History

When Senator and Mrs. Lawrence C. Phipps built the Phipps Estate between 1931 and 1933, to provide business and jobs during the that Depression-ridden period, another page was written in the history of a remarkable family. The elegant Georgian mansion, spacious Tudor and Mediterranean style tennis pavilion, and historically designed gardens and grounds combine to form what many believe is the region's premier estate.

Lawrence Cowle Phipps was born in Amwell, Pennsylvania, graduated from high school in Pittsburgh where his father, William H., a minister, had a small parish, and then went to work in his Uncle Henry Phipps' steel mill. From a dollar a day job working the night shift, he progressed through that company's ranks. After its merger with Carnegie Steel, he became vice president and treasurer. Following the purchase of the Carnegie interests by United States Steel in 1901, Phipps, a multi-millionaire in his mid-thirties, moved to Colorado. He wanted to live and raise children in Denver. Local historians record that he did not want to make more money, but was determined to invest what he had "in health and happiness." What he was to accomplish as a United States Senator, community leader, and philanthropist gives testimony to that determination.

Mrs. Phipps, the former Margaret Rogers, was the daughter of Judge and Mrs. Platt Rogers. Her father served as mayor of Denver from 1891 to 1893 and earlier as a municipal court judge. After graduating in 1909 from Wells College in Aurora, New York, she toured Germany and Russia with her father and studied piano under a German professor. Her love of music and the arts served as a focal point for Mrs. Phipps' many cultural and philanthropic activities. She played a major part in the founding of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and was very active with the University of Denver, the Central City Opera House Association, the Denver Museum of Natural History, and the St. John's Cathedral choir. She also assisted many young artists and other young people seeking college educations.

Architects Fisher and Fisher designed the Phipps home, called by their colleagues a Colorado masterpiece. The grounds were designed by Annette Hoyt Flanders. The mansion was built by Platt Rogers, Jr., brother of Mrs. Phipps. The Phipps Tennis Pavilion, today refurbished for meetings and receptions, was the first indoor tennis court built west of the Mississippi. Mrs. Phipps gave the tennis pavilion to the University of Denver in 1960 and, with the concurrence of her two sons, Gerald and Allen, the mansion in 1964. The Phipps home has been designated by the University as the Margaret Rogers Phipps House, the estate is known as the Lawrence C. Phipps Memorial Conference Center.

The Georgian Mansion has 33,123 square feet of floor space, which includes 14 rooms on the first floor and seven bedrooms with dressing rooms, suites and baths and a sitting room on the second floor. Something of special interest can be said about each of the rooms found in this showplace of elegance. While it was built largely from local products, the house contains antiques, art work, tapestries, sculpture and rare books from around the world.

The Tennis Pavilion with its comfortable living room, gallery, and spacious court are today used for a diversity of corporate and wedding activities. The court, with its 55 foot high glass ceiling, in concert with the intimate outside courtyard, can accommodate events with a "garden party" ambience regardless of the time of year.