Highlands Ranch Mansion

The Highlands Ranch Mansion is a historic property in Colorado. History The Mansion was built over a number of years. Samuel Allen Long homesteaded the property, building a small stone house on the far east side of today's mansion, which he called Rotherwood after a favorite childhood farm. John W. Springer, a wealthy man with ties to politics, banking, and law, owned the ranch from 1897 to 1913. He sold the Mansion to his father-in-law, Col. William Hughes, who renamed the property "Sunland Ranch". Springer's daughter, Annie Clifton Springer Hughes, inherited the home after Col. Hughes passed in July 1918. It is unknown how much of the mansion the Springer/Hughes family built, but photos from the 1920s indicate that the footprint of the current building existed by 1926. Waite Phillips purchased Sunland Ranch from Annie Springer and her husband Lafayette Hughes (no relation to Colonel William Hughes) in 1920 and used it as a breeding location for high grade horses and cattle. He consolidated the ranch with other nearby land purchases to create a prodigious spread called Phillips Highland Ranch (no S) named after the Highland Hereford cattle he raised here. Waite conducted a renovation at the former Springer/Hughes home which included the addition of a western wing. A whimsical photograph taken of Waite's son, Elliott Waite “Chope,” sitting atop a pony in the middle of the living room reveals a unique view into family life at Phillips Highland Ranch. Waite owned the ranch for six years before commitments in Oklahoma forced him to sell it in 1926. In 1926, Frank E. Kistler purchased the Mansion renamed it the Diamond K Ranch, and began breeding operations that specialized in dairy and Angus cattle, sheep, chickens, and hogs. The Diamond K Ranch proved to be another successful venture for Frank. He, Florence, and their four children, quickly settled into Denver's high society scene, rubbing elbows with the influential upper class. In 1929, Kistler remarried a beautiful widow named Leanna Antonides. They transformed the exterior style from a gothic stone castle to a classic English Tudor, included a sprawling front patio, and added to the western wing. Beautiful interior additions included a breathtaking clock and personalized fireplace facade in the living room. The renovations occurred simultaneously with a troubling period in US history, the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and Frank was among the many that lost millions during this crippling era.