325 King St
Denver, CO, USA

National Register of Historic Places - William Norman Bowman House-Yamecila (Savio House;5DV 3364)

Statement of Significant:

The Bowman House meets National Register Criterion C for its architectural significance and its association with William Norman Bowman, a prominent Denver architect from 1910 1924. It is an unusual example of early 20th century Eclectic architecture with Colonial Revival features. The house is also significant under Criterion A for its history as a tuberculosis sanitorium when it was owned by the sisters of Saint Francis. Because of its religious ownership, Criterion Exception A has been used. The house is the only large residential building in the Barnum subdivision of the City and County of Denver. In 1878, P. T. Barnum of Barnum and Bailey Circus, purchased 760 acres in the area southwest of Denver. The first subdivision was formed in 1882 and was named for Barnum. Mr. Barnum envisioned the area as a development of luxury homes because of its location south and west of downtown and the splendid view of the mountains and the Platte valley. His involvement with the property was short lived and before any major development occurred, he transferred the property in 1884 to his daughter, Mrs. Helen M. Buchtel. The area did not develop according to Barnum's visions. The city failed to build viaducts and bridges across the tracks and the Platte River for easy access to the area and the major development of the city went to the east. It wasn't until 1908, when a streetcar line was built serving the area, that construction in the Platte subdivision began. Even then the large homes envisioned by Barnum never materialized. The Bowman House was the largest one ever built in the neighborhood.
The house has a formal symmetrical facade, two stories plus an attic and basement, brick exterior bearing walls and a stone foundation. The roof is hipped and covered with composition shingles. There are dormers on the east, north and south elevations with hipped and gable roofs. The bricks, deep red in color, are laid in a running bond. The structural frame consists of wood joist and wood rafters. The interior walls have wood framing with wood lath and plaster and the floors are oak.

The front east elevation has two octagonal two-story bays on each side of the front porch which rise above the main walls and are topped with conical roofs that extend above the main roof. These bays, a predominant feature, are not usually found on traditional Colonial Revival residences. The main entry, centered on the east facade that faces King Street, is reached by a flight of concrete steps leading to the front porch. The flat roofed porch has Doric columns paired with brick piers on each side of the broad porch entrance. The wide front door has two vertical glass panes and is flanked by multi-pane sidelights, a Colonial Revival feature. On the north side, there is a porte-cochere with a low hipped roof supported by brick piers. In the center of the west rear is a five-sided, two-story bay with a low conical roof. The primary windows throughout the house are double hung, one-over-one wood sash with stone sills. The second story windows have 9 panes in the upper sash. There are small rectangular stained-glass windows in the front wall of the living room and dining room. The dormer windows are multi-pane casements. The front and north dormers have diamond shaped panes.
The interior has been minimally remodeled to serve as administrative and office space for Savio House. The first-floor entry hall is directly off the porch. To the north is the original living room now being used as a waiting and lounge area.
This unaltered room is open to the entry hall but separated from it by two wooden columns at each side. There is a fireplace on the west wall with a wood mantel and original small ceramic tiles.
To the south of the entry hall is the original dining area now used as a reception and office area. Sliding oak doors separate this area from the entry. On the west wall is an elaborate and unaltered built-in buffet and China cabinet of oak with glass pane doors. The woodwork in the living room, dining room and front entry hall has the original hand-graining. The light fixtures on the first floor are period reproductions. The original kitchen in the southwest corner of the first floor was remodeled into office space sometime after 1966. Off the entry hall toward the rear of the house is a back hallway with a stairway to the second floor on the south and the entrance to the chapel addition on the north. The stairway has wood balusters and a broad landing with a built-in window seat and a window looking to the south at the dog-leg in the stairs.
On the second floor the bedrooms, now used as offices, are otherwise unaltered and contain the original woodwork. The house has been refurbished in the spirit of the original design of the house which has consisted mainly of painting and new carpet with no structural changes.

In 1924, the sisters of St. Francis purchased the house from the Bowmans and established Mt. Alverna Convent and St. Francis Sanitorium to care for tubercular nuns. They did some initial remodeling to meet their needs such as enlarging the kitchen and remodeling the back hall area in the northwest corner of the house into a small chapel. In 1925, the two-story cottage at the south rear of the main house was stuccoed and re-roofed and the entire site was landscaped. In 1927 the sisters had Bowman design a new chapel which was constructed at the northwest corner of the house and connected by a short hallway from the main house. They also needed more rooms to house the sick nuns under their care and Bowman also designed a U-shaped sanitorium building west of the chapel connected by a short hallway. The sanitorium contained 11 rooms, all with hot and cold water and several rooms had private baths.

The chapel, designed in the colonial style, is a small rectangular, one-story building of red brick which matches the main house. The short hallway connection to the house is also one story and of red brick with a single one-over-one wood sash window. The roof of the chapel is hipped with a steep pitch and there is a triangular brick parapet centered over the north front entrance. The double door entrance has a fan light above and is flanked by narrow vertical multi-pane windows. Originally the doors into the chapel had panes of colored glass similar to a French door, but these doors were replaced after 1966 with solid wood doors. At the south rear of the chapel is a small rectangular wing with a sloping roof and round arched entrance which served as a dressing room for the priest. The room is now used for storage. The interior of the chapel has been remodeled into a large conference room used for family counseling. The chapel furnishings have been removed and the walls covered with wood paneling.