Guide Line Review


Patterson Historic Inn Bed & Breakfast


The Patterson Inn building was known as the Croke-Patterson-Campbell House in its earlier years.  We met in the Pub on the lower level.  We used this entrance which leads right into the pub and it is also the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) entrance to the inn.  The inn has an elevator from this level up to the second floor, however, the stairs must be used to get to the third floor.  The Patterson Inn does have handicapped access.  Parking is limited around the inn and parking is street parking.  There are seven reserved parking spaces for guests with cars.  There is a passenger loading zone in the front.  A small (20 PAX) motor coach could unload.  The streets are very narrow in this area – a coach can easily go on 11th Avenue but the side streets are narrow.  There is a coat rack on this level but restrooms are on the first floor just inside the front door of the inn and the event center also has restrooms.

The Inn has been open just about two years and the renovations took 18 months.  The inn is owned by Brian and Gloria Higgins (a mother and son combination).  Rooms are $189 - $315/night, depending on the season and the date.  Tours of the inn are available for $10/person on the last Wednesday of each month at 4 pm.  Please call to make reservations.

The Innkeeper and tour guide was a RMGA member, Tom Jensen.  He explained the duties of an as Innkeeper which basically are anything that needs to be done: if he is on the morning shift, he gets to make breakfast for the guests, then clean up the kitchen and prepare the breakfast for the following day.  The Innkeeper on the evening shift, may be the host and check in guests, host in the pub for a wine hour, inform guests about the house.  Usually there is just one Innkeeper on duty at a time, plus the housekeeper during the day and the General Manager.

The house has nine bedrooms, all nine have names that play on Denver’s folklore, i.e., there is the DaVinci Room named for Tom Brown’s book “The DaVinci Code”; the Antoinette Room named for Marie Antoinette.  On the third floor is the Cheshire Suite and there are several reminders of “Alice in Wonderland” in the suite which has two bedrooms.  There are also the Prague and the Number 9 rooms on the third floor.  On the second floor are four bedrooms: the Library (Col. Mustard did it with a knife in the Library from the board game Clue), Gustav (movie Ratatouille), Royale (Casino Royale) and Biltmore.  All beds are either king or queen making the inn similar to a boutique hotel.  Since only one room was occupied, we were able to look through eight of the rooms.  All of the rooms have private baths and all are very modern though the décor is in keeping with the history of the building.

Our guide then gave us a brief history of the Patterson Inn.  He began with a description of the photos in the pub and pointed out the Patterson’s and their children and grandchildren.  The family photo was taken in the library (one of the current bedrooms) in 1893.  He explained that the pub was once the billiard room and also was used as a ballroom.  The bar in the pub is from the Burnsley Hotel nearby on Grant Street, which was obtained was turned into condominiums.  This is only about half of the bar, the other half is the bar in the Event Center.

The house was built in 1891 for the Croke’s and cost approximately $18,000 at first though the finished house actually cost between $40,000 and $50,000.  Thomas Croke was a schoolteacher in the 1870s, was hired as a clerk at the Daniels & Fisher department store and then ran the carpet department.  With the money he saved, he bought land in Northglenn and owned 3,500 acres.  Thomas loved agriculture and brought out crops that grew well in the Midwest and adapted them to Colorado’s climate.  He built lakes and reservoirs.

Thomas Croke owned the house for two years.  He had two children (his first wife died) his mother and his sister.  He remarried and had seven more children.  Then he traded the house fully furnished and carpeted to Tom Patterson for 1,400 acres of land.  Patterson’s wife and children were in Boston when he made this trade and he hoped that they would like it.

Tom Patterson was an attorney and a Democrat.  When he came here he thought it would be a good place for a Democrat since Colorado was definitely Republican.  (Mr. Patterson was Irish Catholic as were the Mullen’s and JJ Brown and Margaret Tobin Brown).  Mr. Patterson favored regulating the railroad and he favored Colorado becoming a state.  He made Colorado a two-party state.  Patterson was a delegate to the US Congress when Colorado was still a territory to foster Colorado becoming a state.  When Colorado became a state on August 1, 1876, the state had an election for someone to finish out the 44th Congressional term and to be part of the 45th Congress.  Mr. Patterson did not get this post.  However, Congress required Colorado to split the terms, one for the 44th and one for the 45th Congress. Mr. Patterson was elected US Senator.

Patterson also owned the Rocky Mountain News.  Patterson thought that water and the tramway lines should be owned by the people.  He had a run-in with Bonfils and Tammen (owners of the Denver Post) because he thought the Post was “yellow” journalism and that they stretched the truth and printed items that were patently untruths.  Bonfils accosted Patterson one day as he walked to work and beat him with his cane.  Patterson sued him and won.  Bonfils were fined $50,000.

As an attorney, Patterson often was paid in real estate instead of cash.  When he died, his estate was valued at $1.6 million, $1.1 million of which was in real estate.  Patterson believed in populist theory (today might be a Libertarian).  When he died, the Governor closed all state offices to honor him.

Patterson and his wife, Mary Grafton, had five children, only three lived to be adults and only one, Margaret, had a family of her own.  Margaret is in several of the family photos in the house.  An old apartment house at 17th Street and Ogden was owned by Patterson and named the Grafton after his wife’s maiden name.

Patterson’s daughter Margaret married into the Campbell family, hence the third name.  The Campbell’s lived in the house for several years and then “down-sized” to the Waring house on the grounds of the Botanic Gardens.

Denver’s folklore has stories of many paranormal happenings in the house.  There is talk of Mr. Patterson walking in the courtyard between the house and the carriage house.  When the house was used as an office building, the copiers and typewriters would turn themselves off.  During the remodeling, tools, equipment and work uncompleted would be disturbed.  They thought that homeless people somehow got into the house, so they purchased three Doberman Pinscher dogs to guard the house.  The next morning when the workers came in they found one dog on the driveway and the 3rd floor window broken, the second dog was also dead and the third was cowering in the basement.  The guide took us to the third floor to see the turret and to see the location where the dog either jumped through the window or was thrown out of the window of the turret on the third floor.

Sometime after the Campbell’s moved out, the Sudan family moved in.  Unfortunately, their baby died and so was buried in the cemetery.  The mother had mental problems and she went to the cemetery and dug up the baby and reburied it in the basement.  The mother later committed suicide – she used cyanide gas and died of suffocation.  She was on the second floor of the house and realized what she had done and tried to get to fresh air and climbed to the third floor where she died on the stairs.  Dr. Sudan was very highly thought of and had practices in Chicago, Fort Morgan and Denver.

Another resident was a child molester and kidnapped children and then murdered them and hung their bodies in the trees around the house.

We then toured the house, going up the stairs from the pub to the entry hall.  The woodwork in the entry and the stairwell is all golden oak.  Some of the flooring in the dining room required repair from water damage.  There are six fireplaces in the house but they do not work.  The house has 14,000 square feet and is modeled on a French chateau – Chateau d’Azay-le-Rideau with its Mansard roof and turrets.  The stained glass windows in the entry and up the stairwell were stolen and so there is plain glass for the moment.  Soon they will be replaced with stained glass windows that will come from the company that made the original stained glass windows for the house.

We went into what is now the reception room which was probably the butler’s pantry and service room.  The original kitchen was in the carriage house.  On the wall are framed artifacts that were found inside the house during the renovation.  One of the items is a “Sheik” (condom).

We then walked through the modern kitchen and pantry into the Event Center which will accommodate 45 for a sit-down meal or 75 for a stand-up event.

The website for the inn is www.pattersoninn.com and more information can be requested at info@pattersoninn.com.

--- Nancy Brueggeman 


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WHAT: RMGA February Program - PATTERSON HISTORIC INN BED & BREAKFAST


WHEN: February 9, 2015


WHERE: Patterson Inn, 420 East 11th Avenue (corner of 11th Avenue & Pennsylvania), Denver, CO  80203

PROGRAM:  Tour of the historic mansion by Tom Jensen, Innkeeper.  Tour the Croke-Patterson-Campbell Mansion, now the Patterson Inn Bed and Breakfast.  This 14,000 square foot Chateauesque style mansion was home to three Colorado State Senators; one owned the Rocky Mountain News and served in the U.S. Congress.  According to local folklore, there are mysterious “others” who now occupy the building!

You’ll see original stained glass windows and some of the six fireplaces.  Original carved oak trim moldings and banisters embellish the first floor’s grand stairway.  The rooms that are open for touring will depend on Inn occupancy.  Each of nine luxurious suites, are designed around its own unique theme.  Furnishings in each room reflect the personality of that room, as well as the history and elegance of the building.

Patterson Historic Inn Bed & Breakfast