History of Grant Ranch

Researched and Written by Grant Ranch Resident and Outreach Committee Member Linda Sienkiewicz

How did Grant Ranch get its name?

The Grant Ranch Planned Community is a part of 1280 acres of land acquired to create Grant Ranch in about 1878. The rough original boundaries of Grant Ranch were West Bowles Avenue to West Belleview Avenue between South Sheridan Boulevard and South Kipling Street. The ranch was named after its original owner, James Benton Grant, who served one term (1883-1885) as Colorado’s third governor.  

The property retained its natural, rural character as an active, working ranch until residential development began in the mid-1990s. At its apex it covered 2300 acres. For almost 120 years milk cows, hogs, sheep, horses, wheat, corn and sugar beets were raised. Calves were showed at the National Western Stock Show and race horses raised on the ranch raced at Centennial Race Track, a regional race track located southwest of Belleview and Santa Fe Drive that was in operation from 1950-1983.   

The Grant Ranch property changed hands in 1995 when Grant’s descendants sold 496 acres to Simeon Residential Properties for $12 million.The Grant Ranch community was developed that year and residential construction of the existing unique planned community began the following year. The community features 130 acres of open space, 10 miles of trails, a community center, swimming pool, and tennis courts.

Why was Grant Ranch once nicknamed “the blue ghetto”?

When the community was built, the City of Denver had a general, city-wide residency requirement that all City employees must live within the city and county limits. The new planned community was in high demand among Denver city employees who wished to purchase the new construction. There were lines of eager buyers each time new homes were released for sale. Residents of Grant Ranch called their neighborhood the new "blue ghetto" because so many Denver police officers, who wore blue uniforms, firefighters and their families made up a good portion of the population.   In 2001, Denver voters repealed the residency requirement.

Why is the community of Grant Ranch located in three jurisdictions?

Governed by the Bowles Metropolitan District, the Grant Ranch planned community is located within the boundaries of either the City and County of Denver, Jefferson County or the City of Lakewood due to annexation disputes from 1972-78.

In 1978 a compromise was reached between Denver, Lakewood and Jefferson County that created a comprehensive plan but with confusing municipal boundaries. This plan governed the neighborhoods of Grant Ranch, Governor’s Ranch, Westridge, Glenbrook, Village West and Park West subdivisions.

There were many points of contention between the jurisdictions.. To illustrate, although there was need for only one school in the Grant Ranch community, both Denver County and Jefferson County taxpayers planned schools on their land which was across the street from each other on Grant Ranch Blvd.  Residents of Grant Ranch could choose to send their students to either school of their choice, regardless of the County their house was in.

In the 1980s a third strip of the ranch was annexed by the City of Lakewood, but within the boundaries of the Grant Ranch community.  As a result, some Grant Ranch amenities, such as the clubhouse and pool, are located in the City of Lakewood.

Reservoirs abound in this part of Metro Denver.

Where does Grant Ranch get its drinking water? 

Railroads arrived in Denver in 1870, increasing its population to almost 6,000 and highlighting the need for water. The Denver City Water Company, started by Col. James Archer, initiated the first domestic water service in 1872. Prior to this, wells were depended on for potable water and ditches created for irrigation.  

In 1889 a rival company called Citizen’s Water Company, purchased Marston Lake, a huge natural basin located south of Fort Logan Military base. Located 10 miles south of downtown Denver, the Marston Reservoir was a half mile long and a third mile wide.   This Marston basin was transformed into an enormous storage reservoir, connected with two water mains leading to Denver and a large filtration plant was created.

In 1894 the Denver City Water Company and the Citizen’s Water company ended their rivalry and merged into the Denver Union Water Company .  The embankments were raised 12 feet  in 1897 and the lake area increased to one square mile with a storage capacity of 2.5 billion gallons. One year later the embankments were raised another 16 feet to contain more than 8 billion gallons of water.  

As an integral link in the Denver water system, the Marston Water Treatment Plant at 6100 W. Quincy Avenue, was built in 1925

beside Marston Reservoir. This Reservoir is fed from the South Platte River and Strontia Springs Dam in Waterton Canyon.

The plant primarily treats water from the upper South Platte River, the upper Blue River (via the Roberts Tunnel), and Bear Creek.

It is one of 4  treatment plants that serve more than 1.5 million people, including the City and County of Denver and almost 40% of its suburbs. 

These Plants are:

(Marston  (1924) ( 250 million gallons per day,) 

Foothills Water Treatment Plant  (1983) (280 million gallons per day)

Northwater Treatment Plant (2024) (70 million gallons per day)

Replacing the Moffat Water Treatment Plant (1937) -to be phased out about  2027 185 million gallons per day).

Just who was this namesake Governor James B. Grant?

James Benton Grant was born to an affluent family in 1848 on a plantation in Russell County, Alabama. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, the adolescent James enlisted as a private in the 20th Alabama Light Artillery regiment in the Confederate Army.

James’ immediate family was financially destroyed after the Civil War. However, James Grant had a wealthy uncle (Judge James Grant, 1812-1891) who was a lawyer, judge, statesman, politician, and business leader in Davenport, Iowa. After the War ended this uncle paid for his nephew’s college education. (He educated a total of seventeen nephews and nieces). James attended what is now Iowa State University for two years, transferred to Cornell University from 1873 to 1874 to study civil engineering, and subsequently studied Metallurgy at Germany's Freiberg University of Mining. At the time this was one of the leading schools in the world for mineral engineering. James then worked for two years in the mines of Austria to gain practical mining experience before returning to the United States in about 1877.

This well trained Metallurgist then landed in Central City but quickly moved to join his uncle in the newly founded Colorado town of Leadville to start his career as a metallurgic engineer and smelting magnate. This uncle was just beginning the construction of a lead smelter in Leadville and Grant joined him as a partner in the project. In Leadville, the Grants completed construction of the Smelter stack. James was also involved in the construction of the 5 miles long Yak Tunnel, which facilitated deep mining. The business was established as the Grant Smelting Company . 

After the Grant Smelter was lost in a fire in 1882, Grant and his wife, the former Mary Matteson Goodell of a socially prominent Denver family, relocated the business to Denver to utilize the city’s economic and rail transportation advantages. Very likely by then, James Grant also had ambitions to run for Colorado Governor. 

He built a new smelter in 1892 and renamed the company the Omaha and Grant Smelter Company. At its completion this stack was the third largest smelter in the world and the tallest in the United States. The 353 feet tall smokestack stood for decades as one of the most recognizable landmarks in Denver's skyline until it was demolished in 1950. The site of this smelter was near where the Denver Coliseum and Stock Show Arena were later built. By 1900, Grant's Denver smelter had produced $130 million of gold, silver, and lead.  

In 1899, Grant's smelting business interests were merged with the newly founded American Smelting and Refining Company. 

Grant continued to earn profits from his investment in mining and ore-processing facilities across Colorado.

James Grant was inaugurated in 1883 as the youngest governor in the newly formed state of Colorado’s history.  He was 35 year old, and this record still stands today. Only territorial governor Edward McCook was elected younger. Grant was also the state's first Democratic Party governor.  

As governor, he worked to expand the state's mining commerce and industry. Many mines opened in the state's southwestern portion, particularly in the "Gunnison Country" area that was formerly a part of the Ute Indian reservation. Mining growth and other factors led to a prosperous economy during his governorship.

Grant also proposed the bill authorizing the construction of the Colorado State Capital. The Capital was built between 1886 and 1901-1903, with the building opening for use in November 1894. At this point Grant found he was no longer interested in politics and declined to seek reelection in the 1884 Colorado gubernatorial election.

Post-governorship

James B. Grant went on to became a major figure in finance and industry of the western United States. He and his wife Mary remained major society figures after he left office as governor.

In about 1878 James Grant purchased the land that would become Grant Ranch.  As a businessman Grant used the property for both agriculture and as a personal estate. He specifically intended to raise champion Hereford cattle.  The Grant family also used it for riding and hunting . 

Within the Denver community James B. Grant was involved in a variety of local endeavors. He speculated in real estate and water rights, purchasing a number of additional properties southwest of Denver, developing the water rights and selling some as irrigated farmland. 

He helped organize the creation of the Denver National Bank in 1901, serving tenures as a member of the board of directors and as its vice-president, 

He served as president of the Denver Board of Education (1892-97), and was a trustee to the University of Denver (1884-1904).In addition, he was involved in organizing the Colorado Scientific Society in 1882 to promote knowledge, the understanding of science, and its application to human needs.

Of particular note:, Grant was involved in the founding of the Colorado Women’s College, which merged with the University of Denver in 1982. Initially incorporated in 1888 (but opened in 1909) the college was formed to be the equivalent to Vassar College in terms of prestige and academic offerings.

Family Life

During his governorship, the couple had their first child, son Lester Eames in1884 and upon the birth of their second son James, Jr. in1888 their family was complete.  The immediate family of Governor Grant were Denver residents who never actually lived on Grant Ranch. 

In the 1880s, the Grants broke ground on a new grand residence in the neighborhood known as Quality Hill..  However, the Silver Panic of 1893 created great financial uncertainty in Denver which delayed completion of this home,  In 1902, the Grants finally completed construction and moved into an elaborate house of Neoclassical Revival design at 770 Pennsylvania Ave, nicknamed the “White House of Denver.”  (now known as the Grant-Humphreys Mansion).  The couple used this new home as their primary urban residence.and the mansion soon became a well established location for opulent Denver social events. Mary Grant, with a reputation as a “beautiful, witty, kind, fashionably dressed, and well mannered hostess’, entertained extensively at the mansion.  She firmly establishing herself as a civic leader in Denver for the next five decades.

James brought the southern traditions of hunting and shooting with him to his working ranch. He withdrew from business and the social scene after a heart attack later later in 1902, opting to spend much of the rest of his life concentrating on outdoor activities on his ranch that gave him pleasure, such as hunting and fishing. He died of heart disease in 1911 at the age of 63 yrs  and is buried at Denver's Fairmount Cemetery.

She played a key role in the 1894 founding the Woman's Club of Denver, which was modeled after the Chicago Woman's Club. This club was dedicated to advancing women's intellectual and communal pursuits.  Fiercely proud of her family heritage, she was part of the Daughters of the American Revolution and in 1896, a charter member of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Colorado.  In these roles .she orchestrated direct philanthropic endeavors, such as targeted charitable fundraising for goals such as assisting  to found a home for destitute children.

She died  30 years after her husband in 1941 at home in her residence in the Cherry Creek neighborhood at the age of 84.

After James’ death Mary Grant continued to live in the couple’s home for six more years ultimately selling the Grant mansion for $100,000 in 1917 to wealthy southern-born entrepreneur Albert E. Humphreys and his wife, Alice Boyd Humphreys. Albert was a risk-taker in business and made and lost two fortunes, in lumber and mining, He gained the nickname “King of the Wildcatters” for his lucrative discoveries of oil in Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Texas. Colorado, remembers him best  his interest in aviation and his role in opening Denver’s first airport.

The couple’s son Ira later willed the family home to the Colorado Historical Society in 1976. The mansion was in severe disrepair from years of neglect. Since gaining ownership the Historical Society has done major renovation.  The expansive surrounding yard was also willed to the city for use as a park, providing a picturesque setting for the mansion. History Colorado now uses the mansion as a wedding and special event venue and also conducts tours .

Sale of Grant Ranch

Also in 1917, Mary Grant sold Grant Ranch to Mary Baker, who built most of the ranch buildings in the 1920s. Many of those buildings remain, located within Raccoon Creek Golf Course just south of Grant Ranch on Bowles Ave. Upon Mary Baker’s death her son George inherited the ranch but lost it to foreclosure during the Great Depression.  

James Grant’s nephew Edwin “Ned” Hendrie Grant purchased the foreclosed land in 1933 and took up residence on the ranch in 1939 when he married Mary Belle McIntyre.

Both Edwin "Ned" Hendrie Grant (1908-1968) and Mary Belle McIntyre Grant (1915-1999) were Colorado natives who took pride in the face that their ancestors came to Colorado before it became a state in 1876. Mary Belle's grandfather, Henry Azile McIntyre, was part of the 1871 survey team that plotted the route of the railroad Gen. William Palmer built from Denver to Colorado Springs.

The “Ned” Grant Family's primary plan and desire for Grant Ranch was to preserve it as a single, undivided active working ranch, continuing the agricultural and equestrian legacy that had been in the family for five generations over nearly 120 years. 

The couple built a modern house and other buildings necessary for a working ranching operation in the 1940s and raised their five children, Newell M.  Patrick A. (1945), Susan Grant Raymond  Cecily Monarch Grant Pazker and Anne Grant Lowdermilk on the family's historical Grant Farm. This was an inter-generational home for the family from the 1930s through the 1970s.  

According to an interview of Ned’s son Newell in 2006, Ned was an outgoing, friendly man who genuinely enjoyed being around other people. (He) “ knew everybody, loved having a good time, loved horses, the ranch, skiing, the outdoors and, above all, loved the family,” Ned was community minded, with his greatest interest in the National Western Stock Show. He became a member of the group's board of directors in1943, served on the executive committee for 25 years and managed the Horse Show.

After Ned's death in 1968, his wife Mary Belle took over the management of the ranch and served at the National Western Stock Show on the Junior Sale and Coors Art Committees and the Board of Directors for almost 30 years. She authored the book “Wildly Speaking” while volunteering at the Denver Museum of Natural History, and was on the Board of the Denver Public Library and the Denver Zoo.

Ned and Mary Belle’s son Pat Grant was a state legislator 1985-92, who twice ran for state Governor and served as president and chief executive officer for the National Western Stock Show from 1991-2010. Pat Grant oversaw the most successful stock show in history. This was the 100th anniversary National Western show in 2006 that drew a record crowd of 750,000 visitors.

The entire Grant family used the land as an active, working ranch for over a century. The primary uses of the ranch included: 

Cattle Ranching: Champion Hereford cattle were bred and raised on the property.

Equestrian Pursuits: The ranch was enjoyed by the family for riding and other equestrian activities. One of their stallions even ran in the 1936 Kentucky Derby.

Military Support: During World War II, the ranch served as a breeding center for the U.S. Army Remount Service.

Food Production: The ranch was also used to produce food for nearby military bases, including Lowry Air Force Base, Fitzsimmons, and other customers in the Denver area. 

The Grant Family raised sugar beets, cattle, sheep, turkeys and horses. In addition, they controlled many irrigation reservoirs south of Marston Lake and built the state’s largest dairy operation , which produced 800 milk cows in addition to hogs to provide food for local markets .

Was the Grant Family involved in the creation of Centennial Race Track?

Ned Grant loved horses including a notable thoroughbred stallion called Granville, who ran in the 1936 Kentucky Derby.  He was involved in the creation of the local Centennial Race Track.

Colorado voters had approved the Parimutuel Act of 1948 of Colorado which legalized horse and greyhound racing with wagering.  The Centennial Race track opened at Belleview Ave near Santa Fe Drive on July 4, 1950 and held rounds of the AAA National Championship in 1951 and 1952. Competition was intense with other tracks, however, especially with Mile High Kennel Club in Commerce City. The public’s interest in horse racing waned over the years. In total, about 23,000 horse races were run by the time the Centennial track was closed on November 6, 1983.

The property was sold to the Talley Corporation and Denver developer Kenneth Good for $17.7 million -in 1981- more than one hundred times the original $160,000 sale  of the Hazard Ranch that proceeded it in1949. Building permits soon were obtained for an apartment, condo and office complex. Today the area is called the Riverwalk Community and includes over 500 homes.

At the Platte River on the southwest corner of South Santa Fe Drive and Belleview Ave, stands a large bronze statue of a farmer leading two draft horses. This piece was created by Nell and Mary Belle’s granddaughter Susan Grant Raymond, a professional artist of sculpted monumental bronze statues. It depicts a farmer leading two draft horses, and was inspired by morning horseback rides with her father “Bill” Grant on the Grant Farm.

As decades passed, the Grant family faced many challenges in managing their large ranch. 

These challenges included”

Urban Encroachment: As the Denver metropolitan area expanded, the ranch, located in the foothills southwest of the city, became surrounded by growing suburbs. This made it increasingly difficult to maintain a traditional, large-scale agricultural operation due to conflicts with residential neighbors. The property's value shifted from agricultural to residential bringing increased property taxes based on development potential rather than agricultural output, and general incompatibility between urban and rural land uses.

Estate and Succession Planning: Managing the land across five generations became a significant challenge. With numerous family members holding a stake in the property, complex issues regarding inheritance, taxes, and shared vision for the land's future likely arose, as is common with large family estates. 

There was a lack of clear succession planning .Transitioning the property to the next generation in a way that satisfied all heirs and managed tax implications likely posed a challenge.

Mary Belle Grant was the matriarch of the family at the time of the sale. She and her late husband, Ned  (who died in 1968), had managed several ranches across Colorado, including the Littleton property. They had raised their five children on Grant ranch (called “Grant Farm”by the family), working in its hay fields and irrigation systems. The sale of the land offered a way to distribute the value of the asset equitably among the heirs.

So ultimately, the Grant family's decision to sell the ranch was primarily driven by succession issues and the financial pressures and complexities of maintaining a large, multi-generational agricultural operation near a growing metropolitan area. The most significant challenge was the immense value of the land as real estate. By 1995 the family made a business decision to sell the land and reinvest the proceeds, thus ending the ranching chapter of their history. 

Selling to developers like Simeon Residential Properties for

$12 million was a significant financial opportunity that allowed the family to realize the land's full market potential. The original ranch was repurposed into the residential community known as Grant Ranch.

The Grant Ranch Legacy remains part of the “Master Plan”

After the Grant family decided that selling their ranch for development was the best choice, their champion Hereford cattle herd was dispersed or sold off. These high quality registered Hereford cattle were likely sold to other breeders or at auction. This is a common practice when a large, established ranch is disbanded or changes ownership in a way that is no longer compatible with livestock operations. The legacy of the Grant herd is remembered as part of Colorado’s agricultural history.

Their horses were also sold off or dispersed. As with the Hereford cattle, the shift from a working ranch operation to a residential development meant the family could no longer sustain the large-scale equestrian activities and breeding programs they had maintained for decades. Details about the specific dispersal sales are not publicly known but the general outcome was that the livestock were likely sold to other ranchers, breeders, or private buyers.

An18-hole Raccoon Creek Golf Course, built by architect Richard M. Phelps, ASGCA, was opened in 1983 on former ranch property located north of Bowles Ave and east of Wadsworth. Raccoon Creek is named for the stream that runs through the course. Golfers played through links that included views of original ranch farm buildings. The farmhouse was converted to a clubhouse and restaurant. In 2018 an enlarged and enhanced Farmhouse Restaurant and clubhouse was completed by new owners. Restaurant guests may now play games of corn-hole or bocce ball or sit by a fire pit with a beautiful view of the Rockies. 

An event venue called The Barn at Raccoon Creek was also created. This is Denver’s only historic barn venue for weddings and special events.

Over 60 years, the Grant Family ranched in Morgan, Douglas, Park, Jefferson and Routt counties. In 1967 Ned bought a 3,000-acre cattle ranch in Steamboat Springs, which was one of the largest in the Yampa Valley. This land was sold in 1999, split among the Colorado Division of Wildlife, Colorado State Parks, three private purchasers, and the Grant children. As oldest son Newell recounted, ”We kept the house and a small piece of land for the family, and we all use it.

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