Fitzroy Place (Colorado)

The Fitzroy Place is a historic home in Denver, Colorado. Completed in 1893, it was designed by Fuller and Wheeler, New York architects, and was built in the Richardsonian Romanesque style that was extremely popular on the American West Coast. The architects were noted for the numerous educational buildings they designed in the United States and overseas. Elizabeth Iliff Warren, widow of John Wesley Iliff, a successful cattle baron and Denver philanthropist, commissioned the mansion. John Wesley died in 1878 of gall bladder obstruction, leaving Elizabeth, at 34, with four children, cattle, and a land empire. The Fitzroy Mansion was named on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a Denver Historic Landmark in 2008.

Fitzroy Place
General information
Status	Completed
Architectural style	Richardsonian Romanesque
Location	2160 S Cook St Denver, Colorado
Current tenants	Accelerated Schools
Construction started	1891
Completed	1893
Cost	US$65.000 (US$2.2 million in 2023 dollars)
Client	Elizabeth Iliff Warren
Owner	Accelerated Schools
Technical details
Material	Red Stone
Size	19,000+ square ft
Floor count	3
Lifts/elevators	1 (no longer in the building)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Fuller and Wheeler
Other information
Number of rooms	120
Parking	Parking Lot, Street

Warren/Iliff Mansion
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
NRHP reference No.	75000508
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	February 20, 1975
Designated NHL	September 12, 1974

Name origin

The Warren-Iliff Mansion, more commonly known as The Fitzroy Place, was named after the Elizabeth's birthplace in Ontario, Canada.

History

When Iliff Hall was started, construction had begun on a stone residence for the Warrens on South Cook Street. They had engaged the services of Fuller Wheeler, architects of Albany, New York. Though the plans for Iliff Hall have been lost, one would expect to have both buildings made with Lyons red sandstone and simultaneously designed by the same architects. They were, for William S. Iliff paid Fuller and Wheeler $1,750 for the architectural designs on June 10, 1892. For many years, it was believed that the architect had been Frank E. Edbrooke of Denver because it was known that he had designed many Denver homes of the period.

Fuller and Wheeler had offered to build the structure for "not less than $50,000," and by January 25, 1893, the total cost was $62,250.

Building statistics

Behind the over one hundred different doors of the property, separating between three different buildings, is sixteen basement doors, twenty-eight first-floor doors, eighteen-second floor doors, twenty-one third-floor doors, and one fourth-floor door.