An Open-House Style Home Tour of Multiple Mid-Century Modern Homes in Denver’s Harvey Park Neighborhood, Including Cliff May Homes and a C.C. Ford Contemporary Ranch Home. Preceded by a Talk About the Design and History of Denver’s Cliff May Homes.
About the Tour
Homes will be open 10am-1pm. The tour will include Cliff May Homes, prefabricated houses designed by California designer Cliff May and architect Chris Choate, and a C.C. Ford Contemporary ranch home.
About the Talk (sold out)
Enhance your tour experience . . . Harvey Park historian Atom Stevens will be giving a special talk preceding the tour from 9-10am diving into detail about the history of the Cliff May Homes in Harvey Park, including a discussion about the unique characteristics of the Cliff May-Chris Choate Pre-Fabricated system. Visual aids will include vintage ads and brochures, photographs, scale models, and more!
The talk will take place at 9-10am at:
Bear Valley Library
5171 W Dartmouth Ave
Denver, CO 80236
Good to Know
- You have two ticket options for this event:
- $20 – 10am-1pm Open-House Home Tour Only
- $25 (sold out) – Enhance your experience with the 9am Talk and 10am Open-House Tour
- If you are participating in the talk, please check-in at the library before 9am. We plan to start the talk as close to 9am as possible to allow attendees that are participating in the tour as much time as possible to see the homes. You will receive a map of the house locations here. The talk will take place at:
- Bear Valley Library
5171 W Dartmouth Ave
Denver, CO 80236 - If you are not participating in the talk, the check-in location for the tour will be 2708 South Patton Court, Denver, CO 80236. At check in, you will receive a map of the house locations.
- Bear Valley Library
About the Cliff May Homes in Harvey Park
The Rocky Mountain Cliff May Homes are a collection of 170 modest post-and-beam homes, constructed using a patented pre-fabricated system designed by California home designer Cliff May (called the “father of the modern ranch home”) and architect Chris Choate.
Several thousand of these unique ranch homes were erected across the country, concentrated mostly in California. The homes in Denver’s Harvey Park are significant for being the largest such collection of Cliff May Homes outside of California — with many being in outstanding condition.
Characterized by their private outdoor living rooms created in combination with the house and high fences, Cliff May pre-fabs are characterized by post-and-beam construction, walls of glass creating a strong indoor-outdoor connection, open modular planning, and glass gables that make the low-slope roof appear to float over walls of the house.
Like most mid-century modern homes, the Cliff May Homes are best experienced inside and out to understand why these small homes are some of the most interesting and unique you’ll find in Denver. This is your chance to see it all by way of an open house tour of multiple homes in the neighborhood.
About the C.C. Ford Contemporary Ranch Homes
C.C. Ford was an active builder in the Denver area during the mid-1950s, known to have constructed homes in Sharon Park, Harvey Park, and Linda Park (in Edgewater). Ford built a variety of designs, including three “Contemporary” models featured in Harvey Park. These homes feature low-slope rooflines, brick exteriors, and an open floorplan, and represented a more conservative, FHA-friendly approach to modern design than those homes with vaulted ceilings and large expanses of glass.
Presented as part of Denver Modernism Week 2019 in partnership with:
Net ticket proceeds from this tour and talk will be donated to support Harvey Park Community Organization scholarships. Merit-based scholarships are awarded annually to graduating college-bound high school seniors living in Denver’s Harvey Park Neighborhood.
