The Berbert House stands facing 44th Ave., forlorn and out of place just east of Prospect Park’s entrance and the pickleball courts. Its main entrance stairs, sculpted from red sandstone slabs, are crumbling; the windows are grimy, and surrounding gardens are beyond raggedy.
So it goes for some historical properties. The City of Wheat Ridge has owned the property since the 1970s, and a rep estimates it would take around a half million dollars to bring it to code and make it safe and habitable for even occasional use. Problems like caved sewer lines, compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act, paint, spit and polish take money, time and commitment. Its main floor rooms, spacious and bordered by large windows, make it more than adequate for storage of City documents. Light filters in through dirty glass where filing and map cabinets hold Wheat Ridge history, well organized and labeled. Historical Society board members felt fortunate recently to be invited to examine and copy anything deemed worthy to add to the Society’s archives.
But in between examining scads of documents and maps, the faded grandeur of the house seeps into the consciousness. Who used the spacious kitchen with the butler’s pantry and breakfast nook overlooking the gardens? Why have a living room as big as a dance hall with an inviting fireplace way at the end? Who used the enclosed front porch that runs almost the width of the house?
Julius Berbert, the man responsible for the home’s creation and its namesake, appeared on the scene a while before he married Pearl, the only child of Juanita and Paul Heim, who migrated here from Kentucky in 1884 to homestead in the Clear Creek Valley. The Heims first settled east of Kipling, but two years later moved to land they purchased from James Baugh who was selling off his subdivided 160-acre homestead. They built a small house at W. Jefferson and Sunnyside Lane (now 44th Ave. and Robb St.). There, they ran the area’s first commercial vegetable stand called “Heim Croft”. Pearl grew up in her parents’ gardens, then met and married Berbert in 1905. Always a businessman, Berbert started a successful surgical and hospital supply business in Denver. They had one son, J. Paul, in 1914.
In 1919 Julius had the current lavish brick home built. In 1926, his family was joined by the Heims, tired of their nearby original home which had no running water. That original farmhouse was destroyed in an arson fire in 1964. Paul Heim farmed his entire life, selling vegetables at the old Wazee Market. Both Pearl and her mother raised dahlias and gladiolas, at one time caring for 1000 dahlias and 5000 “glads” that were sold in shops throughout Denver.
Both grandparents died in the Berbert home, Paul in 1938 and Juanita in 1943. Their daughter Pearl followed them in 1970, and Julius Berbert died there in 1974. J. Paul Berbert sold his family home to the City in the early 1970s.
