Four miles from Denver's original land office on Larimer Street, travelers on the Cherokee Trail in 1859 would have spotted a log structure through the cottonwoods — a stage stop and inn that would outlast almost everything built in the gold rush era. That building still stands today. Four Mile House is Denver Landmark #1, the first structure ever designated under the city's preservation ordinance, and the oldest surviving building in the Denver area. Denver Historic Landmarks Map

Samuel Bates built Four Mile House in 1859 as a stage stop on the Cherokee Trail, one of the major overland routes connecting the Missouri River frontier towns to the Colorado gold fields. The location — exactly four miles from Denver's Land Office — was no accident. Travelers heading west used Denver as their last resupply stop, and a roadhouse four miles out offered the last chance for a meal and a bed before the trail grew wild.

In the 1860s, Mary Cawker and her husband Levi Booth ran the inn, and Mary's cooking and hospitality made the stop a landmark for teamsters, miners, and emigrants. During the peak of the gold rush in 1859–1860, hundreds of wagons a week passed through. Four Mile House served as a polling place in early territorial elections — one of the few structures large enough to hold a public gathering within miles.

By 1883, the Booth family had transformed the property from a roadhouse into a working farm, adding a two-story farmhouse wing to the original 1859 log structure. The farm operated for nearly a century before Denver acquired the property in 1975 and began a meticulous restoration. Today it operates as Four Mile Historic Park, a living history museum set to the 1860s–1880s farm era, with costumed interpreters, heritage livestock, and original outbuildings. Denver's Oldest Landmarks

The original 1859 section is built of hewn cottonwood logs — the dominant building material in early Denver before the railroads arrived and brick became affordable. The log construction is frontier vernacular at its most direct: thick walls for insulation, small windows for defense, and a form that follows function without architectural pretense.

The 1883 farmhouse addition is frame construction, representing the transition from pioneer building to Victorian domestic architecture. The original fireplace and some original hardware remain, making Four Mile House a rare multi-era document of how Denver's built environment evolved over a single generation. Explore Denver

The name "Four Mile House" came from a surveyor's fact: the building sat exactly four miles from the Denver Land Office on Larimer Street. In an era before reliable maps, travelers oriented themselves by counting miles from known landmarks, and the name stuck as a navigational shorthand used on official documents, diaries, and newspaper advertisements.

Mary Cawker's reputation for hospitality spread far enough that prominent territorial figures — politicians, military officers, merchants — made a point of stopping at Four Mile House rather than pressing on to downtown Denver inns. Her cooking was described in at least one period account as "the finest table between Kansas City and the mountains."

<strong>Four Mile Historic Park</strong><br/>715 South Forest Street, Denver, CO 80246<br/>Open: Wednesday–Sunday (seasonal hours — check fourmilebhp.org)<br/>Admission: Small fee; free for Denver residents<br/>Parking: On-site lot<br/>Tours: Self-guided and guided living history tours<br/>Accessibility: Partially accessible; uneven terrain on historic property

Four Mile Historic Park is located at 715 South Forest Street in Denver's Glendale area, southeast of downtown. RTD bus route 10 runs along S. Colorado Blvd with a short walk to the park. Parking is available on-site. There is no direct light rail connection; a car or rideshare is the most convenient option.

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