1555 Race St
Denver, CO, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Delos Allen Chappell House (Unity Temple

Statement of Significant:

The significance of the house at 1555 Race Street is found in its association with Delos Allen Chappell, one of the most prominent and wealthy citizens in Denver at the turn of the century. Chappell was closely identified with the early development of the coal and coke industry in Colorado and was the founder of the Victor Fuel Company. Chappell, is perhaps best remembered in Denver for his palatial home at Thirteenth Avenue and Logan Street, Chappell House, which became the first permanent home of the Denver Art Association, later known as the Denver Art Museum. 1555 Race is the first house in Denver to have been owned by Chappell and it is believed that he was the first occupant.
Further significance is found in the design of this house. Constructed only two years after the Silver Crash of 1893, it represents the trend to break away from the flamboyance of the Victorian period and the move toward the restraint of the Neo-Classical. It is a forerunner of this trend, which became popular after 1900. The Race screenhouse, constructed in lays, is believed to have been a speculation house designed by Frank S. Snell, a real estate man later turned architect and was constructed by the Burleigh Building Company.

Construction began in the spring of 1895, but due to the contractor's financial problems, it was not occupied by the Chappell family until sometime in 1899 and they are the first known occupants.

The history of the house is fraught with legal entanglements, tax sales, fore- closures and mechanic's liens. It began with the grant of a large parcel of land from the United States Government to Elias G. Matthews on 23 April 1866 and a land patent on 10 December 1876. This parcel of over 100 acres was annexed to Denver in 1868.

Between 1871 and 1874, the land changed hands several times due to tax sales and as security for loans. In August of 1882, the property was acquired and platted by John H. Wyman as Wyman's Addition to the City of Denver, and the Streets and alleys were dedicated to the city.

In 1887, Thomas J. O'Donnell, a prominent Denver attorney, took an option on this large parcel and received the warranty deed in January of 1889. O'Donnell built his own residence, circa 1892, at 1527 Race. It has since been demolished. According to the abstract, the lots for 1555 Race were sold by the Westminster Mortgage Company to Ida B. Snell (probably Frank Snell's wife) on 1 March 1895 for $7,500. On 20 March 1895, she sold these lots to the Burleigh Building Company, owned by Henry J. Burleigh, who did not live in Denver. Frank Snell had been given Burleigh's power of attorney in December of 1892 for real estate transactions of property owned by Burleigh in Colorado.

Construction on the house began shortly after the sale of the property to the building company. They began to have serious financial difficulties almost immediately, possibly because the Denver economy had not recovered from the devastating effect of the Silver Crash of 1893.

According to Jerome C. Smiley in his History of Denver, the economic recovery of the city did not gain full momentum until 1897. He gives some Building Department figures for construction during those years. In 1890, before the Crash there had been 2,338 buildings constructed in the city that year, but in 1894, the year following the Crash, there were only 124 buildings constructed. There were 164 in 1895, 134 in 1896 and a total of 267 buildings in 1897. The years 1898 and 1899 saw a great increase with 343 and 582 buildings. Therefore, it appears that 1555 Race was among the first few buildings to be built after the Silver Crash in the financially unstable period before full economic recovery in the city.

The financially troubled building company had twenty-six mechanic's liens filed against the property between 25 June 1895 and 24 December 1896. In addition, the back taxes had not been paid and the property was sold and redeemed several times for back taxes. From 1896 until 1906, the property was in receivership and in and out of claims court for settlement of debts.
On 1 March 1899, the Arapahoe County District Court decreed that Delos Chappell could lease the house with the ultimate intent of acquiring ownership. The decree stipulated that Chappell pay $1,187.66 for the settlement of the outstanding liens against the property.

In an effort to straighten out the financial and legal entanglements, K.D. O'Donnell (Katherine Dwyer O'Donnell) purchased the Burleigh Building Company in June of 1899. Chappell eventually acquired clear title through the approval of the sale of the property by the District Court in 5 October 1903, a Sheriff's deed on 18 October 1904, a quit claim deed dated 16 February 1905. On 9 May 1907, Chappell sold 1555 Race to Luella Lewis for $14,000.
Subsequent owners of the house were Margaret B. Wilson, 23 June 1908; William H. Dickson, an attorney, 13 September 1911; The Iliff School of Theology, 17 July 1918; Dorothy Lee and William E. Minton, 31 May 1927. The Mintons leased the house to Viola B. Johnson for three years on 14 May 1930, it was sold to Charles S. Davis on 1 December 1935 and to the current owner, the Temple of Practical Christianity on 29 May 1941.

Delos Allen Chappell, believed to be the first occupant of 1555 Race Street, was its most prominent owner. A direct descendant of Ethan Allen, he was born in Williamson, Wayne County, New York on 29 April 1846. He was the son of Allen Darwin and Lydia Delano Hart Chappell.

The family moved to a farm in Michigan and after Chappell's junior year at the University of Michigan, his father suffered an accident and Chappell returned to the farm until his father had recovered. In 1873, he moved to Chicago and opened an engineering office.

Chappell gradually gained a good reputation for the construction of city water works, particularly those in Evanston, Illinois and Providence, Rhode Island. In 1879, he was asked to consult on the new water works in Trinidad, Colorado and after a visit there, he contracted to build the privately owned water facility.
During his time in Trinidad, Chappell became aware of the great natural resource potential in that section of Colorado and in 1883, Chappell returned to Trinidad to make his home. He invested in the water works, the First National Bank and in the development of the coal and coke industry.

Between 1883 and 1905, Chappell acquired a number of coal mines and coke operations throughout the southern part of the state and he consolidated those into the Victor Fuel Company in 1899. This company, known today as the Victor-American Fuel Company, became one of the largest coal producers in the state with properties in Arapahoe, Las Animas, Huerfano, Fremont and Boulder counties. The company supplied all of the major railroads, smelters, mills and reeducation plants in Colorado. Their coal was well known for its heating properties and was used exclusively in the brick and tile industry.
While in Trinidad, Chappell married Miss May C. Hastings, daughter of Alonzo and Grace E. Hastings of that city. (A. Hastings' name appears in the abstract and he was a business associate of his son-in-law in the Victor Fuel Company.) The Chappells had four children, two of whom survived, Delos Allen, Jr. and Jean Louise, who became a talented musician.

In 1898, Delos Chappell located the headquarters of his Victor Fuel Company in Denver and moved his family there. They lived in a stone house on the corner of Colfax Avenue and Race Street for a short time before moving into the house at 1555 Race.

In 1902, Chappell, Hugh J. Alexander and Mahon D. Thatcher founded the Capitol National Bank of Denver, which later merged with the First National Bank. In 1905, Chappell sold his interest in the Victor Fuel Company to J.C. Osgood and the Chappell family left Denver to spend two years in Europe.
Chappell sold the Race Street house in 1907, and bought the Horrace W. Bennett house at 1304 Logan Street, a twenty-two-room mansion, later to be known as Chappell House. When the family returned from Europe that year, they moved into the Logan Street house.

Shortly thereafter, Chappell became the president of the Nevada-California Power Company and the Hydro-Electric Company which supplied power for Nevada and southern California.

During his years in Denver, Chappell became one of the most prominent business- men in the city as well as one of the wealthiest. In 1910, due to Mrs. Chappell's poor health and the nature of Chappell's business, they moved to California where Mrs. Chappell died in July of 1912. Following his wife's death, Chappell returned to Denver to live in his mansion on Logan Street and he invited his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. George Cranmer to live with him.

Chappell suffered two broken legs in January of 1916 in a fall on the ice near his home while on his way to his office in the Symes Building in downtown Denver. According to his obituary in the Denver Post, Chappell, in spite of his injuries, insisted that his business associates in the Nevada-California Electric Company be notified and a board of directors meeting was held at Chappell's hospital bedside only one hour after the accident.

Chappell never recovered from the injuries due to pneumonia which developed a short time later and he died at St. Luke's Hospital on 9 February 1916 at the age of seventy. The funeral was held at his Logan Street home and he was buried beside Mrs. Chappell in his family plot in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Chappell's children Delos, Jr. and Jean Chappell Cranmer, both of whom had a great interest in the arts, decided to donate the Logan Street house to the Denver Art Association in 1922 as a memorial to their parents. Chappell House served as the home for all major exhibitions of the Art Association in addition to the Museum School of Art, the Children's Museum and the Native American Arts Collection.

Jean Louise Chappell married George Cranmer in 1912 in California just shortly before her mother's death. Cranmer, a native Denverite, was the manager of Benjamin Stapleton's successful campaign for Mayor of Denver in 1935. After the election, Cranmer became Mayor Stapleton's Manager of Improvements and Parks. His accomplishments in that position were many in terms of the beautification of the city, the development of the Mountain Parks System, Stapleton Airport, and the expansion and improvement of the city's arterial street system.

After service in World War I, Delos Chappell, Jr. married Denverite, Edna James in 1921. They had two children, Pierre and Joan. Both the Chappells were actively involved in the theater. She acted in New York and in the Elitch Theatre Company.

He was active in the founding of the Central City Play Festival and in the production of plays in New York. The Chappells were divorced in 1939 and he married Janet Kirby Post in 1942. Chappell died in Bishop, California in 1949.
The architect of 1555 Race is believed to be Frank S. Snell. Since Snell was financially involved with this property and later became an architect, it appears likely that he designed this house and the one next door to the north, which is very similar in design.

Little is known about Snell other than the information found in the Denver City Directory. His occupation was listed in 1895 as real estate and he lived at 1044 York Street. In 1897, he was the manager of the Denver Brokerage and Construction Company and in 1898, he is listed as an architect with offices at 1617 Lawrence and resided at 820 Monroe Street.

Frank Snell was the son of a pioneer, George W. Snell, who came to Denver in June of 1859 by wagon train. The senior Snell was born in New York and died at the home of his son, Frank, at 3421 East Colfax in June of 1909 at the age of eighty. His obituary noted that he had explored all of Colorado during his lifetime here, taking two-month camping, hunting and fishing trips every summer to different parts of the state.

In 1902, the Denver Times, 6 April, ran an article about a scheme developed by Snell to build many residences at one time with all the materials purchased whole sale and thereby saved about $1,000 construction cost on each house. The article also attributed the design of the Perrenoud Apartments at East Seventeenth and Emerson Street to Snell.

The current owner, the Temple of Practical Christianity, has occupied the house since 1936, and in May 1941, they bought it from Charles S. Davis. Prior to occupancy by the Temple, the house was called Dorothy House from 1927 to 1935, probably after the owner at that time, Dorothy Minton. It is believed that the Dorothy House was some type of boarding or rooming house. In the 1933 Householder Directory, it is listed as a boarding house. Some of the church members believe it was for women boarders only.

The Temple of Practical Christianity, a religious group incorporated in August 1927, was founded by Ethel Chipperfield and she was the first minister. She married a well-known Denver chiropractor and active Mason, Fred J. Burkle, who became the second minister. On 22 July 1981, the Temple of Practical Christianity was reincorporated and is also known as Unity Temple of Practical Christianity and Unity Temple. The are currently in the process of affiliation with Unity School of Christianity of Lee's Summit, Missouri. Since 1936, the building has been used for worship services and as living quarters for the minister. The church group intends to retain ownership and continue this use. In a desire to preserve the house, they are seeking Denver Landmark designation and wish to have it listed in the National Register of Historic Places.