Belmar: What's in a Name?

Why Belmar?

It's a strange name for a neighborhood in suburban Denver, with its Latinate suggestion of "beautiful" and "sea." When you google it, Belmar, New Jersey pops up as often as not. So where did the name come from?

A century ago, the area that is now downtown Lakewood was considered the country-- and just the right distance from the hustle and bustle of Denver for a quick weekend getaway. May Bonfils, daughter of Denver Post magnate Frederick Bonfils, chose the location for her 750 acre country estate, which she named Belmar.

According to biographer Jeanne Varnell, Belmar was "a private paradise," with a ornate wrought iron gates, a fountain, and a twenty-room mansion modeled after the Petit Trianon palace at Versailles. "Peacocks paraded on the lawn," and "swans floated on Grassmere Lake." She drove a Rolls Royce, "the costliest car ever sold in Colorado," and "her 70.2-carat diamond, the Idol's Eye, was one of the world's great diamonds."

May furnished the mansion with exotic furniture and art from her travels in Europe. Again, according to Varnell, May "brought back a Marie-Antoinette bed, a piano said to have been played by Chopin, and a gold chair bearing Queen Victoria's crest.

After her death, her antiques and jewelry were sold. The mansion went to the Catholic Church, which in turn sold it off to developers. The house was demolished and replaced by a nondescript office building and a parking lot. All that remains today is a series of stone steps that lead down to Kountze Lake.

Photos of May Bonfil's Belmar in it's glory days are available here: http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/8643/rec/9