Highlands Ranch Mansion

The Highlands Ranch Mansion is a historic estate of roughly 27,000 square feet whose roots trace back to a stone homestead house in the 1890s, expanded and rebuilt across decades into the English Tudor landmark that stands today. Its owner list reads like a tour of Colorado history, from homesteader Samuel Long through John Springer, Waite Phillips, Frank Kistler, and Lawrence Phipps Jr., who gave the property the Highlands Ranch name. Since 2010 it has been owned by the Highlands Ranch Metro District and run as a community asset.

What makes it worth a visit is the public access. The mansion offers free historic tours, both guided and self-guided, during posted open hours, and the lawns and grounds are open to the public daily, roughly 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. unless otherwise posted. It is also a working event venue, hosting weddings, parties, and corporate functions, and that private-event revenue is what funds the public access. For a free outing, it is genuinely unusual: a grand historic house you can actually walk through.

The honest caveats all come down to the schedule. The interior is only open on designated tour days and open-hours, not daily, so showing up on the wrong day means you can walk the grounds but not go inside. The calendar also flexes around private events, and the mansion can be booked out entirely for a wedding, closing public access that day. The fix is simple: check the official open-hours calendar before you go, and reserve a tour, which is required for groups of ten or more.

Time it for an open-hours day, take the free tour, and bring a camera for the grounds. It is one of the more rewarding free things to do in Highlands Ranch, and a real piece of Douglas County history.