This post of the Cheesman Park Memorial Pavilion will be one of the featured postcards in the December Festival of Postcards, hosted by Evelyn at ACanadianFamily blog. The theme for this festival is "White" and the deadline for submission is December 20. Click on the festival logo above for information and to see all the postcards sometime after the 20th!
Denvergov.org shows an aerial view of the memorial and includes this information (note that the spelling on this old postcard is incorrect.....Cheesman, not Cheeseman!):
Cheesman Park Memorial Pavilion
Greek Parthenon of Colorado Yule marble. Memorial to business tycoon Walter Scott Cheesman designed by Marean and Norton in 1910. Surrounded by formal gardens and reflecting pool, it crowns the east end of Cheesman Park, once the city cemetery.
This is a short clip of the 2009 Denver Tango Fest in Cheesman Park:
Walter Scott Cheesman is tied to Denver history for another structure, also. He died while constructing a glorious mansion atop Denver's Logan Hill. That mansion now serves as the Colorado Governor's Residence, known as the Boettcher Mansion. The history behind the Governor's Residence is fascinating and can be read in full here. A bit from the website follows:
The state capital of Denver sits at the base of the foothills where the mountains rise to the west, a continual reminder of the nearness of the wilderness to the urban dweller. The Rockies have ever demanded of those who live near them, an upward-reaching spirit, and it is fitting that the Colorado Governor's Residence sits atop a hill, where it was built as a private home by one of the state's leading pioneer families.
Walter Scott Cheesman rode an ox cart from Chicago to Denver in 1861, where he joined his brother in the drug store business. He became an enthusiastic and effective booster of his new city, helping bring railroad service to Denver, developing the town's fledgling real estate industry and rising to local and regional prominence. After the tragic loss of his wife and two year old son, he remained single for many years. At the age of 47 he remarried, to the beautiful and charming widow Alice Foster Sanger. Two years later their daughter, Gladys, was born and from the moment he saw her, Walter Cheesman was devoted to her. While still a teenager, Gladys helped her father design a wonderful new house for the family. But in 1907, just as he was planning to begin construction of the landmark mansion atop Denver's Logan Hill, Mr. Cheesman died. Gladys and her mother proceeded with the plans, and the result was a graceful, soaring home of three stories that soon became the envy of Denver high society. From outside the wrought iron fence, citizens marveled at the mansion's west portico with its two-story Roman Ionic colonnade, at the widow's walk and the elegant arched windows. The Cheesman home became the talk of Denver. . .
. . .Mrs. Cheesman died in 1923 and the house was sold to Claude K. Boettcher, a leading western businessman. Mr. Boettcher presented the deed to his wife Edna as a Valentine's Day present in 1924. . .
. . . Claude Boettcher died in 1957, his wife Edna the following year. She left the house to a private family foundation, requesting that this beautiful mansion be offered to the State of Colorado to be used as a governors' residence. . .
