If you’re looking for a nice evening walk where you can be surrounded by the beauty of lovely old trees, manicured gardens, complimented by Wheat Ridge’s premiere mansion, try a walk around the park at the Richards-Hart Estate at 5349 West 27th Ave. The property is quiet and beautifully landscaped. No wonder it’s a popular event and wedding venue.
Hard to imagine, but this park and lovely home started out as a homestead, a 160-acre plot of land “proved up” by James Richards in the 1850s. Like many others, Richards arrived in Colorado hungry for gold (penniless and at the tender age of 20), but after a few months decided he was better fitted to address the hunger of other miners as a businessman. He soon got involved in a grain and flour business, which prospered.
As a homesteader, Richards also prospered. In the mid-1860s he married Elizabeth, had three children, and in 1877 he built a country mansion on a small hill overlooking Sloan’s Lake. He called it Lake Side and dedicated part of the residence as a wagon stop for travelers heading west. The eastern portion of the house retains Italianate-style architecture today, and the western half, built a decade later, still features the Queen Anne cottage style.
Unfortunately, Richards died of unknown causes in 1883. His family remained in the residence until 1911 when Elizabeth died, and the property was sold to Jocelyn and Luella Manby, who had migrated to the U.S. from England and settled in Trinidad. They lived in the mansion for 15 years and raised four children.
By the summer of 1926 Patrick Hart and his wife had grown tired of the rural ranch life in Leadville. They arranged a trade with the Manbys. The Harts traded 640 acres and a cattle operation for the five acres and gardens just west of Sloan’s Lake. Before they moved in, the Harts spent two years remodeling and landscaping. They stuccoed the mansion’s exterior, installed hardwood floors and a fancy new hot water heating system. Unfortunately, Mr. Hart was in a car accident and died on Christmas day in 1928, having enjoyed his home for only six months.
The Widow Hart was left with six young children to raise. She leased the fields to area farmers and took in boarders to assure an income. She canned her share of the farm’s produce for her family’s use. She was able to remodel the kitchen and back porch and add a laundry.
One child, a daughter named Marie, married and built a house on the property in order to be close enough to care for the aging Mrs. Hart. She died in 1971 and left the estate to her children.
The City of Wheat Ridge purchased the property in 1976 for around $200,000. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. City workers set about an extensive remodeling project to restore the building to its original splendor, appointing a task force of residents to research the details of the original décor.
Both the Richards and the Harts would be impressed with the beauty of their former home today.
