Greater Park Hill Community

Parker Home 4847 East 17th Avenue

Aug 25, 2006

If the definition of a museum is a collection of important objects, this home surely qualifies. The owners have created a living display area for treasures they?’ve collected during years living abroad.
This Mediterranean stucco home makes its own elegant statement on Seventeenth Avenue and has undergone several renovations and improvements since it was built in 1927. A recent, previous owner added the gorgeous foyer and elaborate wrought iron door, behind which is yet another space for artistic display. The neutral tones on the stucco walls throughout most of the first floor are a perfect backdrop for the owners?’ many pieces of regional Asian art.
The large living room features a set of custom-made rosewood shelves and cabinets and also showcases a pair of hand-painted and framed pages from the ?“Burmese Bibles,?” examples of sacred and elegant, culturally significant texts. A guest bedroom suite reminiscent of a boutique hotel is nestled behind the living room. Here the light yellowy peach walls, exquisite bedding and original artwork are accented with a Juliet balcony. And the walk-in closet may tempt any guest to stay beyond the weekend.
Off the dining room is a reading room sheathed in a brilliant red. This bold shot of color is a delightful contrast to the otherwise neutral tones of the first floor. In this east-facing room, several more examples of Thai and Javanese art and artifacts continue the theme and create a vibrant but cozy spot for reading or reminiscing. Among the treasures are a gong encased in rosewood and two intricately carved Javanese wedding chests.
The large kitchen is located behind the dining room and it offers the other shot of wall color on the first floor. Clad in rich, yellow ochre, the room features an architectural extension in the form of a hexagonal eating area complete with large windows overlooking the back courtyard. The space feels as much inside as out.
Upstairs, the owners have made several structural changes, while maintaining the architectural integrity of the home. The second level now includes a guestroom decorated with Indonesian red and blue fabrics, a full bath and large master suite and bath. In the master, tour-goers will find an extraordinary canopy bed custom-made and brought to the states from Thailand. Red and rust Thai silk bedding completes the ensemble. An alcove off the master features a small balcony and is a perfect light-filled spot for the owner?’s painting studio. This room?’s peachy salmon color scheme is based on one found in the Thai painting centered on the wall.
Opposite the master is another addition the current owners made to the home, an L-shaped balcony with Bistro table from which the owners look out over the Avenue. Inside and opposite the balcony, is the large L-shaped master bath. This room features a corner soaking tub and walk-in shower tiled in tumbled, sandy toned Travertine and several photos of ocean wonders taken by the owners while scuba diving. Rounding off the sand and sea theme of the bathroom is a commode room painted in a quieting sea foam blue.
Outside, the owners have made a wonderful choice in landscaping the back yard; one that proves you really don?’t need Kentucky blue grass to enjoy a Colorado garden. The entire space has been transformed into a bricked and landscaped courtyard. With several seating areas and landscape features of different heights, this quiet enclave is designed for year-round enjoyment. Central to the design scheme is a stuccoed rear wall, topped with flagstone and featuring a terra cotta lion?’s head fountain and turquoise decorative tiles over a rounded pond and planter. The feel is a bit Tuscan and a bit French and very welcoming no matter what your mother tongue. On both sides of the courtyard wall, a lattice-topped privacy fence has been painted a garden grass green, which gives to the eye that missing color and makes the courtyard all the more charming.


Historic Treat Hall - 7110 Montview Boulevard
Johnson & Wales University Campus
This year the Tour offers a rare opportunity to experience the feeling of having one foot in Park Hill?’s past and one it her future all in one locale. The tour of Treat Hall will present a sort of time capsule, one that hasn?’t been opened to the public since 1982. That was the year that Colorado Women?’s College officially turned its eighty plus year-old campus over to the University of Denver?’s Law School. Though DU was a gracious caretaker for nearly 20 years, its needs did not warrant the costly and complex attention the dilapidated Treat Hall required. When Johnson & Wales opened its academic doors in 2000, the historic building called with a particular promise, and one very much in line with the University?’s focus.
The four-story Treat Hall was the original and cornerstone building for Colorado Women?’s College. The first, southernmost part of the building was erected in 1890, when this part of Park Hill was a long and dusty carriage ride from the city. Finally finished in 1909, the stone structure was created out of limestone and brick with sandstone accents, and it included a simple arched entrance. Later additions to the building in 1916 completed the existing structure to the north. The elegant carved concrete entrance with intricate circular beveled glass windows exhibits the signature CWC seal, and diminutive carved female heads. And the distinctive carved figures reading the CWC yearbook grace the 1916 west-facing arched entrance. Remarkably, in 90 years none of the beveled glass windows has been broken.
Abatement of the asbestos and other toxic materials was completed in January of 2005. In stripping the plaster to the brick, the renovation team uncovered several fireplaces that had been walled over throughout the years. The high ceilings and grand hallways hark back to an era when quality of design and construction was not sublimated to cost.
The building today is an open record, a chronicle of the past 100 years in Park Hill?’s community and collegiate history. Begun as one of the few non-Catholic Women?’s Colleges, then a pre-imminent University Law School and now a vanguard University for Culinary Business and Hospitality Arts, this campus has grown over the decades to serve the community well.
Under the care of Johnson & Wales, Treat Hall will be restored and transformed into a four-star boutique hotel with a five-star restaurant. The hotel would aspire to five-star status if only it could accommodate the required pool. This soon-to-be unique Park Hill hotel property will offer not only 55 unique guest rooms, garnered from the original faculty and student living quarters, but will also boast state-of-the-art conference and meeting facilities. The original student auditorium will be transfigured into an extraordinary restaurant with seating for eighty and a bar area for an additional twenty. Among the unique and noteworthy aspects of this bistro will be the staged cooking area. Diners will be privileged to see Johnson & Wales?’ culinary student at work in the open kitchen built in the former stage area of the auditorium.
This innovative addition to Park Hill will provide both a laboratory for the J&W students and a wonderful new get-away for Park Hill residents and their out-of-town guests. We very much hope to persuade the Johnson & Wales President to include the new hotel and restaurant on the 2008 Tour, as its anticipated opening date is in September of that year.