In recent years, Riverdale Road—an 11-mile-long thoroughfare connecting Thornton to Brighton—has become the subject of many blogs, YouTube videos and even local TV news segments on the paranormal.
Riverdale Road's reputation as "the most haunted road in the country" comes from a handful of stories passed down over the years. There's the ghost jogger who taps on the sides of passing cars...the phantom Camaro with one headlight...the hitchhiker in white who disappears into the night.
Perhaps the story that yields the most intrigue involves a mansion owner who went insane and set his home aflame with his family inside. The family perished in the fire...and the man was never seen again.
We decided to look into Riverdale Road's history to see if such a horrific fire had in fact occurred. Our findings led us to the David Wolpert House.
YES, THERE REALLY WAS A FIRE
At around 1 a.m. on November 28, 1975, a home located at 9190 Riverdale Road became engulfed in flames. The two-story brick home, believed to have been built in the 1860s, was severely damaged. On December 4th, the Denver Post reported:
The flames Friday left only remnants of walls of the main building plus a smaller structure in the rear.
No fatalities or injuries were reported as the home had not been inhabited at the time of the fire. According to The Forgotten Past of Adams County, Volume 1, there was good reason for this:
In May 1975, when the chicken house burned down, the fire department came and extinguished the fire and put in a report to county health authorities stating that the house was a fire hazard and a danger to the community. The health department ordered the owner to dismiss the tenants. When they moved, heavy vandalism started.
WHO BUILT THE MANSION?
Just a few months prior, in January 1975, Dr. Hugo Rodeck (former director of the University of Colorado Museum from 1939 to 1971) had submitted a National Register of Historic Places nomination form for 9190 Riverdale Road. His application form, preserved by the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP), describes the home's physical appearance and its history, attributing the building to an early Colorado settler named David Wolpert:
Two story and attic, brick house, built about 1864. Fine looking structure with dignity, in a favorable position beside a through drive, backed by Platte River banks and flood plain....The Wolpert's were typical of the hordes of people coming west to make their fortunes in gold and silver. Like many other argonaut [sic], Wolpert found his true fortune in agriculture and permanent settlement.
A look at William B. Vicker's History of the City of Denver, Arapahoe County, and Colorado reveals that David Wolpert came west from Ohio in 1859. He was lured by gold discoveries in the Rockies and traveled to New Mexico and then Colorado, visiting Pikes Peak, South Park and Fairplay. Wolpert and a party of sixteen men
....then crossed the mountains to Blue River, near Breckenridge where they began prospecting; but being driven out by the Indians, the entire party returned to Pike's Peak, whence Mr. Wolpert soon came to Denver. Deciding to try farming, then an experiment in Colorado, he pre-empted a piece of land on the Platte, nine miles below Denver, where he has since resided, and which he has converted into one of the finest farms in the county.
Wolpert married Catherine Henderson on January 20, 1864. The couple had two daughters, Lucille and Mary, and a son David. David Wolpert, Sr. died on October 21, 1909, at the age of 75, and Catherine died in 1915. The couple is buried in Riverside Cemetery.
HOW DID THE FIRE START?
What is unclear is how the fire started, and if there were any investigations into its cause. The only newspaper report of the fire on Denver 4, 1975, in the Denver Post does not allude to any suspicion of arson. There were, however, business interests in the 145-acre parcel that the Wolpert House stood on.
On January 25, 1975, a story titled "Drive To Save Old Home Started" in the Rocky Mountain News revealed just why Dr. Hugo Rodeck and wife Orian Sallie Lewis Rodeck had been working so hard on behalf of the Adams County Historical Society to preserve 9190 Riverdale Road:
The house until recently was in little or no immediate danger except from neglect, but now the property has been purchased by a development firm and there is talk of a new city, Washington City, going in on the site.
Instead, the area where the Wolpert House once stood is now the site of the Pelican Ponds Open Space.
One of Riverdale Road's favorite spooky tales can probably be attributed to the 1975 David Wolpert House fire. After all, a historic brick mansion in the country devastated by a mysterious fire in the middle of the night has all of the makings of a perfect ghost story.
As for the other chilling Riverdale Road stories? The story of their origins awaits your research!
Comments
No one gonna mention the…
No one gonna mention the tunnels or cult activities??
Was in that house in 1975…
Was in that house in 1975 and saw what was inside. No tunnels though but other things.
No one gonna mention the…
No one gonna mention the tunnels or cult activities??
I've lived in Thornton for…
I've lived in Thornton for 28 years now and never knew this piece of history. Absolutely fascinating and to think I've driven past this area and was unaware of the significant events that happened.
I've lived in Thornton for…
I've lived in Thornton for 28 years now and never knew this piece of history. Absolutely fascinating and to think I've driven past this area and was unaware of the significant events that happened.
I've lived in Thornton for…
I've lived in Thornton for 28 years now and never knew this piece of history. Absolutely fascinating and to think I've driven past this area and was unaware of the significant events that happened.
For those of you who are…
For those of you who are interested in this story and the location in which the house once stood, here are the coordinates: 39.862860, -104.933644 (copy & paste them into Google Maps) There's literally nothing left as that whole area has been plowed over and redeveloped into the park that it is today. Still fun to check out though.
Was in that house with a…
Was in that house with a bunch from high school in 1975.
I actually lived there from…
I actually lived there from 1964 to 1972 :)
i've posted about this in…
i've posted about this in the past but yeah, 100% its haunted. as kids we would drive around this road, i'm talking like 20 years ago. it was like a urban legend. like 90% of the times we'd see nothing, just the vibe of the road. i would always drive with like 2-3 people in the car. one night we drive that road and at some point it hooks onto a dirt road which is where you pass the "gates of hell" which is like two white gates posts. prety simple gates like a farm and the abondoned house to the right. as kids those gates would either be open or closed. most of the time you could push them open. we would haveto drive on the dirt uphill a bit and you can park next to the oil rig. this thing was the oldest rustiest and at 3am the creepiest look oil rig. it would sometimes be running sometimes not and would randomly start and stop near us which was wierd. it has the craziest tribal drum sounding engine. like some jamanji type shit lol. but yeah if you keep driving on that dirt road you get to a left or right. left takes you to the main road where you can head back to thorton and right takes you back down to the road where you can drive and loop back the other way. we would do this loop like 5-10 times a time just listening to music and chatting and shit.
the first encourter of 3 was we were drivign down the road and you get to where theres an underpass at the start ebfore you even hit all the creepy road signs that look shot up with something. i remember my friends were chatting and i was driving and i looked to them for something, then looked out my window and something tall, 7-8 feet tall was like running along side the car. tall white and look like antlers but idk was so fast. you can look up the show yellow jackets and one of the covers has this cosutme of a girl wearing antlers and a white drap coming down. it was literally like that but so fast i could really see. it was one of those split second hair rasies like you are about to crash type feeling. i looked at the road and back to my left and was gone. okay nobody saw it they were all taklign and on their phones and stuff so i called it nothing. maybe some sign or something idk.
then 2nd weird thing was another time we go up there and just so you know we would go like 3-4 times a week as kids bringing booze, weed, whatever and doing laps around this place and stuff. theres a few other abondoned places we would visit like the sugar factory but thats antioher story. but yeah any ways we were driving and i remember there was this long orb shaped oval cloud that came across the road when we were driving. it like just like a mini cloud floating across the street as we were driving. about 10 seconds me and my buddy look at each other and were like uhhh did you see that? it was weirdest shit ever. but yeah thats it.
the 3rd time was fucked. so as we do lap we woudl always drve on that dirt road at the end. when we hit the fork in the road we stopped and i was like like "want to keep going?". at that momnet something in the grass stood up, was tall and white. like 7 feet. not really sure about antlers but was tall and like translucent. we all were like "wtf!" and and it just bolted to the left and disappeared. was so fast. i know it wasn't a reflection or something because we drive it a million times and the fork in the road whats in front of you is a grass field. i drive the fuck off real quick al l4 of us were like what the fuck. to this day we will connect about it.
but scientifically heres what i observed. and i will carry these facts to my grave because i saw what i saw.
1. It reacted to our light or presence. meaning its reactive. there must be some intellegence to it.
2. It was the cliche girl in white story. meaning its repeating. is it just some glitch or energy that was strong or something thats just stuck. is it actually a passing of a person, or something stuck, or some matrix shit. idk.
3. It disappeared real quick. it can intentionally hide or mask or dimensionally hide itself. thats means this is some simulation shit, its some alter dimensional energy glitch, or its some fucking cameoing ghost type shit idk
but yeah thats my conclusion maybe one day when i move back to america i'll consider going on that road again but yeah take it or leave it i dont care. but this is my reality and somehow i have to carry this 1 minute interaction my entire life defining my questions about exitense and dimensions while sounding like a lunatic or someone who obviously saw somsething explainable.
Add new comment