Bowles House Museum

The Bowles House in Westminster, Colorado is a brick Italianate house built in 1871. It was home of Edward Bruce Bowles, who is largely credited for bringing the Colorado & Southern Railroad in the area, and his wife nee Mahalia Elizabeth Longan. Bowles came from Missouri to the Colorado Territory at age 17. In 1871, at about 24 years of age he married Mahalia, and they homesteaded the land on which the house stands. Bowles was the second pioneer settler in the area, after Pleasant DeSpain who arrived in 1870 and whose farm was to the north. They built a frame homestead cabin (no longer extant) and then began building the brick house, completing it in 1876. The house was unusual for a rural ranch setting, as it included stylish and costly features: rounded windows, decorative brackets under the eaves, rooftop cresting, bargeboards on the gables, and an elaborate front porch. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It was deemed architecturally significant as one of the earliest examples of Italianate style in Westminster and for its Italianate detailing, as well as being historically significant for its association with settlement of the area. The house is owned and operated as a historic house museum by the Westminster Historical Society.