Once Upon a Time...

...a man stood upon a hill. It wasn't an ordinary hill...nor was he an ordinary man. Art Swanson was a dreamer...and as he stood there, he saw the unbroken view of a magnificent mountain range...the sparkling lights of the distant city like blue-white diamonds...and he saw something more. In his mind's eye he saw homes on his hill, not just ordinary homes because, remember, he was not an ordinary man, nor was this an ordinary hill. 

So the dreamer told a realist...and the realist told other dreamers, realists, designers, engineers, architects and master tradesmen of all kinds. Together they thought and talked, worked and planned, sketched and designed, hammered and nailed...this was the start of H.A. Swanson and Associates - this was the beginning of the story of Deza Estates. 

Deza Estates with the breathtaking view alone starts a dream of the things you've always wanted. But Swanson knows that no two people dream alike. And this is why no two homes are alike in Deza Estates. Every home is actually the dream of the owner.

-An original advertisement for the neighborhood, origin unknown

Denver Post, February 26, 1956

Denver Post, October 14, 1956, Parade of Homes Special Section

​Original Advertisements courtesy of the prolific research efforts by Atom Stevens of Harvey Park Modern. ​

Can you help? 

In 2016, members of the Northglenn Historic Preservation Commission began a concentrated effort to research the origins of Deza Estates. With help from current and former Deza Estates residents, as well as preservationists and historians from around the Denver Metro Area, a steady stream of information has begun to be revealed. Because this is a story that has (as far as we know) never before been researched or told, each piece of new information brings up more questions and more leads to be followed. We are interested in anything you might have to share with us, and if you are interested in becoming involved in the research efforts, feel free to contact Lauren Weatherly. 

A few things we know about the origins of Deza Estates:  

• Northglenn didn't exist in 1955 when Deza Estates was first conceptualized. Thornton was being built nearby, when efforts to build Deza Estates were begun by H.A. Swanson & Associates. In 1959 Perl Mack Co. began to build "North Glenn", a large planned community north of Denver. The Perl Mack neighborhood was so successful that it was named "The Most Perfectly Planned Community in America" in 1962. North Glenn (later renamed to Northglenn) was officially incorporated as a city in 1969, and included the North Glenn Perl Mack homes, Deza Estates, and other surrounding enclaves. 
• The main protagonist behind Deza Estates was a man named Henry "Art" Swanson, who refers to himself as "developer". 
• According to Swanson's obituary, he was born in San Fransisco, California in 1914, and spent time in both California and Great Falls, Montana. He built homes in both places, in addition to in Denver (Deza Estates) and St. George Utah,  later in his life. 
• Some of the original advertisements list 80th & Zuni as the address for Deza Estates. According to original Deza resident Tom Rapp, Swanson built a group of homes at 80th and Zuni before beginning work on Deza Estates, and used the home on the corner of 80th and Zuni as a model home for Deza Estates.
• The advertising intended to draw customers interested in custom contemporary homes. According to advertisements, home buyers worked with Swanson's team of professionals to co-design their dream home. This was unusual! Many subdivisions built during the mid-1950's included a handful of designs that customers could choose from.
• While Deza Estates officially includes 28 homes built by Swanson, the original subdivision filing for Deza Estates reveals an intended footprint stretching from 96th Ave to 100th Ave, between Huron St. and Croke Dr. 
• According to advertisements, Deza Estates was intended to be a planned community, including schools, shopping, swimming pool, riding stables, and more. 

View our growing collection of archived documents related to Deza Estates here. 

Information we are seeking regarding the origins of Deza Estates: 

• Who were the architects, designers, etc. that Swanson worked with? 
  • The only original blueprints for 9840 Lunceford Lane are signed by "R. Sterling in association with 'Rene of France', Murray and Sterling Designers". Who are these people? 
• What happened?
  • Neighborhood rumors, in combination with county records, suggest that Swanson went broke after building the first round of homes in Deza Estates, eventually selling off the remaining land for the subdivision and disappearing. What were the factors and conditions that prevented him from realizing his dream? 
  • According to Swanson's obituary, he ended up in St. George, Utah, and lived a long, happy life. However, we have no records of Swanson from the 1960's to the mid 1970's. What was he doing during this time? 
• To what extent was landowner Thomas B. Croke Jr. involved with Deza Estates? 
  • Swanson purchased land from Croke to build Deza Estates, and county records indicate Croke had a continued involvement with Swanson, as well as the development of the Perl-Mack homes that ultimately became the city of Northglenn. What was Croke's role in this neighborhood? 

​If you have any information about Deza Estates, please share by clicking on our Contact page and share what you know. We are interested in memories, stories, facts, documentation, lore, etc. 

• Are you an original homeowner in Deza estates or did you grow up there? 
• Do you have any original advertisements or other documents referencing Deza Estates? 
• Do you have any original paperwork from the sales and/or contracting of the homes? 
• Do you know of any other properties developed by H.A. Swanson? 
• Do you know someone who grew up in Deza Estates? 

---

Tom Rapp, original resident of Deza Estates, provided the following stories to help paint a picture of life in this area in the mid-1950s:

There were no overpasses at that time. There was also no Northglenn for several years. Our closest neighbors were the dairy farms between 99th Ave. and 84th Ave. There was no Thornton Parkway, and 92nd Ave. ended at Huron. The area was still so wild and isolated that you were allowed to hunt pheasants in the area between our home and 92nd Ave.

"In the summer of 1956, my father, William E. Rapp and mother Dorothy D. Rapp moved our family to our new home in the Deza Estates subdivision. Originally, our home was to be at the top of Rapp Lane and 99th Ave., but because my parents like the plot at the top of Palmer Lane & 99th Ave. better, and the Palmers had the plot second down the hill on the east side of Palmer Lane, we moved into our new home which was built on Palmer Lane instead of Rapp Lane. But as an original homeowner, we were still allowed to have a street in the subdivision named after us even though we never lived on Rapp Lane.

The original subdivision included a row of homes along the north side of 99th between Huron and Croke Drive, and three north-south streets of homes (named from the west: Rapp Lane, Lunceford Lane, and Palmer Lane.) My father’s foundation was the first one to be put into the ground in the subdivision, although the remaining homes were also put in quickly so that by the time school started in the Fall of 1956, there were about thirty students grades 1-12 riding the school bus. All of us were transported either to Eastlake Elementary or Merritt Hutton Jr./Sr. High School. In those days, our development was the only one north of Sherrelwood or west of the original Thornton Community. In fact, when we first moved there, 104th Ave, 92nd Ave., 84th Ave and Huron Street were all two lane dirt roads. To cross I-25 at either 104th Ave. or 84th Ave., you needed to stop, cross the median between the north-south traffic where you stopped a second time, the cross the other lanes.

​The first pheasant I ever bagged was shot in the draw which now runs between our house and the library. While my Dad and grandpa’s friends were going to Sterling to hunt, we’d have bagged our limit of pheasants just below our subdivision west of the property on Huron that is now used for lawnmower sales and repairs and be back home in time to watch the Thanksgiving football games when the started.

There was a small airport located near 104th. Ave. and Federal Blvd. We used to ride our bikes to where we could watch the planes land. Springtime was always especially windy on that hilltop where we lived. One day we watched as a small plane made a rough landing and ended up upside down because of the wind. Luckily, except for his pride, the pilot was unhurt. It was comical watching him unstrap his seat belt while suspended upside down and the climb out of his cockpit. As I recall, the language was probably inappropriate for us youngsters to hear. Another wind story involved one Spring when the first row of houses on the west side of Rapp Lane all had their flat roofs peeled off and dumped into the street because the winds were blowing 80 miles per hour that night off the wheat fields west of the development. For several days until they’d been removed, cars and pedestrians had to maneuver around the residue of those blown off roofs. Being the only subdivision on our side of I-25 had great advantages for us kids. We could play in the ravine below our houses that’s now populated with mobile homes. Coyotes, foxes, deer and other animals would run up and down the draw, and I remember one night while shooting baskets in my driveway by moonlight hearing a pack of coyotes at the bottom of Palmer Lane baying at the moon. That’s a memory that still lifts the hair on the back of my neck. We’d often come home to find rabbits frolicking in our yards at night.

There was no city water system for Deza Estates in those days, but we were served by a well. The men residents had to take turns in the winter using a blowtorch to thaw out the pipes so we could all have enough water.

My father, William Rapp was noted in the Denver area as a swimming instructor and Red Cross Water Safety Expert. When we moved to Deza Estates, Dad supplemented his income as a junior high assistant principal in Denver by teaching swimming during the summers. At that time, he was commuting to Cherry Hills Country Club where he was a pool administrator and one of their swimming teachers. After a couple years of this, he determined that if he and my mom put in a pool in our back yard, maybe the students of his parents (who could afford the gasoline better than Dad) would be willing to commute to us instead. At that time the city pools on our end of town had classes of about 20 students. Dad knew that if he offered semi-private lessons to groups of 10 (5 practicing while 5 had their lesson, then switching) it would be a better teaching situation. In about 1958, and for about the next 15 years, Dad, I and my younger brother Gary taught several thousand lessons in our backyard pool which Dad designed for teaching purposes. We had a backyard cabana where the students could change into their suits, and a waiting area where Moms could watch the proceedings. There was a flagpole with an outside shower where we students could wash off our swim suits before going into the pool. That flagpole was also a neighborhood beacon, because Dad would raise a green flag about three times a week after lessons were finished in the afternoon and the neighborhood kids knew that it meant “free swim time at the Rapp’s”. The adult neighbors also knew that a yellow flag meant adults only and once a week it was their turn. A red flag meant Rapp’s only.

When we moved to Deza Estates, the public schools did not year have Kindergartens. My Mom had been trained as a Kindergarten Teacher before I was born, so she and Dad decided to put a kindergarten in our basement, which had an outside entrance, for the neighborhood kids. For about ten years, until the schools had them, Mom’s was the only Kindergarten for students who included my kid brother Gary. News of her kindergarten spread, and the first grade Teachers in adams 12 all made referrals once they saw how well Mom’s first graders did compared to those without any Kindergarten preparation.

When I was in elementary school, the only choices were Thornton Elementary and Eastlake Elementary. Anyone not in Old Thornton was transported to EastLake Elementary. It was a sad day many years later when the old school was torn down to make way for the Northglenn Maintenance Facility. Older students went to Merritt Hutton Jr./Sr. High School, so I spent six years in that building. By the time my brother started school, the area was growing so rapidly that he changed schools regularly as boundaries were redrawn. He went to Eastlake Elementary, Hulstrom Elementary, Hillcrest Elementary, Northglenn Junior High, Huron Junior High, and Northglenn High School, which we lived in the same location on Palmer Lane.

Before the original Northglenn Shopping Mall was put in, there were also farms north of 104th Ave. along Huron Street. One day I rode my bike from our home along Huron near where the fire station now is located north of 104th Ave. In those days to the east side of the street across from the lake, the ground dropped away into a small valley. At the base of the trees in this valley was an opening. Being young, and not too smart, I reached into this one day and felt something furry. Fortunately it wasn’t a skunk, but a baby rabbit which I took home to play with. Of course Mom knew that the bunny needed his mom, so made me bicycle him back home. I tossed him back down toward his home, but landed on barbed wire and wiggled violently until he got free and ran away. I thought I’d check it out myself and grabbed the wire. You haven’t lived until you’ve grabbed an electric fence without knowing it. ​