HISTORY

The Town of Boulder, still booming from the Gold Rush, built the Highland School in 1891 as Boulder's fourth permanent school. The site, at the confluence of Boulder and Gregory Creeks, was chosen specifically for its elevated topography, and the safety it provides during floods.

Denver architects Varian & Sterner used red brick and blonde sandstone from local quarries to construct a classic Richardsonian-Romanesque four-story building. Their goal was to create a beautiful building safe from fire and flood.

Highland School provided a solid educational structure for generations of local children. Its choice of location proved wise during the 100-year-flood of 1894. Highland School stood tall and undamaged while much of the town was washed away. Despite its reliability, attendance at Highland dwindled as families migrated to the suburbs in the 1950's and 60's. Eventually the Boulder Valley School District declared Highland a surplus building and closed it in the late 1960's.

Historic Boulder formed in 1977, initially for the sole purpose of preserving this important landmark. With the full support of the eventual buyer, Sinco International, Highland achieved protection, and membership in the National Register of Historic Places. Since its inception to preserve Highland School, Historic Boulder has protected many important and distinctive buildings in the region.

In 1978, the new owners of Highland quickly set about restoring and preserving the exterior, and beginning anew to create a luxurious interior space, technologically superior, and tastefully appointed. Already surrounded by stately oak, maple, spruce and locust, the grounds had a magnificent presence. An award-winning finish came to the gardens through the addition of ivy, flowering bushes, colorful perennials, sculpture, a charming creek side amphitheatre, and a signature, hand-smithed wrought iron fence to surround the two-acre site.

Perhaps because of its natural position on the high–land, with its commanding view of the valley, Highland's new owners were inspired to extend the reach of their vision. Looking back into Boulder's land planning archive, they found a report commissioned in 1910 from the legendary landscape architect, Frederic Law Olmstead, designer of New York's Central Park. In it, Mr. Olmstead advised what he called a "Boulder Creek 'Park.'"

"The plan of keeping open for public use near the heart of the city a simple piece of pretty bottom-land, growing a few tough old trees on it and a few bushes, and of keeping the main part of the ground as a simple, open common, where the children can play and over which the wonderful views of the foothills can be obtained at their best from the shaded paths and roads along the embankment edge-this would give a piece of recreational ground worth a great deal to the people."

—Frederic Law Olmstead

By resurrecting Olmstead's plan, the stewards of Highland brought about another Renaissance: the transformation of Boulder Creek into one of America's premier riverine park systems. It is this spirit of innovation and recognizing inherent value that continues to inspire the evolution of Highland as an important icon of the Boulder community.