert William “Jesse” Jesperson, founder and owner of Evergreen Caissons, which builds electrical transmission lines. Jesperson and his wife, Sylvia Atencio-Jesperson, also bought the gatehouse for another $1.05 million and reattached it to the site. They completed a massive, long-postponed restoration of the castle from the leaking roof down to the landscaping.</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/noel-thomas-j" hreflang="und">Noel, Thomas J.</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/richthofen-castle" hreflang="en">Richthofen Castle</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/montclair" hreflang="en">Montclair</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/walter-von-richthofen" hreflang="en">Walter von Richthofen</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>Thomas J. Noel, <em>Richthofen’s Montclair: A Pioneer Denver Suburb</em> (Boulder: Pruett, 1978).</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel and William J. Hansen, <em>The Montclair Neighborhood </em>(Denver: Historic Denver, 1999).</p> <p>“Preservation Easement for Richthofen Castle,” Historic Denver, Inc., n.d.</p> <p>“Richthofen Castle,” Denver Landmark Preservation Commission Nomination, Western History and Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library, Denver, n.d..</p> <p>O. J. Seiden, <em>Denver’s Richthofen Castle</em> (Denver: Stonehenge Books, 1980).</p> <p>Mayme A. Sweet, “Richthofen Castle,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, August 9, 1974.</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>Thomas J. Noel and Nicholas J. Wharton, <em>Denver Landmarks and Historic Districts</em>, 2nd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2016).</p> <p>Melinda Pearson, “<a href="https://frontporchne.com/article/historic-montclair-home-richthofen-castle/">Historic Montclair Home: Richthofen Castle</a>,” Front Porch (Denver), August 1, 2017.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 08 Jul 2020 22:10:24 +0000 yongli 3386 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Baron Walter von Richthofen http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/baron-walter-von-richthofen <!-- 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">Baron Walter von Richthofen</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3752--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3752.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/montclair-colorado"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Montclair-Map-1887_0.jpg?itok=1rqhzI1i" width="1090" height="609" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/montclair-colorado" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.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">Montclair, Colorado</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This 1887 aerial drawing of Richthofen's Montclair development includes some real features, such as his castle, and some proposed amenities that never took shape, including a zoological garden.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.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="2020-07-08T16:07:23-06:00" title="Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - 16:07" class="datetime">Wed, 07/08/2020 - 16:07</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/baron-walter-von-richthofen" data-a2a-title="Baron Walter von Richthofen"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fbaron-walter-von-richthofen&amp;title=Baron%20Walter%20von%20Richthofen"></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>Baron von Richthofen (1859–98) was a flamboyant, versatile booster and developer who came to Colorado in 1878; he was one of many <strong>Germans</strong> who constituted the state’s largest foreign-born contingent between 1880 and 1910. Richthofen invested in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> real estate, helped establish the suburban town of <strong>Montclair</strong> (now part of Denver), opened two extravagant beer gardens, and built a <strong>castle that has survived to the present</strong>. He also promoted Colorado as a health resort, attracting health seekers and helping to make medical care a major part of the state’s economy.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Lineage</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Walter Lothar Emil Eugen von Richthofen was born on January 30, 1859, in the former Prussian province of Silesia. The Richthofen clan had been promoted to the Prussian aristocracy by Frederick the Great for supporting his 1742 annexation of Silesia. The extensive Richthofen family held various estates, manor houses, palaces, and castles throughout Silesia. Walter was a kinsman of the famed explorer, geographer, and scientist Ferdinand von Richthofen, for whom Colorado’s Mount Richthofen is named, and also of Manfred von Richthofen, who would shoot down eighty Allied planes in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I</strong></a> as the celebrated “Red Baron.” Two distant relatives, the beautiful and brilliant Richthofen sisters, were early feminists. Frieda von Richthofen deserted her husband and children to marry the English novelist D. H. Lawrence and settled down with him to a Bohemian life in Taos, New Mexico. Else von Richthofen, despite her marriage to a staid Heidelberg professor, pursued an independent career and a secret love affair with the renowned social scientist Max Weber.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Coming to America</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a teenager, Walter served in the Prussian Army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Shortly after the war, he sailed for New York and eventually arrived in Colorado in 1878. Impressed with this booming and hospitable state filled with many of his countrymen, he went back to Germany to bring back his English wife, Jane Oakley, and his two daughters. But his family was not as impressed with Colorado as the baron was, so they returned to Europe. The couple soon divorced, leaving the baron free to pursue Colorado women, who had already caught his eye.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Bouncing from Business to Business</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The jovial German with a military bearing waltzed through one enterprise after another. During the late 1870s, Richthofen’s Carlowitz Stock Farm near Denver specialized in purebred racehorses. In 1883 he uncorked a large beer garden in Jamestown, a small <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a> mining town. He bottled well water and peddled it as the “Carlsbad Mineral Water Company’s Ginger Champagne.” Later he speculated in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cripple-creek"><strong>Cripple Creek</strong></a> gold but never struck pay dirt. He invested in the Denver Circle Railroad, which never circled the city.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Some of the baron’s ventures saw greater success. In 1882 Richthofen, a founding member of the Denver Chamber of Commerce, joined <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News</em></strong> editor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-n-byers"><strong>William Byers</strong></a>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-ah-loveland"><strong>William A.H. Loveland</strong></a>, Lieutenant Governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/horace-tabor"><strong>Horace Tabor</strong></a>, and other movers and shakers to create the <strong>National Mining and Industrial Exposition</strong>. They built a 150,000-square-foot hall at Broadway and what is now Exposition Avenue. The exposition showcased Colorado goods and services, especially mining and agriculture and other Colorado marvels, including a band of dancing <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a> Indians. Next door, Richthofen constructed a large dining hall and concert beer garden, which he named Sans Souci (“without worry”) after Frederick the Great’s summer castle in Prussia. Along with the best imported wine, beer, and schnapps for gentlemen, Richthofen offered strawberries and cream for the ladies, as it was then considered improper for women to drink in social settings. Despite the delicacies, the Exposition closed in 1884, as did the so-called Baron’s Bower.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1885 the baron published <em>Cattle-Raising on the Plains of North America</em>, which proclaimed that Colorado’s “former <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article"><strong>Great American Desert</strong></a> is the largest and richest grass and pasture region in the world.” The baron’s own Carlowitz Ranch cattle venture did not fulfill the book’s promise that a “profit of 25 per cent per annum is the minimum the cattle business will yield.” Richthofen’s ranch, like so many others, suffered in the blizzards of 1885–86, often referred to as the “<strong>Great Die Up</strong>,” and the subsequent federal crackdown on ranchers’ use of public lands.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Montclair Town</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Although Richthofen’s cattle business failed, his book sold well. The baron invested the profits in real estate, dabbling in South Denver and North Denver before looking east. He joined Mathias Cochrane’s Montclair Town and Improvement Company. Their 1885 prospectus, <em>Montclair Colorado: The Beautiful Suburban Town</em>, conjured up drawings of a tree-shaded oasis with a horsecar, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and a castle. Those features actually materialized, unlike the zoological gardens, grand hotel, and a hydropathic establishment reminiscent of St. Peter’s in Rome, all unrealized Richthofen fantasies.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cochrane, who hailed from Montclair, New Jersey, named the community for his hometown as well as for its panoramic view of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a>. “Beautiful Montclair,” crowed an ad in the <em>Denver</em> <em>Sunday Times</em>. “Magnificent Mountain View only 30 minutes east of downtown. Pure Air. Best Public schools. Handsomest suburb in greater Denver.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Richthofen Castle</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a show home for the infant community, Richthofen built his own castle at East Twelfth Avenue and Olive Street. Completed in 1886 at a cost of about $32,000 ($920,000 in 2019), the huge baronial edifice included a stone gatehouse topped by a large water tower served by an artesian well. With his castle, the baron hoped to catch a bride—a blue-eyed, golden-haired English divorcée, Louise Woodall Ferguson Davies. She married him on November 22, 1887. Following the honeymoon, however, the new baroness balked at moving into the prairie fortress.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“The castle was lovely,” the baroness recalled later, “but it was a lonely place and the grounds were not attractive.” To accommodate her green dreams, Richthofen dug the Montclair Ditch, which he called a “moat” as it circled the castle grounds. This lateral of the <strong>Highline Canal</strong> allowed the baron to beautify the grounds with trees, rose bushes, gravel paths among marble statuary and fountains, and songbirds. Finally relenting, the baroness took up residence in the castle on their first anniversary.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Town Development</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Transportation remained a challenge. Initially, the baron had horse-drawn wagons take potential Montclair customers four miles east from the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tabor-grand-opera-house"><strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong></a> downtown to see property in his new suburban town. Escorted by the baron and his hounds, the parade soon became known as the “Baron’s Circus.” By the late 1880s, Montclair had coaxed three streetcar lines to the new suburb along East Eighth, Seventeenth, and Colfax Avenues.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>To assure customers that they were buying a prestigious address, lots were drawn substantially larger than Denver's standard 25-by-125-foot parcels, and owners were required to spend at least $10,000 on their houses. Richthofen urged buyers to purchase an entire block, which they could farm or subdivide. As new residents streamed in, Montclair incorporated as a town in 1888 and was eventually annexed to Denver in 1902.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The scramble for lots in the suburban paradise came to an abrupt halt with the <strong>1893 silver crash</strong>. In Montclair, as in other suburbs, construction froze. Montclair was left with roughly one large house per block. More modest infill housing would not arrive until Denver’s post–<strong>World War II</strong> boom.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Molkerei</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the silver crash of 1893, Richthofen repackaged Montclair as a health spa, the Colorado Carlsbad. Of Richthofen’s elaborate scheme for a grand health spa, only one building was actually built, the Molkerei (milk house), anglicized to Molkery. Modeled after German and Swiss health spas, the Molkerei offered fresh air and sunshine on its open-air sun porches. Patients drank milk fresh from the Jersey cows stabled below and breathed the supposedly healthy barnyard effluvium rising from the stables. Shortly thereafter, however, the Molkerei was converted to a mental hospital. In 1908 Denver acquired the building and remodeled it as the city’s first community center.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Later Years</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The baron lived only a short while in his castle, which he sold in 1891 to fellow German John von Mueller (later Miller). While not traveling in Europe and elsewhere, he and the baroness lived in downtown Denver in the Hotel L’Imperial. After the 1893 crash and Miller’s default on the purchase, the baron and baroness repossessed the castle, which she sold in 1903 to <strong>Edwin Beard Hendrie</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Five years before the sale, on May 8, 1898, the baron had died from appendicitis at the age of forty-nine. The body was shipped back to the family vault in Silesia. He is memorialized in Denver by the castle, the Molkerei, and the Richthofen Fountain, constructed in 1900 by the town of Montclair and his widow, the baroness, at Oneida Street and Richthofen Parkway. All of these monuments are included in the 1975 Montclair Historic District embracing the heart of the old town.</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/noel-thomas-j" hreflang="und">Noel, Thomas J.</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/baron-walter-von-richthofen" hreflang="en">Baron Walter von Richthofen</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/baron-richthofen" hreflang="en">Baron Richthofen</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/walter-von-richthofen" hreflang="en">Walter von Richthofen</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/richthofen-castle" hreflang="en">Richthofen Castle</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/montclair" hreflang="en">Montclair</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>Louisa Ward Arps, <em>Denver in Slices</em> (Denver: Sage Books, 1959).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Joachim Langhein (great-grandson of Baron Walter von Richthofen), email correspondence with Tom Noel, June 18, 2004.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel, <em>Richthofen’s Montclair: A Pioneer Denver Suburb</em> (Boulder: Pruett, 1978).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel and William J. Hansen, <em>The Montclair Neighborhood</em> (Denver: Historic Denver, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Walter von Richthofen, <em>Cattle-Raising on the Plains of North America</em> (New York: D. Appleton, 1885).</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>Thomas J. Noel, <em>Buildings of Colorado</em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Amy B. Zimmer, <em>Denver’s Historic Homes</em> (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2013).</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>Baron von Richthofen (1859–98) was a developer. He came to Colorado in 1878. Richthofen invested in Denver real estate. He helped establish the suburban town of Montclair (now part of Denver). Richthofen also opened two beer gardens and built a castle. He promoted Colorado as a health resort. This helped make medical care a major part of the state’s economy.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Lineage</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Walter Lothar Emil Eugen von Richthofen was born on January 30, 1859, in the former Prussian province of Silesia. The family held various estates. They included manor houses, palaces, and castles throughout Silesia. Walter was a kinsman of the famed explorer and scientist Ferdinand von Richthofen. He was also related to Manfred von Richthofen. Manfred would shoot down eighty Allied planes in World War I and be known as the “Red Baron.” Two distant relatives, the beautiful and brilliant Richthofen sisters, were early feminists. Frieda von Richthofen left her husband and children to marry the English novelist D. H. Lawrence. Else von Richthofen pursued an independent career and had secret love affair with the social scientist Max Weber.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Coming to America</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a teenager, Walter served in the Prussian Army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. After the war, he sailed for New York. He arrived in Colorado in 1878 and liked the state. Richthofen brought his wife and two daughters to Colorado. His family was not as impressed with Colorado as the baron was. They returned to Europe. The couple soon divorced. This left the baron free to pursue Colorado women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Bouncing from Business to Business</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Richthofen had many business ventures. During the late 1870s, Richthofen owned the Carlowitz Stock Farm. It specialized in purebred racehorses. In 1883, Richthofen uncorked a large beer garden in Jamestown. He also bottled well water. Richthofen sold it as the “Carlsbad Mineral Water Company’s Ginger Champagne.” Later he speculated in Cripple Creek gold. Richthofen never struck pay dirt.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Some of the baron’s ventures were more successful. In 1882 Richthofen joined Rocky Mountain News editor William Byers and others to create the National Mining and Industrial Exposition. They built a 150,000-square-foot hall. The exposition showcased Colorado goods and services. They focused on mining, agriculture, and other Colorado marvels, including a band of dancing Ute Indians. Next door, Richthofen constructed a large dining hall and concert beer garden. The Exposition closed in 1884.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1885 the baron published Cattle-Raising on the Plains of North America. However, the baron’s own Carlowitz Ranch cattle venture failed. Richthofen’s ranch suffered in the blizzards of 1885–86, also known as the “Great Die Up.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Montclair Town</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Although Richthofen’s cattle business was not successful, his book sold well. The baron invested the profits in real estate. He joined Mathias Cochrane’s Montclair Town and Improvement Company. They envisioned a tree-shaded oasis with a horsecar and a castle.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cochrane hailed from Montclair, New Jersey. The community was named for his hometown.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Richthofen Castle</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Richthofen built a castle at East Twelfth Avenue and Olive Street. It was completed in 1886. The home cost about $32,000 ($920,000 in 2019). With his castle, the baron hoped to catch a bride. The English divorcée Louise Woodall Ferguson Davies married him on November 22, 1887. However, the new baroness did not want to live in the castle.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“The castle was lovely,” the baroness said, “but it was a lonely place and the grounds were not attractive.” To accommodate her green dreams, Richthofen dug the Montclair Ditch. He called it a “moat” as it circled the castle grounds. This allowed the baron to beautify the grounds with trees, rose bushes, and marble fountains. The baroness moved into the castle on their first anniversary.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Town Development</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Transportation remained a challenge. The baron had horse-drawn wagons take potential Montclair customers to see property. The parade became known as the “Baron’s Circus.” By the late 1880s, Montclair had coaxed three streetcar lines to the new suburb.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lots in Montclair were drawn much larger than Denver's standard 25-by-125-foot parcels. Owners were required to spend at least $10,000 on their houses. Richthofen urged buyers to purchase an entire block. Buyers could farm or subdivide the land. As new residents streamed in, Montclair incorporated as a town in 1888. It became part of Denver in 1902.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The scramble for lots came to a halt with the 1893 silver crash. Construction froze. Montclair had roughly one large house per block.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Molkerei</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the silver crash, Richthofen repackaged Montclair as a health spa. Only one building was built. It was modeled after German and Swiss health spas. The Molkerei offered fresh air and sunshine on its open-air sun porches. Patients drank milk fresh from the cows stabled below. Ultimately, the Molkerei was converted to a mental hospital. In 1908 Denver bought the building. It was remodeled and became city’s first community center.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Later Years</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The baron sold his castle in 1891 to fellow German John von Mueller (later Miller). He and the baroness lived in downtown Denver in the Hotel L’Imperial.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On May 8, 1898, the baron died from appendicitis. He was forty-nine. His body was shipped back to the family vault in Silesia. He is memorialized in Denver by the castle and the Molkerei.</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>Baron von Richthofen (1859–98) was a developer. He came to Colorado in 1878. Richthofen invested in Denver real estate. He helped establish the suburban town of Montclair (now part of Denver). Richthofen also opened two beer gardens and built a castle. He promoted Colorado as a health resort, which helped make medical care a major part of the state’s economy.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Lineage</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Walter Lothar Emil Eugen von Richthofen was born on January 30, 1859, in the former Prussian province of Silesia. The Richthofen clan had been promoted to the Prussian aristocracy by Frederick the Great. The family held various estates which included manor houses, palaces, and castles throughout Silesia. Walter was a kinsman of the famed explorer, geographer, and scientist Ferdinand von Richthofen. He was also related to Manfred von Richthofen, who would shoot down eighty Allied planes in World War I as the celebrated “Red Baron.” Two distant relatives, the beautiful and brilliant Richthofen sisters, were early feminists. Frieda von Richthofen left her husband and children to marry the English novelist D. H. Lawrence. Else von Richthofen pursued an independent career and a secret love affair with the renowned social scientist Max Weber.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Coming to America</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a teenager, Walter served in the Prussian Army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. After the war, he sailed for New York. He arrived in Colorado in 1878 and was impressed with the state. Richthofen brought his wife and two daughters to Colorado. His family was not as impressed with Colorado as the baron was. They returned to Europe. The couple soon divorced. This left the baron free to pursue Colorado women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Bouncing from Business to Business</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Richthofen had many business ventures. During the late 1870s, Richthofen’s Carlowitz Stock Farm near Denver specialized in purebred racehorses. In 1883, he uncorked a large beer garden in Jamestown, a small Boulder County mining town. He bottled well water and peddled it as the “Carlsbad Mineral Water Company’s Ginger Champagne.” Later he speculated in Cripple Creek gold. Richthofen never struck pay dirt.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Some of the baron’s ventures were more successful. In 1882 Richthofen joined Rocky Mountain News editor William Byers, William A.H. Loveland, Lieutenant Governor Horace Tabor, and others to create the National Mining and Industrial Exposition. They built a 150,000-square-foot hall at Broadway and what is now Exposition Avenue. The exposition showcased Colorado goods and services. They focused on mining, agriculture, and other Colorado marvels, including a band of dancing Ute Indians. Next door, Richthofen constructed a large dining hall and concert beer garden. The Exposition closed in 1884.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1885 the baron published Cattle-Raising on the Plains of North America. It proclaimed that Colorado’s “former Great American Desert is the largest and richest grass and pasture region in the world.” The baron’s own Carlowitz Ranch cattle venture did not fulfill the book’s promise that a “profit of 25 per cent per annum is the minimum the cattle business will yield.” Richthofen’s ranch suffered in the blizzards of 1885–86, which is often referred to as the “Great Die Up.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Montclair Town</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Although Richthofen’s cattle business failed, his book sold well. The baron invested the profits in real estate. He dabbled in South Denver and North Denver before looking east. He joined Mathias Cochrane’s Montclair Town and Improvement Company. Their 1885 prospectus, Montclair Colorado: The Beautiful Suburban Town, included drawings of a tree-shaded oasis with a horsecar and a castle. Those features materialized.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cochrane, who hailed from Montclair, New Jersey, named the community for his hometown.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Richthofen Castle</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Richthofen built his own castle at East Twelfth Avenue and Olive Street. It was completed in 1886 at a cost of about $32,000 ($920,000 in 2019). The huge baronial edifice included a stone gatehouse topped by a large water tower. With his castle, the baron hoped to catch a bride—the English divorcée, Louise Woodall Ferguson Davies. She married him on November 22, 1887. However, the new baroness balked at moving into the castle.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“The castle was lovely,” the baroness recalled later, “but it was a lonely place and the grounds were not attractive.” To accommodate her green dreams, Richthofen dug the Montclair Ditch, which he called a “moat” as it circled the castle grounds. This allowed the baron to beautify the grounds with trees, rose bushes, and marble fountains. The baroness took up residence in the castle on their first anniversary.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Town Development</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Transportation remained a challenge. The baron had horse-drawn wagons take potential Montclair customers to see property in his new suburban town. The parade became known as the “Baron’s Circus.” By the late 1880s, Montclair had coaxed three streetcar lines to the new suburb.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lots were drawn much larger than Denver's standard 25-by-125-foot parcels. Owners were required to spend at least $10,000 on their houses. Richthofen urged buyers to purchase an entire block. They could farm or subdivide the land. As new residents streamed in, Montclair incorporated as a town in 1888. It was annexed to Denver in 1902.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The scramble for lots in the suburban paradise came to an abrupt halt with the 1893 silver crash. Construction froze. Montclair was left with roughly one large house per block. More modest infill housing would not arrive until Denver’s post–World War II boom.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Molkerei</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the silver crash, Richthofen repackaged Montclair as a health spa. Only one building was built. Modeled after German and Swiss health spas, the Molkerei offered fresh air and sunshine on its open-air sun porches. Patients drank milk fresh from the Jersey cows stabled below. Ultimately, the Molkerei was converted to a mental hospital. In 1908 Denver acquired the building and remodeled it as the city’s first community center.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Later Years</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The baron sold his castle in 1891 to fellow German John von Mueller (later Miller). He and the baroness lived in downtown Denver in the Hotel L’Imperial. After the 1893 crash and Miller’s default on the purchase, the baron and baroness repossessed the castle and resold it.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On May 8, 1898, the baron had died from appendicitis at the age of forty-nine. His body was shipped back to the family vault in Silesia. He is memorialized in Denver by the castle and the Molkerei.</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>Baron von Richthofen (1859–98) was a developer who came to Colorado in 1878. He was one of many Germans who constituted the state’s largest foreign-born contingent between 1880 and 1910. Richthofen invested in Denver real estate, helped establish the suburban town of Montclair (now part of Denver), opened two extravagant beer gardens, and built a castle. He also promoted Colorado as a health resort, attracting health seekers and helping to make medical care a major part of the state’s economy.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Lineag<strong>e</strong></h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Walter Lothar Emil Eugen von Richthofen was born on January 30, 1859, in the former Prussian province of Silesia. The Richthofen clan had been promoted to the Prussian aristocracy by Frederick the Great for supporting his 1742 annexation of Silesia. The extensive Richthofen family held various estates, manor houses, palaces, and castles throughout Silesia. Walter was a kinsman of the famed explorer, geographer, and scientist Ferdinand von Richthofen, for whom Colorado’s Mount Richthofen is named, and also of Manfred von Richthofen, who would shoot down eighty Allied planes in World War I as the celebrated “Red Baron.” Two distant relatives, the beautiful and brilliant Richthofen sisters, were early feminists. Frieda von Richthofen deserted her husband and children to marry the English novelist D. H. Lawrence and settled down with him to a Bohemian life in Taos, New Mexico. Else von Richthofen, despite her marriage to a staid Heidelberg professor, pursued an independent career and a secret love affair with the renowned social scientist Max Weber.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Coming to America</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a teenager, Walter served in the Prussian Army during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Shortly after the war, he sailed for New York and arrived in Colorado in 1878. Impressed with this booming and hospitable state filled with many of his countrymen, he went back to Germany to bring back his English wife, Jane Oakley, and his two daughters. But his family was not as impressed with Colorado as the baron was, so they returned to Europe. The couple soon divorced. This left the baron free to pursue Colorado women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Bouncing from Business to Business</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The jovial German with a military bearing waltzed through one enterprise after another. During the late 1870s, Richthofen’s Carlowitz Stock Farm near Denver specialized in purebred racehorses. In 1883 he uncorked a large beer garden in Jamestown, a small Boulder County mining town. He bottled well water and peddled it as the “Carlsbad Mineral Water Company’s Ginger Champagne.” Later he speculated in Cripple Creek gold. He never struck pay dirt. He invested in the Denver Circle Railroad, which never circled the city.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Some of the baron’s ventures saw greater success. In 1882 Richthofen, a founding member of the Denver Chamber of Commerce, joined Rocky Mountain News editor William Byers, William A.H. Loveland, Lieutenant Governor Horace Tabor, and other movers and shakers to create the National Mining and Industrial Exposition. They built a 150,000-square-foot hall at Broadway and what is now Exposition Avenue. The exposition showcased Colorado goods and services, especially mining and agriculture and other Colorado marvels, including a band of dancing Ute Indians. Next door, Richthofen constructed a large dining hall and concert beer garden, which he named Sans Souci (“without worry”) after Frederick the Great’s summer castle in Prussia. Along with the best imported wine, beer, and schnapps for gentlemen, Richthofen offered strawberries and cream for the ladies, as it was then considered improper for women to drink in social settings. Despite the delicacies, the Exposition closed in 1884, as did the so-called Baron’s Bower.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1885 the baron published Cattle-Raising on the Plains of North America, which proclaimed that Colorado’s “former Great American Desert is the largest and richest grass and pasture region in the world.” The baron’s own Carlowitz Ranch cattle venture did not fulfill the book’s promise that a “profit of 25 per cent per annum is the minimum the cattle business will yield.” Richthofen’s ranch, like so many others, suffered in the blizzards of 1885–86, often referred to as the “Great Die Up,” and the subsequent federal crackdown on ranchers’ use of public lands.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Montclair Town</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Although Richthofen’s cattle business failed, his book sold well. The baron invested the profits in real estate, dabbling in South Denver and North Denver before looking east. He joined Mathias Cochrane’s Montclair Town and Improvement Company. Their 1885 prospectus, Montclair Colorado: The Beautiful Suburban Town, conjured up drawings of a tree-shaded oasis with a horsecar, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and a castle. Those features actually materialized, unlike the zoological gardens, grand hotel, and a hydropathic establishment reminiscent of St. Peter’s in Rome, all unrealized Richthofen fantasies.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cochrane, who hailed from Montclair, New Jersey, named the community for his hometown as well as for its panoramic view of the Front Range. “Beautiful Montclair,” crowed an ad in the Denver Sunday Times. “Magnificent Mountain View only 30 minutes east of downtown. Pure Air. Best Public schools. Handsomest suburb in greater Denver.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Richthofen Castle</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a show home for the infant community, Richthofen built his own castle at East Twelfth Avenue and Olive Street. Completed in 1886 at a cost of about $32,000 ($920,000 in 2019), the huge baronial edifice included a stone gatehouse topped by a large water tower served by an artesian well. With his castle, the baron hoped to catch a bride—a blue-eyed, golden-haired English divorcée, Louise Woodall Ferguson Davies. She married him on November 22, 1887. Following the honeymoon, however, the new baroness balked at moving into the prairie fortress.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“The castle was lovely,” the baroness recalled later, “but it was a lonely place and the grounds were not attractive.” To accommodate her green dreams, Richthofen dug the Montclair Ditch, which he called a “moat” as it circled the castle grounds. This lateral of the Highline Canal allowed the baron to beautify the grounds with trees, rose bushes, gravel paths among marble statuary and fountains, and songbirds. Finally relenting, the baroness took up residence in the castle on their first anniversary.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Town Development</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Transportation remained a challenge. Initially, the baron had horse-drawn wagons take potential Montclair customers four miles east from the Tabor Grand Opera House downtown to see property in his new suburban town. Escorted by the baron and his hounds, the parade soon became known as the “Baron’s Circus.” By the late 1880s, Montclair had coaxed three streetcar lines to the new suburb along East Eighth, Seventeenth, and Colfax Avenues.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>To assure customers that they were buying a prestigious address, lots were drawn substantially larger than Denver's standard 25-by-125-foot parcels, and owners were required to spend at least $10,000 on their houses. Richthofen urged buyers to purchase an entire block, which they could farm or subdivide. As new residents streamed in, Montclair incorporated as a town in 1888 and was eventually annexed to Denver in 1902.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The scramble for lots in the suburban paradise came to an abrupt halt with the 1893 silver crash. In Montclair, as in other suburbs, construction froze. Montclair was left with roughly one large house per block. More modest infill housing would not arrive until Denver’s post–World War II boom.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Molkerei</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the silver crash of 1893, Richthofen repackaged Montclair as a health spa, the Colorado Carlsbad. Of Richthofen’s elaborate scheme for a grand health spa, only one building was actually built, the Molkerei (milk house), anglicized to Molkery. Modeled after German and Swiss health spas, the Molkerei offered fresh air and sunshine on its open-air sun porches. Patients drank milk fresh from the Jersey cows stabled below and breathed the supposedly healthy barnyard effluvium rising from the stables. Shortly thereafter, however, the Molkerei was converted to a mental hospital. In 1908 Denver acquired the building and remodeled it as the city’s first community center.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Later Years</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The baron lived only a short while in his castle, which he sold in 1891 to fellow German John von Mueller (later Miller). While not traveling in Europe and elsewhere, he and the baroness lived in downtown Denver in the Hotel L’Imperial. After the 1893 crash and Miller’s default on the purchase, the baron and baroness repossessed the castle, which she sold in 1903 to Edwin Beard Hendrie.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Five years before the sale, on May 8, 1898, the baron had died from appendicitis at the age of forty-nine. The body was shipped back to the family vault in Silesia. He is memorialized in Denver by the castle, the Molkerei, and the Richthofen Fountain, constructed in 1900 by the town of Montclair and his widow, the baroness, at Oneida Street and Richthofen Parkway. All of these monuments are included in the 1975 Montclair Historic District embracing the heart of the old town.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 08 Jul 2020 22:07:23 +0000 yongli 3385 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org