Winter AT MEADOW HILLS ESTATES

Meadow Hills Estates originally started out as part of Meadow Hills Country Club, a private club started by 100, mostly Jewish, families in 1957. The Country Club was unusual because it did not limit membership by race, color, creed, or religion and was to provide an alternative to Green Gables Country Club. Originally, the club house and swimming pool were the only structures built. Members then began building residences on the adjacent lots, subdivided out of farmland.

Some other interesting facts from that time:

  • The only paved roads were Dawson to Kenyon, Hampden Place, Lehigh and Kenyon, Jefferson was just a dirt road that ended at Elkhart St., there were no other access streets, the rest of the area was all prairie.

  • The Country Club was situated in unincorporated Arapahoe County with a Denver mailing address. NOTE there is a time capsule that is on the north side of the building where the swimming pool is. It’s behind the brick that says Meadow Hills 1957.

  • The original streets were Moon Lane, Saturn Way, and Jupiter Lane, Dawson was Country Club Drive, etc. After a short period of time Arapahoe County made us change our street names to what they are today.

  • Hampden was a 2 lane dirt road that went from Parker Road (paved, two lane) to Chambers Road (two lane, dirt) that went north to Colfax, with just a few farm houses along the way, with very few streets intersecting Chambers Road. No roads went east or south from the intersection of Hampden and Chambers.

  • The school was Cherry Creek High School which stood alone, as there were no homes anywhere around it. The high school which was ninth to twelfth grades had no more than 600 students. The elementary and junior high which were in the same complex had even fewer students. The school also owned a farm where cattle were raised and crops were grown, which was on the North side of the Dam entrance where the soccer fields are now. The school had a program called Future Farmers of America for the male students, those students maintained the farm. They also had a program called Future Homemakers of America for the female students.

  • The closest grocery stores were Red Owl super markets, which were at either University Hill Shopping center at Yale and Colorado Blvd., or Leetsdale and Holly St.

  • Around 1972, Meadow Hills Golf Course and all the surrounding land west of Dawson Street was sold to Victor Lederman, who was not a member the country club. Approximately six years later he sold Meadow Hills Golf Course to the city of Aurora, who converted it into a public course, and concurrently,  annexed Meadow Hills Estates.

Since the annexation by Aurora, the community continued to develop – one lot at a time. Covenants were approved in 1992. The last remaining lot was built out in 2019. The result is a unique community of large lot custom homes of architectural design spanning six decades. Those six decades result in a community that fostered a sense of community and acceptance. And, of course, the golf course and tennis courts and clubhouse, although owned by the city of Aurora remain a part of the community.

Because the community preceded annexation by Aurora, it has no sidewalks or street lights, giving the community a distinct country feel. Since then, Aurora has grown up around us, so that now we are only 1.5 miles from the nine-mile RTD light rail line. A little rural neighborhood of 125 homes sitting on 100 acres in the middle of a city.

THANK YOU, Jeff Waldman and Doug Webb for the history of our community!