Davis Waite House
Encyclopedia
The Davis Waite House is located on West Francis Street in Aspen
, Colorado, United States. It is a wooden structure in Victorian
architectural style
s built during the 1880s. In 1987 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
along with several other historic properties in the city.
Davis H. Waite, an early owner, was one of the founding publishers of The Aspen Daily Times
. He was later elected governor of Colorado
. After a single term he returned to Aspen. Later owners included Herbert Bayer
, an Austrian architect extensively involved in the mid-20th century renovation of Aspen, and Robert Orville Anderson, an oil executive who was chairman of the Aspen Institute
board. The house has remained largely intact.
, also listed on the Register. The terrain is generally level, part of a very gentle drop from the slopes of Aspen Mountain
to the south towards the Roaring Fork River
to the north.
The building itself is a two-story timber frame
house on a stone foundation
sided in clapboard
with fish-scale shingle in the apex of the front gable
. The cross-gabled west side projects slightly from just north of the main entrance, sheltered by a flat roof. There is a white picket fence
at the street. A small building is at the side.
Trim on the exterior consists of cream
-painted wood. It serves as cornerboard, window surround, and cornice
dividing the clapboard and shingle sidings. The porch's flat roof is supported by turned columns, with some wood tracery decorations at their tops. Paneled vergeboard in blue and cream is at the gable roofline.
Fenestration on the south (front) facade
consists of one large one-over-one double-hung sash window
in a slightly projecting bay with a pair of smaller one-over-one windows at the second story. In the gable field is an even smaller attic window, set off by cream courses
at the sill and lintel. A smaller one-over-one is above the main entrance. On the west side are a similar treatment as the front on the south, with a single small window on the ground floor to the north between two smaller non-projecting one-over-ones.
silver mining
town, growing rapidly. An early miner's cabin on the property was converted into the outbuilding.
One newcomer to the city was Davis Hanson Waite
, a native of Jamestown, New York
who had, on his way across the country, served in the Wisconsin and Kansas state legislatures. He bought the house and settled in, starting the Aspen Weekly Times
, a newspaper still published today. He remained involved in politics, and in 1892 was elected Governor of Colorado
.
After a single two-year term during which the Panic of 1893
and the ensuing repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
ended Aspen's early prosperity, he was defeated for re-election. He returned to the house and spent his remaining years there. After his death in 1901, the house survived the early 20th-century period of the city's history known as the "quiet years", during which the city's population steadily declined and many buildings from the boom year were vacant for long periods, sometimes succumbing to fire and the effects of neglect and the severe winters at nearly 8000 feet (2,438.4 m) above sea level in the Rocky Mountains
.
In the middle of the century the city's fortunes began to change for the better. The Aspen Mountain
ski resort
was opened, bringing development and people back. Walter Paepcke
, the Chicago industrialist who with his wife Elizabeth had financed the development of the ski resort and the Aspen Music Festival and School
, sought to restore
many of the old buildings that remained in order to make the city more attractive to visitors. They hired Bauhaus
architect Herbert Bayer
, who lived in the house while he was in Aspen, designing its current picket fence
. Later, it was the home of Atlantic Richfield executive Robert Orville Anderson, who chaired the board of the Aspen Institute
.
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
, Colorado, United States. It is a wooden structure in Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
s built during the 1880s. In 1987 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
along with several other historic properties in the city.
Davis H. Waite, an early owner, was one of the founding publishers of The Aspen Daily Times
Aspen Times
The Aspen Times is an 11,500-circulation, 7-day-a-week newspaper in the ski resort of Aspen, Colorado with a history dating back to 1881.-History:...
. He was later elected governor of Colorado
Governor of Colorado
The Governor of Colorado is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Colorado General Assembly, to convene the...
. After a single term he returned to Aspen. Later owners included Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer was an Austrian American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental & interior designer, and architect, who was widely recognized as the last living member of the Bauhaus and was instrumental in the development of the Atlantic Richfield Company's...
, an Austrian architect extensively involved in the mid-20th century renovation of Aspen, and Robert Orville Anderson, an oil executive who was chairman of the Aspen Institute
Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The...
board. The house has remained largely intact.
Building
The house is located at the northeast corner of West Francis and North Second streets in Aspen's residential West End. The surrounding neighborhood is well-developed with other houses, most of more modern construction. At the other end of the block, on the south side of the street, is the Bowles–Cooley HouseBowles–Cooley House
The Bowles–Cooley House is located at the corner of West Francis and North First streets in Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is a brick structure in the Queen Anne architectural style built during the 1880s...
, also listed on the Register. The terrain is generally level, part of a very gentle drop from the slopes of Aspen Mountain
Aspen Mountain (Colorado)
Aspen Mountain is a mountain in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in the United States. One of the foothills of the Elk Mountains, it is located just south of the town of Aspen, which is situated at the foot of the mountain at the southeast end of the valley of the Roaring Fork River in Pitkin County...
to the south towards the Roaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River
Roaring Fork River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States. The river drains a populated and economically vital area of the Colorado Western Slope called the Roaring Fork Valley or Roaring Fork Watershed, which includes the resort...
to the north.
The building itself is a two-story timber frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
house on a stone foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
sided in clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
with fish-scale shingle in the apex of the front gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
. The cross-gabled west side projects slightly from just north of the main entrance, sheltered by a flat roof. There is a white picket fence
Picket fence
A picket fence is a variety of fence that has been used mostly for domestic boundaries. Until the introduction of advertising on fences in the 1980s, a Cricket field was also usually surrounded by a picket fence, giving rise to the expression rattling the pickets for a ball hit firmly into the...
at the street. A small building is at the side.
Trim on the exterior consists of cream
Cream (colour)
Cream is the colour of the cream produced by cattle grazing on natural pasture with plants rich in yellow carotenoid pigments, some of which are incorporated into the cream, to give a yellow tone to white. Cream is the pastel colour of yellow, much like as pink is to red. Cream is used as a skin...
-painted wood. It serves as cornerboard, window surround, and cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
dividing the clapboard and shingle sidings. The porch's flat roof is supported by turned columns, with some wood tracery decorations at their tops. Paneled vergeboard in blue and cream is at the gable roofline.
Fenestration on the south (front) facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
consists of one large one-over-one double-hung sash window
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
in a slightly projecting bay with a pair of smaller one-over-one windows at the second story. In the gable field is an even smaller attic window, set off by cream courses
Course (architecture)
A course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high, usually in a wall. The term is almost always used in conjunction with unit masonry such as brick, cut stone, or concrete masonry units .-Styles:...
at the sill and lintel. A smaller one-over-one is above the main entrance. On the west side are a similar treatment as the front on the south, with a single small window on the ground floor to the north between two smaller non-projecting one-over-ones.
History
The house was built in 1888 by a man named Francis Orange. Aspen at the time was a boomingBoomtown
A boomtown is a community that experiences sudden and rapid population and economic growth. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons,...
silver mining
Silver mining
Silver mining refers to the resource extraction of the precious metal element silver by mining.-History:Silver has been known since ancient times. It is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated...
town, growing rapidly. An early miner's cabin on the property was converted into the outbuilding.
Davis Hanson Waite
Davis Hanson Waite , U.S. Populist Party and Democratic Party politician, served as the eighth Governor of Colorado from 1893 to 1895...
, a native of Jamestown, New York
Jamestown, New York
Jamestown is a city in Chautauqua County, New York in the United States. The population was 31,146 at the 2010 census.The City of Jamestown is adjacent to Town of Ellicott and is at the southern tip of Chautauqua Lake...
who had, on his way across the country, served in the Wisconsin and Kansas state legislatures. He bought the house and settled in, starting the Aspen Weekly Times
Aspen Times
The Aspen Times is an 11,500-circulation, 7-day-a-week newspaper in the ski resort of Aspen, Colorado with a history dating back to 1881.-History:...
, a newspaper still published today. He remained involved in politics, and in 1892 was elected Governor of Colorado
Governor of Colorado
The Governor of Colorado is the head of the executive branch of Colorado's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Colorado General Assembly, to convene the...
.
After a single two-year term during which the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
and the ensuing repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act
Sherman Silver Purchase Act
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was enacted on July 14, 1890 as a United States federal law. It was named after its author, Senator John Sherman, an Ohio Republican, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee...
ended Aspen's early prosperity, he was defeated for re-election. He returned to the house and spent his remaining years there. After his death in 1901, the house survived the early 20th-century period of the city's history known as the "quiet years", during which the city's population steadily declined and many buildings from the boom year were vacant for long periods, sometimes succumbing to fire and the effects of neglect and the severe winters at nearly 8000 feet (2,438.4 m) above sea level in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
.
In the middle of the century the city's fortunes began to change for the better. The Aspen Mountain
Aspen Mountain (ski area)
Aspen Mountain is a ski area located in Pitkin County, Colorado, just outside and above the city of Aspen. It is situated on the north flank of Aspen Mountain and the higher Bell Mountain at an elevation of 11,212 ft just to the south of Aspen Mountain...
ski resort
Ski resort
A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing and other winter sports. In Europe a ski resort is a town or village in a ski area - a mountainous area, where there are ski trails and supporting services such as hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, equipment rental and a ski lift system...
was opened, bringing development and people back. Walter Paepcke
Walter Paepcke
Walter Paepcke was a U.S. industrialist and philanthropist prominent in the middle-20th century.-Biography:A longtime executive of the Chicago-based Container Corporation of America, Paepcke is best noted for his founding of the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Skiing Company in the early 1950s, both...
, the Chicago industrialist who with his wife Elizabeth had financed the development of the ski resort and the Aspen Music Festival and School
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
, sought to restore
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
many of the old buildings that remained in order to make the city more attractive to visitors. They hired Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
architect Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer was an Austrian American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental & interior designer, and architect, who was widely recognized as the last living member of the Bauhaus and was instrumental in the development of the Atlantic Richfield Company's...
, who lived in the house while he was in Aspen, designing its current picket fence
Picket fence
A picket fence is a variety of fence that has been used mostly for domestic boundaries. Until the introduction of advertising on fences in the 1980s, a Cricket field was also usually surrounded by a picket fence, giving rise to the expression rattling the pickets for a ball hit firmly into the...
. Later, it was the home of Atlantic Richfield executive Robert Orville Anderson, who chaired the board of the Aspen Institute
Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The...
.