To gawk, perchance to dream

Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. ( We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems.)

I’ve never been one to go on those organized home tours, where you walk around neighborhoods and enter participating private manses. Although I’m certain the interiors are fabulous, the idea of it seems like an intrusion to me.

But every once in a while, I dream of opening the door to a home along Seventh Avenue Parkway in Congress Park, Montview Boulevard in Park Hill, or along East 13th Avenue in Capitol Hill.

Once inside, I’m an early 20thcentury novelist holed up in a turreted attic, sweaty and desperate for an idea.

I’m a suffragist making posters for women’s rights on a huge, polished mahogany table.

I’m a cook in a grand, marbled kitchen, preparing a multicourse meal for a dinner party of 12.

I’m a grande dame, choosing a bonnet and boots for a walk in the park.

That’s what driving or walking down some streets in Denver does for me. I gawk; I dream.

Park your car and walk along Seventh Avenue Parkway in Congress Park, or drive up or down Monaco Parkway north of Alameda, or 17th Avenue in Park Hill east of Colorado Boulevard. Walk around Cheesman Park and the streets just west, and marvel at the grand structures.

Denver is blessed with dozens of such neighborhoods, hundreds of such homes.

Denver Post fine arts/ architecture writer Ray Mark Rinaldi said that if you want to see something off the beaten track, there is a row of amazing historic mansions on the 1400 block of West Stuart in Denver, like the Frank I. Smith house and the Ralph Voorhees house. “Amazing,” he said.

There are other homes in the

Denver area that might spark your interest as well.

“I think if you want to see the better modern mansions, that would be Hilltop, streets like Ivy, Jersey and others, just north of Alameda,” Rinaldi said. “Scrapes, but crazy mega- houses that are designforward rather than crappy, lot- eating Mcmansions.

“For mid- century modern, though not at all mansions, you can pick from the list at midmoddreamhomes. com. My faves are Harvey Park and Krisana Park,” he added.

Have some free time this weekend? Take a drive or a walk around one of our lovely Denver neighborhoods.

And let your imagination soar.

Provided by the Denver Public Library The Schleier Mansion, between 1880 and 1910, in Denver’s Capitol Hill.

Modernism Week Atom Stevens, provided by A house in Harvey Park, one of Denver’s better- known mid- century neighborhoods.

Public Library, Western History Department Provided by Denver The Joshua Monti Mansion, left, and Molly Brown House, right, in the late 19th century.

Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file The Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion.