Mary C. Rae, a Denver real estate agent who saved many of Capitol Hill’s historic mansions from tear-down during the boom years of the 1970s and early 1980s, died July 21. She was 79.
Rae became a crusader for historic and architecturally distinctive homes built in the 1870s and 1880s that were threatened by the wrecking ball as developers began returning to urban Denver neighborhoods a century later. She is credited with developing a trend toward renovating and restoring aging mansions, many of which had been subdivided into rooming houses as those areas aged, and were likely candidates for tear-down.
“Mary could not bear to see the destruction of those fine old homes, and she effected the conversion of many of them to become remodeled residences or offices, or secured financing to move them to new locations,” recalled Broker Rhonda Knop with Distinctive Properties, who had joined Rae in forming her company in 1975.
“She was very much the same force for restoration and preservation on Capitol Hill that Dana Crawford has been in Lower Downtown,” Knop added.
Knop recalls Rae’s first project, homes on Gaylord Street at E. 11th Avenue that had been scheduled for demolition to make way for a high-rise. “We found individual buyers for those,” said Knop, “and some of them still live there today.”
The list of houses Mary Rae went on to save include the McKinley Mansion (950 Logan St.), Croke Paterson Mansion (428 East 11th Ave.), Sheedy Residence (1115 Grant St.), and blocks of homes between E. 1st and E. 2nd avenues from Pennsylvania to Pearl streets.
Rae was born in Denver to Joe and Lorraine Barton, sixth of seven children, and lived in Denver, Longmont and Leadville during her early years. After high school she entered the convent at Marquette University in Milwaukee to become a Franciscan nun; and she remained a devout Catholic throughout her life, attending daily mass up until the week before she died.
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Rae worked 10 years as a corporate secretary, but made a move into real estate after she witnessed the 1972 demolition of the 42-room Moffat Mansion at E. 8th Avenue at Grant Street, built by David Moffat, the railroad tycoon. Founding Mary Rae & Associates Ltd., she initially knew little about real estate or preservation, but by 1981 had earned recognition in a national Christian Science Monitor story celebrating her work. In 1996 she was named “Salesperson of the Year” by the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.
Rae was a gourmet cook, a voracious reader and an accomplished gardener.
Rae died at Denver Hospice following complications from a stroke. She is survived by her children Ellen O’Brien (Mike Van Veen) and Edward O’Brien III (Paige); five grandchildren, Patrick, Emma, Ryan, Lilly and Teddy; brother Pat Barton (Karen); sister, Linda Vaughn (Arthur) and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services will be held at 1 p.m. Aug. 10 at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 2626 E. 7th Ave.Parkway, with a celebration of life to follow at Ed and Paige’s home.
