Tucked between modern skyscrapers in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood, a historic 1880s mansion has been renovated into a 16-room boutique hotel. The restoration represents the westward expansion of Urban Cowboy (urbancowboy.com), known for reimagining historic spaces into boutique hotels with an irreverent rustic romantic vibe—from a Victorian mansion in Nashville to a lodge in the Catskills.
No two rooms inside Urban Cowboy Denver are alike. PHOTO BY BEN FITCHETT
The historic mansion’s first-floor parlours retained original flourishes like wood moldings and ornately carved fireplaces PHOTO BY BEN FITCHETT
The hotel’s 16 suites, however, needed a head-to-toe patternobsessed overhaul. PHOTO BY BEN FITCHETT
The penthouse suite features his-and-her tubs staged in the mansion’s tower. PHOTO BY BEN FITCHETT
In the late 1880s, prominent Denver architect E. F. Edbrooke was commissioned to build a home at 1665 Grant Street on Millionaire’s Row for silk hat tycoon George Schleier. Its Queen Anne facade and onion-shaped cupola were protected by a preservation easement with Historic Denver (the mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places), but the mansion’s interior had been renovated to accommodate lawyer’s offices. Fortunately, much of the original architectural flourishes—oak floors with geometric parquet borders, elaborate plaster moldings and ornate hand-carved oak fireplaces—remained intact.
Urban Cowboy founders Lyon Porter and Jersey Banks partnered with GBX Group and Historic Denver on the project. “We left anything historical,” Porter says. Three bays on the first floor were well-preserved, but the upstairs had been renovated. “It was all 1980s dropped-panel ceilings and three layers of Formica over the original flooring.”
For the furnishings and decor, the couple filled the mansion with found objects and hand-picked antiques from places like Roundtop in Texas and South Broadway in Denver. “We’ve got Louis XIII poofs and settees from Sweden. I buy all these pieces, and I never know where I’m going to put anything. I’m like a collage artist.” Porter says he’s obsessed with patterns. Pendelton blankets cover the beds, a collection of hand-pasted wallpaper by Clint Van Gemert of Printsburgh adorns each suite and reupholstered midcentury chairs sit in front of fireplaces. The centerpiece of each suite: Instagrammable handmade copper soaking tubs. “We’re giving people an elemental thing to do,” Porter says. “You’re on vacation. Drink a glass of wine. Take a bath. Fall in love.”
“We’re giving people an elemental thing to do. You’re on vacation. Drink a glass of wine. Take a bath. Fall in love.“–LYON PORTER
The honeymoon penthouse suite features side-by-side soaking tubs inside the mansion’s tower and a shimmering gold wallpaper Porter designed to catch light filtering through the existing stained-glass windows.
Located in the adjacent two-story carriage house, Urban Cowboy Public House is a nod to Denver’s 1880s saloons, featuring Urban Cowboy’s curated collection of craft cocktails and wood-fired pizza from Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn. That space, too, has been completely overhauled by the couple to match the mansion’s aesthetic. “We wanted you to feel like it always looked this way,” Porter says.
The 1880s landmark designed by E. F. Edbrooke has endured as skyscrapers have risen around it. PHOTO BY BEN FITCHETT
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