1651 Emerson St
Denver, CO, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Haskell House (5DV1702;See Also:Swallow Hill Historic District)

Statement of Significant:

The Haskell House is historically significant in being the residence most associated with the Reverend Thomas N. Haskell, founder of Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

Robert G. Balcomb and Eugene R. Rice, the architects of the home, were popular and prolific designers during Denver's boom period of the late 1880s and early 1890s. While not as original in style as some Denver architects, they were masters at interpreting and pleasing the taste of their clients. They built several homes for the developer John S. Flower, including 1600 Emerson and Flower's family home at 1618 Ogden, both on the National Register. The house at 1651 Emerson perhaps reflects the architects' knowledge of William Lang's several townhouses, in the vicinity, but they have decorated the structure in their own distinctive style.

The Reverend Thomas Nelson Haskell takes his place in Colorado history as the founder of Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Opened in 1875, it is one of the oldest schools of higher learning in the Rocky Mountain region. The Reverend Haskell arrived in Denver in 1873 after an already full career as both a Congregational and Presbyterian minister to congregations in Washington and Boston and as a professor of logic, literature and political science at the University of Wisconsin. His move to Denver was occasioned by the poor health of his daughter Florence, who died of tuberculosis soon after the family arrived. A month after her death Reverend Haskell traveled to a Congregational conference in Boulder where he secured the sanction of that body to found a college in her memory. The offer of land by General William Jackson Palmer made Colorado Springs the site of the college.

Reverend Haskell as a pastor in the 1850s and '60s spent much of his time on the cause to abolish slavery. During his time in Boston he met and married Ann Eliza Edwards, daughter of Justin Edwards, president of Andover Theological Seminary. During their courtship she was secretary to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Work for the abolitionist cause broke the health of the reverend. In the Colorado climate he lived to be eighty, dying in 1906, but although well-known in political and religious circles never occupied an active ministry in Denver because of his health. He spent his years here giving lectures, sermons, and writing books on Colorado and United States history. In 1891 he was chaplain for the Colorado senate.

Reverend Haskell and his family moved into the home at 1651 Emerson in 1894. His widow and two daughters continued to live there after his death. Mrs. Haskell remained in the home until her death at ninety-six in 1921. The two daughters--Annie, who was a school teacher for many years, and Mary, who was secretary to the principal at old East High School and then East High librarian until her retirement--both lived into their eighties and occupied 1651 Emerson until their deaths. Mary who died in 1959, gave the home to Colorado College in her will. For the next twenty years the home was connected by a passageway to 1647 Emerson and rented as apartments. It has been restored to its original state by the present owner.
John S. Flower began his career in Denver in 1880 as a newspaper reporter, but after 1886 he found that his true vocation was real estate development. Over the years that followed he and members of his firm were responsible for transactions that resulted in the building of some of the most important business blocks and some of the finest residences in town. He was president of the Denver Real Estate Commission, founded the Colorado Realty Association, and served as first president of the Denver Planning Commission. A close friend of Mayor Robert W. Speer, the man who is given the most credit for the attractive elements in the Denver landscape, Flower had a vital role in the conception and construction of these improvements. It was at his instigation that the Pioneer Monument at Civic Center was erected, and he also led the fight for a civic auditorium.

There is an unconfirmed story that this home was built in the townhouse style at the urging of John Flower's wife who was a native of the East Coast and familiar with this typical Eastern form of housing.

It was Haskell who, as leader of a group of Congregationalists ministers in Boulder, is credited with founding the college. As was stated in his obituary appearing in the Rocky Mountain News (August 10, 1906): "Mr. Haskell was 80 years old, and is best known in this state as the founder of Colorado college at Colorado Springs. He had been a prominent figure in church and educational life in Colorado ever since his arrival in 1873....As a memorial tribute to her [his daughter, Florence Edwards Haskell] her father founded Colorado college January 21, 1876."

Haskell is known to have lived at 1643 Sherman in Denver from 1874 to about the time he and his family moved to 1651 Emerson. The house on Sherman has since been razed and the property is now a parking lot. Therefore, the house on Emerson is the surviving house most associated with Haskell.