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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
News
A house on the road to history By Barbara Ford Staff Writer
Even though the historic Bradford Perley House at Ken-Caryl Ranch is just a shell of its former self, the rough-hewn walls and elegant facade welcomed curious visitors for a tour on Saturday. Though the house stands in Ken-Caryl Ranch, it has strong ties to Conifer. A main thoroughfare from Denver to the mountains, the Denver, Bradford and Blue River Road began at the Bradford Perley House and ended at Bradford Junction, where the Yellow Barn is located. Carolyn Dieter of Conifer said the old homestead is a wonderful piece of history for both Ken-Caryl and Conifer. “They are lucky it’s still standing. Things like this are usually torn down or destroyed,” Dieter said. “Through this we get to learn the history of the residents and their connection to Conifer.” The tour, sponsored by the KenCaryl Ranch Historical Society, took 30 history buffs back more than 100 years with a lecture and guided tour of the house built, around 1860. Only the walls remain after a fire destroyed most of the structure in 1967. There’s no second floor, and the sky is the only roof. The structure is braced, and the once-crooked edges of the handlaid rocks have been straightened by concrete, thanks to restoration efforts by the historical society. Don Morris of Conifer perused the inside of the stony skeleton and stopped to read one of the many informational placards. “I have no idea something like this existed,” Morris said. “We’re fortunate to have a descendant of (the) Perleys here to tell us about the property.” Judy Perley Janicak of Castle Rock said that even though she never spent a night in the house, it’s still filled with memories. As a child, she was told stories of her great-grandparents and grandparents who lived in the house. The tale goes that the greatgrandparents restricted the kids to certain rooms when they visited for Sunday brunch.
“That’s the way it was back then. The kids respected their elders,” Janicak said. Janicak, 72, first saw the house around 1947, and it was already past its prime and in need of repair. Though the doors were locked and the windows intact, it wasn’t safe. “It was a horrible mess, and all the grounds around it were bad, and with what little money (the historical society) had, they’ve done a really nice job,” Janicak said. Janicak’s great-grandfather, James Adams Perley, purchased the house in 1895 from Robert Boyles Bradford. Perley was a descendent of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, and when Perley died in 1926, the property was sold to neighbor and newspaper magnate John C. Shaffer, who owned the Rocky Mountain News. Janicak also told how the apples in the now 150-year-old orchard were too tart to eat and had to be boiled before they could be made into pie. In winter, the upstairs was intolerably cold and forced the family to huddle for warmth on the main floor. When Janicak first saw the house, there were no other houses or trees obstructing the view of the Manor House built by Shaffer a few miles away. A bit of trivia: Shaffer named the area after his two sons, Kent and Carroll. Janicak said her connection to the Conifer area is not just through the Perley family. She’s also related to three founding families of the Conifer area: the Kuehsters, Pattersons and Huebners.
Building a history
Vi Polk, a board member-atlarge for the Conifer Historical Society and Museum and a longtime Conifer resident, said Saturday was her first time in one of the most historical areas of Jefferson County. “It’s incredible to see the foresight people had in a place that most people considered to be a desert,” Polk said. According to the Ken-Caryl Ranch Historical Society, Robert Boyles Bradford purchased the 160 acres and stone cabin in December 1859. In 1860 Bradford initiated the building of the Bradford Road, set along the Old Ute Trail,
Jerry Jones of the Ken-Caryl Ranch Historical Society, left, gives a tour of the 150-year-old apple orchard on the Bradford Perley property.
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Bradford Perley House at Ken-Caryl Ranch has historic ties to Conifer
Left: The Ken-Caryl Ranch Historical Society gave a lecture and opened the normally locked Bradford Perley House for tours on Saturday. The old milkhouse is in the foreground and the Bradford Perley House in the background. Above: A photo dated 1923 shows the house still intact. It burned in 1967. Photos by Barbara Ford | The Times
which stretched from the house to Tarryall, Fairplay, Leadville and Breckenridge. The home was used as a recruiting station during the Civil War. The ranch was typical for
the area: Cattle grazed the land among the red-rock outcroppings. Some of the famous guests who have stayed at the house include Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, humorist
Will Rogers and Princess Tatiana Constantinovna of Russia. In 1997, the house was designated a state historical site. In 2004-05, the house’s structural deficiencies were repaired and stabilized.