Doors Open Denver

Doors Open Denver is that one weekend of the year when you can check out some architectural treasures around the city for free. If you missed it today, many buildings will be open again tomorrow, 4/14.

Some of the spots we stopped by today weren't quite as awesome as we thought they might be. (You can only walk through the ground floor of the Campbell House mansion at 940 Logan St., e.g., and these days the mansion is being used as office space, so it's completely not exciting.)

But it was cool being on the third floor of the McNichols building and seeing the views of the Denver Art Museum, City and County Building and Civic Center Park from its big windows. Here's a view of the third floor, where the work of Denver artists is on display:

A peek out the window gives you a closer view of the detail on some of the columns:

Not too far away is the Byers-Evans house, owned by William Byers, who founded the Rocky Mountain News, and later William Evans. Tours during Doors Open Denver are free but only go through the first floor. Here's some shots of one of the first rooms you enter:

The entrance to the next room has this overhead:

 And this is in the kitchen:

 

<< So there's another angle on the stove. On the front left is the waffle iron. On the front right are clothes irons.








But the real highlight of our day was seeing the Mathews-Gotthelf Mansion. The Victorian-era home is being restored. So the outside looks like this:

The drawings look like this:

And the inside is still being restored: