==Boulder History Museum==
The Boulder History Museum is located in Boulder, CO. The museum is housed in the Harbeck Burgheim House. The museum features two exhibits for the public, a permanent exhibit located on the second floor, depicting Boulder history from its inception to more modern times. (1920's) The first floor serves as the space for temporary or traveling exhibits. Past exhibits have included a rock and roll exhibit, "Let's Play!", "Growing Seasons", and "Attic to Artifact".

General Information

The Boulder History Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday.

1206 Euclid St.
Boulder, CO 80302
303-449-3464

Hours of operation Tuesday-Friday: 10:00 AM- 5:00 PM
Saturday/Sunday: 12:00PM- 4:00 PM
Mondays: Closed

Admission Prices
Adults $5
Seniors $3
Children/Students $2
Children under 5 & Museum Members Free

Exhibits

The museum features two exhibits, a temporary 3-6 month exhibit and the permenant exhibit, Story Makers. Currently, the temporary exhibit features a large collection of recent donations from Boulder County Residents. Special items of interest include: Smith's Shoe Company, Wild Oats items, and clothing from the 70's.

House

Virginia and Lee McAlester, authors of A Field Guide to America's Historic Neighborhoods and Museum housses, state that "two-story cube-shaped houses (such as the Harbeck-Bergheim House) were so popular early in the 20th century that they have been given the special name 'American four-squares' or known locally as Denver Squares." Unfortunately, all records of the home's construction including the names of the architects and the builder along with the original plans were lost in the courthouse fire in 1932.

The two-story stone mansion constains 12 rooms, two baths, a full attic and basement. The porch across the front of the house features Grecian Ionic columns supporting the prtico that, in turn, supports the delicately shaped balustrade. Dentils form the molding under the cornices and dormers with oval "eye" windows beneath the hipped roofling grace three facades of the house.

One enters the Museum through a large Dutch-style front door, flanked by leading glass panels, into a spacious foyer. Visitors note the grand stairway featuring columns of hand-carved oak and fraceful banisters leading up two landings to a dramatic 4'X9' Tiffany style window in a distincitve art nouveau design of leaves and flowers; pink, brown, green and gold glass create a rainbow of colors in the late afternoon sun. The foyer fireplace is set with Italian tile, lined with brass and topped with a hand-carved mantel. The entry way also features a brass chandelier, window seats, the original radiators and a center hallway leading to the back of the house. Wood floors and decorative cornices are seen throughout.

To the left fo the foyer through double pocket doors was the living room in the northeast corner of the house. A large bay window provides a view to the north. On the east wall is the fireplace, similar in style and proportions to the one in the foyer. Early photos of the house show that the two high windows flanking the fireplace to allow for morning sunlight did not exist and were most likely added by the Bergheims at a much later date. The living room leads to hte dining room, the center room on the east side of the house. It has a bay window for morning light and a large built in buffet on the south wall with leaded glass cupboard doors that are all fitted for keys. From the dining room guests could pass into the hallway or through the rear door to the back hall. What is now the downstairs bathroom is thought to have been the butler's pantry/laundry room during the harbeck's tenure in the house. Beyond the bathroom was the kitchen (now the Museum's bookstore) and an adjoining small back entrance hall, probably added by the Bergheims, which leads to the outside and the view of the Beach Park playground.

The two small rooms on the west side of the house, currently used as an office and a soon to be Hands-on History

Harbeck Bergheim

The Harbeck Bergheim house was built in 1899 for J.H. Harbeck and his wife, Katherine Ardell Hammell Harbeck of New York City. They moved into the house in the summer of 1900. Mr. Harbeck was a well-known figure on Wall Street and owned a large dry goods business with a fleet of 20 ships to transport his merchandise to and from New York City. He and his wife had spent previous summers in Boulder, arriving late in the spring and leaving in the fall for Mexico. Because they enjoyed the city so much they decided to build a summer home in Boulder. In the fall of 1910 as the Harbecks prepared to leave for New York City and a visit to Europe, they ordered that, if they did not return, the house was not to be occupied for 20 years. This was meant to protect the nearby graves of their pet dogs, Beauty, Jim, and Rover, to whom they were devoted and who had been accorded funeral services and casket burials. On November 9th of that year J.H. Harbeck died of pneumonia. Thereafter, Mrs. Harbeck lived at the Plaza Hotel in New York City where she died in 1930 of injuries sustained in a revolving door accident. In her will she gave $50,000 to the Boulder Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals which today is believed to be the Boulder Humane Society.


From 1931 to 1937 the house changed hands several times following Mrs. Harbeck's death. In 1937 William Beach bought the land surrounding the house and presented it to the city as a park. Then, in 1939, Mr. and Mrs. Milton Bergheim, who owned a clothing store on Pearl Street, purchased the house. The family occupied the house for the next thirty years until 1969 when it was sold to the City of Boulder. The city used the house for a variety of community activites, such as, ballroom dance lessons, cooking classes, weddings, and receptions. In 1985 the Boulder Historical Society moved into the house, added the sprinkling system and other upgrades and, in 1987m opened the Boulder History Museum to the public.