The Buchtel Bungalow Is For Sale? Say It Ain't So, Joe!

I was driving down East Evans Avenue here in Denver the other day and noticed a "for sale" sign in front of the Buchtel Bungalow, which has been part of the University of Denver since 1927. Yesterday, I made a point to stop and take some photos of it, and in the process met someone waiting to do an inspection of the place for a potential buyer. The home was owned by Henry Buchtel, DU's 3rd chancellor, and built in 1906. As chancellor, Buchtel oversaw the funding of 5 new buildings, saw enrollment double under his tenure, and set DU on the path to becoming a major university. He was also the 13th governor of Colorado and a Methodist minister. His daughter gave the house to DU in 1927, and it has served a number of purposes over the years, including as an event space. When I was the Finance Manager for the DU Bookstore, we once had our holiday party there, and I saw that it was a very nice place indeed.

Back in 2007, Buchtel Bungalow underwent a major renovation and became the official residence of the chancellor. Robert Coombe, the chancellor at the time (and who also, by the way, approved the outsourcing of the DU Bookstore to Follett Higher Education Group in 2012, resulting in the layoff of the entire staff) waxed poetic about how historical the place was, and how now it would be preserved instead of being sold and torn down to make way for a new structure. Buchtel House is located in the University Park neighborhood, just to the east of DU, parts of which were recently made into an historic district by the City of Denver over DU's strong objection. Evidently, due to declining enrollment, DU wanted to sell the house, and it would not bring top dollar if a buyer couldn't level it and build a suitable mansion on the property. And if it is in an historic district, the chances of demolition are slim. So much for caring about its historic past. DU did the same thing years ago when they sold the Phipps Mansion, built in 1933 and located in the Belcaro neighborhood of Denver. It was given to DU in 1964 and became the Phipps Memorial Conference Center. That is where the Summit of the Eight Conference took place back in 1997. Every year, a holiday party would be thrown for DU staff and faculty in the mansion's Tennis Pavilion, and afterwards, everyone who wanted to could walk up to the mansion and take a self-guided tour. The chairs in the conference room, I noted at the time, were marked with plaques telling who sat where at that summit (Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, Tony Blair, etc.) DU sold the place in 2010, no doubt for big bucks. And there is also no doubt what DU's priorities are, if there ever was.