Stewards of the Past in a 1957 Denver Home

This 1957 Denver home is a gem that has only changed hands twice and is almost entirely original.

What would it be like to live in a mid-century home that’s almost entirely original? That’s the dream the Cooper family gets to live every day in their 1957 Denver home. “There’s still usually a moment, maybe about once a year, when I’m inside and the fire is going, it’s snowing outside and I think, ‘I can’t believe I get to live in this room,’” homeowner Jenn Cooper says. “It’s so beautiful and comfortable.”

dining table with stone accent wall in MCM Arapho Hills home — The dining table in the combined living/dining room has its own unique story. “The table was made for this model home in the cabinetry shop,” James says. There was a couple who came to view the model home and didn’t purchase it, but they did purchase the table. Years later, someone contacted the second homeowner of this house, Mitch, and told him that he had to get the table. He heard the story and purchased it on the spot. “It stays with the house now,” James says.

1957 Denver Home History

The 1,500-square-foot house was constructed in 1957 as the model home for the master-planned community of Arapaho Hills in Littleton, a suburb of Denver. “This was the model and show home, the first home they built,” homeowner James Cooper says. The original business partnership for the community was between architect and builder Edward B. Hawkins and contractor Clyde Mannon. But after designing this initial model home, Hawkins pulled out of the project. “This is the only house in the neighborhood built by Hawkins,” James says.

living room with fireplace and MCM furniture in 1957 Denver home — This side of the large living space backs up against the kitchen’s partial wall. “You can’t see, hear or smell the kitchen, but it gives you that box you can use for the fridge and cabinets,” James says. The fireplace is a large piece that works well with the color palette of the house. “It has an amazing evil lair feel to it,” James says. The art is by mid-century painter Carlo of Hollywood, who may have been a set designer on the original “star trek” show. The sofa is a vintage piece James and Jenn have moved with them through several homes.

orange front door and floating shelves in entryway of 1957 Denver home — The entryway to the house comes into the main living area. Behind the original orange painted door is a Cado wall unit the second homeowner put in, which is period accurate to the home. The ceiling throughout the house is original. “They’re tongue and groove with the original natural stain on them,” James says. “They’ve never been painted.”

While their home is unique even amid the surrounding neighborhood, it still fits into the exclusively mid-century vibe of the area, with
the newer houses taking their cues from the original model home. “The architectural features are borrowed from each other,” James says.

Arapaho Hills neighborhood sign in suburb of Denver — Lined up in this display cabinet is a collection of ashtrays from James’ great-grandparents. “They collected those in their travels, particularly on the West Coast,” James says. “San Francisco, Spokane, etc. They eventually went into a box and almost went to Goodwill, but we got them.” The bookcase is a built-in original to the house and provided a good display opportunity. “It’s fun to look up and see which of those places still exist now,” James says.

But what makes the 1957 Denver home stand out 65 years later is not who designed it but who has lived it in. James and Jenn are only the third homeowners. “The Pflueger family were the original owners. They lived here so long that this house was known as ‘The Pflueger House’ for a long time,” James says. The second homeowner, Mitchell Cowley, was another preservationist who wanted to keep the house as intact as possible. “He helped apply for the neighborhood to be part of the National Register of Historic Places,” James says.

multi-colored green and yellow sliding cabinet fronts in 1957 Denver home — A recurring challenge in the kitchen was the limited space between the top of the countertop and the bottom of the stove vent. “When we did the renovation, we put a different kind of vent in there that would be subtle—you can barely see it,” James says. “We didn’t want to change the shape [or position] of the cabinets because the top line matches the top line of the wall.” The colors on the sliding Masonite cabinet doors match the old ones the couple had to replace because they were falling apart. “Based on what I’ve seen in the neighborhood, I believe they’re the original colors,” James says.

So, by the time James and Jenn bought the house in 2018, it looked almost identical to its original build in 1957. Mitch had even added additional mid-century features, such as lighting and furniture that the Coopers were able to keep when they bought it. “Our house is the most original [in the neighborhood], both interior and exterior, because the people who lived in it forever were the original homeowners,” James says. Now, the Coopers get to be the stewards of this piece of mid-century history.

Preservation, Not Renovation

While the Coopers want the house to stay as original as possible, they’re still living in a 65-year-old structure, and fixes are always necessary. “One day, the kitchen drain line fell off the wall,” James says. “We’d been considering updating because the vent hood had less clearance between the countertop and cabinets, and the vent was old and really didn’t pull any air out.” In 2020, they hired a local custom cabinet maker to rebuild the kitchen in a copy of the original. “He rebuilt picture-perfect cabinets so when we had them ripped off the wall and replaced you’d never realize it,” James says. “We didn’t have any original plans to look at, but we wanted to meticulously reproduce the style with the Masonite sliding doors,” Jenn says.

TV room in 1957 Denver home in Araphao Hills — The current TV room is the only major deviation from Edward Hawkins’ original design. “The garage and house were partially detached with an enclosed breezeway,” James says. “It was open to the back of the house.” The original homeowners enclosed the space to create an extra room, keeping the sliding glass doors that lead into the main living room. Though it’s a little unconventional, James and Jenn love it. “This room makes the house for us,” James says. “Our son can hang out with his friends in there and not disrupt the rest of the house.”

covered patio outside Denver 1957 home — The cover of the outdoor patio is original to the house, but the Cooper family decided to add a slatted wall to separate the patio from a lower area of the yard. “It’s a two-foot drop off to the other part of the yard,” James says. They took cues for the slat wall from other nearby houses. “It echoes other features in the neighborhood,” James says.

It was top priority to the Coopers that everything look exactly the same when the kitchen was finished—excluding the fallen pipe, of course. “Everything original was built on-site at the cabinetry shop,” Jenn explains. “We were careful to preserve the architectural integrity.” They did take the opportunity to update the appliances but stuck with low-profile choices that would match the style. “We chose a ‘plain Jane’ refrigerator,” James says. Jenn adds, “When we bought it, there was what I call an ‘easy-bake oven’ because it was so tiny.” But even with the updates, the kitchen looks and feels exactly like the original iteration.

TV room in 1957 Denver home — The TV room is home to a 1959 Philco TV James found years ago as well as several trailer advertisement posters from Hatch Show Print in Nashville. “Old concert posters is what they really made, but they did some advertising too,” James says. “It’s a reflection of our 1954 Spartan trailer that we keep in New Orleans. When we got them, it took us another six years to be able to afford to frame them.”

Besides the kitchen, the couple has tried to stay away from making any changes. “There are some systems updates we’ve done that no one cares about,” Jenn says. Those systems can be expensive but are a necessary part of maintaining an old house.

Architectural Features of the 1957 Denver Home

There were two main architectural features that drew the Coopers to the home: the stone and the layout of the living spaces. Rose rhyolite is a volcanic rock with a matte and dusty finish with a fine-grained texture and is the main material feature that Hawkins used on both the exterior and interior. On the exterior, a slab of it bisects the two halves of the inverse butterfly roofline. Inside, rhyolite lines part of the main living space as well as the fireplace hearth.

1957 Denver home with Broyhill Brasilia dresser and MCM bedframe — The primary bedroom features a collected Broyhill Brasilia bedroom set. “We collected that set as part of several different purchases,” James says. The room also features an iconic Seth Thomas starburst clock. “It has lovely teak wood spokes; it’s very lightweight,” Jenn says.

1957 Denver home bathroom with original features — This bathroom is almost entirely original. The exception is the tile wall in the shower. “[The original tile] started to come off the wall,” James says. “We went to great effort to track down something similar.” Jenn adds, “I actually saw the idea in Atomic Ranch. Someone had gone to Daltile and they have a neat program where you can customize your pattern.” The couple did the same and were able to create a tile pattern very similar to the original. “We tried to reflect the original look and feel,” James says. The rest of the bathroom, including the pink tub, Formica countertop and Masonite sliding cabinet doors, are all original.

The other main architectural draw is the unique layout of the living space, which has both an open and closed concept. “It’s a combined living and dining area,” James explains. The entryway opens up onto this large room, which contains the fireplace and backs up to a partial wall that leads into the kitchen. Most of the windows are alongside the back of the house as a privacy feature. “Light comes into the back side of the house so the street doesn’t see into the house and we don’t hear the street,” James says. But it’s still very light. “There are clerestory and transom windows that let in a lot of light but it still feels very private,” Jenn says. “You can be in the lovely dining area next to the wall with light and on the other side is the gorgeous fireplace.”

home office in 1957 Denver home — The home office looks out the side of the house. The mid-century side table in the room was a purchase from the second homeowner, who left it with the house when the Coopers purchased it. A unique feature of this room is the window sills. “They’re made of earthen tile instead of wood,” James says. “That’s a little bit of that indoor/outdoor feel.”

home office with MCM wall unit and closet — This space has one of the Cado wall units the previous owner installed, which are vintage pieces hard to come by. “They’re not original to the home, but they’re period correct,” Jenn says. The closet is original to the home. “That line two-thirds up the wall is where it divides from a regular hanging closet on the bottom to the upper closet space for storage,” James says.

MCM bedroom in Denver home with Broyhill Brasilia dresser — In the primary bedroom, James and Jenn worked for several years to collect pieces for a matching furniture set of Broyhill Brasilia, which includes two dressers, a nightstand and the headboard. Above it sits a Cado wall unit, one of several in the house.

Three bedrooms and two bathrooms are at the back of the house, so it’s this first room that is the home’s focal point. “This room is the most sexy part of the home,” James says. The couple finds the smaller square footage worth it for the original features and layout. “The house is small and further out [from the city] than we planned to live, but I get all this authenticity,” James says. “The three of us are completely comfortable in this space.”

To read more about MCM neighborhoods in the Denver area, check out Midcentury Neighborhoods: Arapahoe Acres in Englewood, Colorado and Mile High and Mid Mod: A 1955 Harvey Park Home. And of course, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube for more Atomic Ranch articles, house tours, and ideas!