An Adventure in Space! Move-In Ready Mid-Century Modern Pefection in Historic Arapaho Hills . . .
The First Home Built in this Historic Neighborhood is Also the Only One Designed by Edward B. Hawkins
Arapaho Hills is an “Adventure in Space” and this historically significant mid-century modern ranch home is the one you’ve been waiting for! Recently published in Atomic Ranch Magazine (Winter 2024), the Pfluger House was the first home built in the neighborhood, and the ONLY one designed by Edward B. Hawkins of Arapahoe Acres fame. A line of caring homeowners have preserved the architectural integrity of this home through the decades, which means that this is your chance to own a home that lives very close to what was intended by the architect!
The home emphasizes privacy from the street, creating a peaceful setting that maintains indoor-outdoor connection with walls of glass in the living & family rooms facing the private backyard. Warm, natural materials dominate through the living areas with wood ceilings, stone walls, wood paneling, stone floor in the entrance, and more – who says modernism is cold and soulless?! No one in this house – this is a house with heart and soul!
The foyer creates a sense of compression that expands into the living and dining rooms, which are open to each other to create a great room feel. Soaring ceilings make the room feel open and spacious, and yet it has a comfortable human-scaled feel that is enhanced by warm natural materials like wood ceilings and rhyolite stones walls (a little flair of Colorado geology inside and outside the home). A window wall connects to the private backyard and lets in plenty of natural light all day. The gas fireplace offers a visual focal point to the room and has an ultra-modern angled hearth.
The dining room table comes with the home, as it was a table originally located in the Arapaho Hills Sales office in the 1950s, and the sellers feel that the table belongs to this home. Also included with the home are the wood wall-mounted shelving units in the living room and foyer - they fit perfectly in both of these spaces! Other furniture in the home is negotiable.
The kitchen is screened from view with a pony wall that allows conversations and air to pass between rooms, without the cluttered view of a busy kitchen. The kitchen itself follows the original cabinet design, with new hand-built cabinets that better meet the needs to today’s kitchen - a clean and minimal look with pleasant pops of color on the upper cabinet doors. Pendant lights from the hight ceilings work together with under-cabinet lights to provide ample working illumination for the kitchen, especially when combined with natural light from the full-height kitchen window.
The family room is adjacent to the living room, and serves as a more informal space for watching television, practicing music, and fun recreation. The room can be separated from the living room through a sliding glass door and folding wood partition to allow for flexibility and for the home to have multiple uses at once. The family room opens directly to a cozy, peaceful, and welcoming covered patio through a window wall. Also adjacent to the family is an attached two-car garage.
The bedroom wing of the home is thoughtfully placed on a center hall plan, and careful planning buffers the bedrooms from the living areas. Two bedrooms share a full bath which also doubles as a centrally located laundry room. The bathroom features original cabinetry and fixtures, and has updated wall tile. A skylight brings in natural light during the day. The secondary bedrooms have ribbon windows that stretch from wall-to-wall to bring in lots of natural light. Privacy is achieved through a screen of manicured junipers in front of the windows.
The primary bedroom has an ensuite bath and a glass door directly to the backyard. The bathroom features vintage mid-century elements, combined with new tile, and natural light comes from a skylight above.
All of the bedrooms feature closets with bypass doors that are built with a platform to offer more stability for the sliding doors, which still function great after decades of use.
The Pfluger house sits on over a quarter acre, with beautifully maintained trees including what is believed to be the largest Ginnala Maple tree in the state of Colorado (a certificate is included). The backyard is private and peaceful, enhanced by a gabion wall along Lowell, and includes a stock tank pool to cool off in the summer, and a great covered patio.
On the west side of the lot is enough fenced space to park a large R/V, complete with 30A electrical service (which could potentially be converted for car charging), and an automatic gate. There is also a large shed with electricity for storage or even a potential workshop.
The Pfluger House is a one-of-a-kind historic mid-century modern gem that retains high architectural integrity, has amenities and upgrades fit for 21st century, and located in a sought-after mid-century modern neighborhood that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places* . . . your dream home is waiting!
*More Information About the National Register of Historic Places
What does it mean for this neighborhood to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places?
Arapaho Hills is one of three mid-century modern neighborhoods in the Denver area that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (the other two are Arapahoe Acres in Englewood and Deza Estates in Northglenn). This means that the neighborhood has been recognized as a place that is worth preserving, based on several criteria, from the quality of the architecture and its “integrity” (how much original architecture remains), to the people involved, and the impact this place had on historic events, to name a few. While the application of this criteria varies from place to place, a large amount of research, as well as an application and approval process is involved in designating a place like Arapaho Hills.
Most preservationists see the National Register as an honorary designation, intended to encourage neighborhood pride and recognition from the wider community, as it does little to provide any meaningful protection from changes and demolitions. The only protection that is provided to places on the National Register is against state and federally funded projects - so for instance, if the federal government wanted to plow a highway through the neighborhood, the National Register status would prevent them from doing so. Should you choose to demolish or significantly change this home, there is nothing about the National Register that will prevent you from doing so, but you will definitely earn the ire of your neighbors and the mid-century modern community at-large.
But . . . that’s not the end of the story! In Colorado, National Register designation does offer something of a carrot vs. stick approach to historic preservation. While the details vary from community-to-community, here in Arapaho Hills, if you are doing a project over a certain budget (even non-architectural things like a new furnace or a new roof), you can apply for state historic income tax credits with the city of Littleton to help you pay for the project! It will require filling out an application with the city, submitting project plans and budget showing the scope of work and how you will maintain the historic character of the home, and for the city to check up on your work to make sure you did what you said you were going to do - and voila! some money will be coming your way via tax credits (and as a bonus, legislation was recently passed in Colorado to make those credits refundable - giving you access to those funds much faster than before).
Don’t let the historic preservation aspect of this home detract you - the choice is yours!