Richthofen Castle

Richthofen Castle

Richthofen Castle Denver Public Library/Denver Public Library/Western History Department (Orin Sealy)

Richthofen Castle

1887, Alexander Cazin?. 1910, addition, Maurice Biscoe. 1924, addition, Jacques Benedict. 7020 E. 12th Ave. (at Olive St.) (NR)

Walter von Richthofen erected this rhyolite castle as the show home of Montclair. Alexander Cazin, a fellow German, may have designed this mock medieval fortress with its third-story tower, turrets, and gables. On the northwest corner is a red sandstone bust of Frederick Barbarossa, the medieval ruler who first tried to unify Germany. The original castle, a prickly Prussian affair, was remodeled and enlarged in 1910 for a new owner, Edwin B. Hendrie. Maurice Biscoe and, later, Jacques Benedict softened the lines with half-timbered and stuccoed west and south wings (1924) and transformed the crenelated roofline with shingled gables and a cap for the central tower. Inside the thirty-five-room castle is an entry hall with dark oak paneling and hand-tooled leather walls and a parquet-floored music room seating 150. The gatehouse to the east has been divided from the property and converted to a separate residence.

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