Cory Cutting - 5281 Exclusive Homes Realty

08/31/2026

A great story of a wonderful home!

#6 in my series on Automobiles in Colorado. This is 2070 Colorado Blvd. The photos were taken in 1909 and 2014. The automobile, in the original photo, is a Colburn. However there's actually two historical aspects to this original photograph.

The Colburn Automobile Company was a short-lived Brass Era car manufacturer that operated in Denver from 1906 to 1911. The company was funded by Judge Ernest A. Colburn, a wealthy mining magnate who made a fortune in Cripple Creek gold mines. His sons, Herbert C. Colburn and Ernest A. Colburn Jr., designed and built the vehicles. Operations were located at 15th Street and Colfax Avenue in Denver. They built high-performance roadsters (Model 30 and Model 40) that sold for $4,500. They frequently raced and competed in local Denver track and road events. Later production shifted slightly to include touring cars like the Model 35.

The factory closed abruptly in 1911 following a severe family dispute between the Judge and his sons, reportedly sparked by the Judge's divorce, remarriage, and personal infidelity.

The second historical aspect of this photograph is the actual property at 2070 Colorado Boulevard. Located directly across the street from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in South Park Hill, 2070 Colorado Boulevard is officially recognized as the Margaret Long House, an iconic Denver landmark built in 1908. The house was constructed by Dr. Margaret Long, a pioneering physician who graduated from Smith College and Johns Hopkins Medical School. She originally moved from Massachusetts to Colorado in 1905 to seek a cure for her own Tuberculosis. Dr. Long became a prominent figure in Denver healthcare, serving at Denver County Hospital and co-founding the Sands House Sanatorium in 1914. The facility was crucial in serving low-income women and girls battling Tuberculosis. She lived in the home until she retired in the 1940s to become an explorer.

Following decades of gradual neglect, the iconic house faced foreclosure and went up for sale in 2009. Alarmed by its condition, Park Hill residents flagged the property to Historic Denver. It was purchased by a young couple in July 2010 for $315,000 with the direct intention of fully restoring it.

Working in tandem with Historic Denver and neighborhood volunteers, the new owners successfully applied for local landmark designation. The Denver City Council held its final public hearing and officially approved the historical status on April 8, 2013.

Original photo provided courtesy Denver Public Library Digital Collection

Colorado Then and Now Photographs History Colorado Historic Denver

08/26/2026

Colorado history is anchored by Yule marble. The floors in the Colorado Capitol, buildings in the capitol complex, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the Lincoln Memorial all made with some of the most pure in color marble in the world.

Take a tour of the mine in Marble, Colorado.

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08/23/2026

If you really want or need a new build, always get a home inspection. Just because its new doesnt mean its done right.

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06/22/2026

Denver is known as "The Mile High City", being 1 mile above sea level. You can stand on the very spot that is 1 mile high on the front steps of the .

The original measurement was done in 1904 and placed on the 15th step, where it is engraved on the front of the step "One Mile Above Sea Level".

In 1969 it was determined that the marker was off by 7 vertical inches, or 3 steps, and it was actually the 18th step. There is also a marker on the 18th step.

In 2003, a remeasurment using modern technology found that 1 mile is actually the 13th step! So there is also a marker on the 13th step.

As Colorado celebrates its 150th anniversary as a state, students from the School of Mines in Golden are remeasuring, and a new mile high marker will be placed on August 1st, Colorado Day.

Where do you think the marker will be placed?? Write your guess in the comments!

06/20/2026

Murdo MacKenzie could be considered the most influential person in the cattle industry in the early 1900’s. He was born March 24, 1850 in Tain, Scotland. He graduated in 1869 from the Royal Academy and immediately started work as a law apprentice. He soon would work for the British Linen Bank, where he met an influential bank customer that offered him the position of Assistant Factor (property manager) for the Balnagown estate of Sir Charles Ross.

He worked in this position for ten years, when in 1885 he was offered a managership of the Trinidad, Colorado Prairie Cattle Company that was owned by the British Cattle Company. Murdo married Isabella McBain in 1876, and they had six children together. The family moved to America and Colorado in 1885 to Trinidad.
Once in Trinidad, Murdo became an American citizen as soon as he could and served as the mayor of Trinidad.

In 1891 Murdo gecame the manager of the Matdor Land and Cattle Company in Trinidad. There is gained a reputation for growing the cattle herd with pure-bred Hereford bulls. In 1901 Murdo became the president of the Texas and Soutwestern Cattle Raisers Association, holding the position until 1903.

In 1905 he became the founding president of the American Stock Grower’s Association, serving that position until 1911. Because of the positions he held, Murdo mad frequent trips to Washington D.C. and helped President Teddy Roosevelt in his battle with meat packing companies who were price fixing. Because if his help, Roosevelt called Murdo “The most influential of all Western cattlemen.”

A South Dakota website dedicated to influential people of the state calls Murdo a “Champion of Excellence”, noting “The town of Murdo, SD was named in his honor and his picture hangs in the State Capitol building. He brought organization to the range cattle industry, as well as stock improvement, land-cattle management and an independence evident in today’s ranchers.” Murdo died on May 30, 1939.

Murdo's Denver home is located at 1100 Humboldt Street - read about the home here ---> https://cory.yourrealestatebrokers.com/the-brown-mackenzie-home-1100-humboldt-denver/

06/18/2026

Denver's homes hold within their walls the stories of the people who helped build Denver into the "Queen of the Plains".

The Gustav E. Paulson Home reflects architectural styles that were popular during Denver’s early expansion. Builders focused on durability, decorative details, and thoughtful design. More than a century later, houses like this continue to shape the character of Denver’s historic neighborhoods.

If you have an older home you'd like to know the story of, reach out to Cory!

05/29/2026

Did you know Denver once had a neighborhood called “Hell’s Half Acre”?

Located near the South Platte River in the late 1800s, the area became known for saloons, gambling halls, brothels, and crime tied to Denver’s early frontier days. The neighborhood was packed with railroad workers, miners, and travelers moving through the rapidly growing city. It earned its nickname because of its rough reputation and constant activity day and night.

From its beginnings as an unruly mining town, Denver was described as “most lively...in any and all kinds of wickedness.” The writer, prospector William Hedges, went on to doubt that there was ever “a place on this continent where a greater amount of evil to the square acre was so spontaneously and openly developed” (quoted in Clark Secrest’s Hell’s Belles).

Wickedness ran rampant no more openly than on Market Street, nee Holladay Street, nee McGaa Street. Denver’s notorious vice district, known as The Row, teemed with opulent parlor houses, maisons de joie, common brothels, dancehalls, hurdy gurdy houses, and lowly cribs. (paragraph info from HistoryColorado.org)

Would you have wanted to see frontier-era Denver in person?

05/27/2026

Did you know some Denver streets were once lined with irrigation ditches?

Before modern sprinkler systems, Denver relied heavily on ditch systems to move water through neighborhoods and agricultural areas. In many early neighborhoods, open ditches ran alongside roads carrying water to trees, lawns, and gardens. Some of these historic irrigation routes still exist today, especially in older parts of the city.

Smith's Ditch, or the Big Ditch, or the City Ditch, was built between 1860 and 1867 to bring water to Denver. The approximately 27-mile long irrigation channel began in Waterton Canyon, located southwest of Denver, as a diversion of the South Platte River and ultimately terminated in City Park’s Ferril Lake.

Many residents walk or drive past these channels without realizing they are remnants of Denver’s early water infrastructure and growth. Water shaped the development of Denver just as much as railroads, mining, and real estate speculation.

Denver has layers of hidden history almost everywhere you look.

(photos courtesy of history.denverlibrary.org/)

05/25/2026

Did you know there are still buried creeks running underneath Denver?

As Denver rapidly expanded in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many smaller waterways were buried underground to make room for streets, buildings, and railroads. Some creeks were redirected into storm sewers, while others disappeared almost entirely beneath development.

During major storms, parts of downtown still flood partly because the city was built over natural waterways that never fully disappeared. In some places, old maps reveal streams flowing directly beneath modern buildings and parking lots.

Denver’s landscape may look controlled today, but the original terrain is still hidden just below the surface.

Read more from Denver 7 --> https://www.denver7.com/news/our-colorado/denver-is-digging-up-lost-rivers-buried-during-industrial-revolution-reviving-natural-order-

05/23/2026

Did you know many Denver homes once had sleeping porches?

Before air conditioning became common, families relied on architecture to stay cool during Denver’s warm summer nights. Sleeping porches—usually enclosed upper-level porches with large windows or screens—allowed residents to sleep outside in cooler fresh air. They became especially popular during the early 1900s when fresh air was believed to improve health and help prevent illnesses like tuberculosis.

Today, many of these porches have been enclosed or remodeled, but you can still spot them throughout neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Congress Park, and Wash Park.

They’re one of the small historic details that quietly connects modern Denver to its past.