{"id":9299,"date":"2020-11-20T16:14:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T16:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=4357797&amp;preview_id=4357797"},"modified":"2020-11-20T16:14:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T16:14:02","slug":"photos-take-a-tour-of-the-renovated-marijuana-mansion-a-weed-filled-selfie-paradise-in-cap-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/photos-take-a-tour-of-the-renovated-marijuana-mansion-a-weed-filled-selfie-paradise-in-cap-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"PHOTOS: Take a tour of the renovated Marijuana Mansion, a weed-filled selfie paradise in Cap Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/photos-take-a-tour-of-the-renovated-marijuana-mansion-a-weed-filled-selfie-paradise-in-cap-hill\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p><!-- END .ss-inline-share-wrapper --> <\/p>\n<div id=\"gslideshow\" class=\"gss-container\">\n<div class=\"gss-info\">\n<p>Creative Director Lisa Leder opens the secret doorway to The LED Room, hidden inside the Historic Room, at the renovated Marijuana Mansion on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to miss as you\u2019re walking down Grant Street in Cap Hill, not far from the Capitol: a giant, three-story sandstone mansion with stained glass windows and carved lions overlooking the grounds.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, it\u2019s also easy to spot considering there\u2019s a dispensary in back and a giant sign in front that reads \u201cMarijuana Mansion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Creswell Mansion, as it was originally known, was built in 1889 for Denver businessman Joseph Creswell and designed by local architect John J. Huddart, known for his work on several prominent Colorado courthouses.\u00a0The 11-room mansion \u2014 with a carriage house in back that is now home to a Green Dragon dispensary \u2014 was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h3>If you go<\/h3>\n<p>Marijuana Mansion, 1244 Grant St.,720-446-5433. Tours by appointment only, $25 per person.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mjmansion.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mjmansion.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>These days, however, it\u2019s most well known for being the home base of the\u00a0Marijuana Policy Project, the group that drafted what eventually became Amendment 64, legalizing adult cannabis use in Colorado in 2012. That\u2019s how the building got its Marijuana Mansion nickname, and the building\u2019s new owner is doubling down on that identity.<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Leder bought the mansion in 2019 and got to work renovating the massive, aging space, which she planned to reopen in March 2020. The pandemic threw a wrench in that plan, but she\u2019s finally showing off updates to the space and opening it up for tours.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of history in these walls \u2014 and, depending on who you ask, a lot of spooky stories, too.<\/p>\n<p>One artist, working on renovated rooms late at night, reported hearing footsteps on the main staircase, despite being alone in the building. When playing music on a record player in a third-floor room, one employee has reported the sound of banging inside a closet, as if someone was trapped and trying to get out.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-249091\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/photos-take-a-tour-of-the-renovated-marijuana-mansion-a-weed-filled-selfie-paradise-in-cap-hill.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"780\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bathtub Room at the renovated Marijuana Mansion on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Not long after buying the mansion, Leder noticed groups of people would stop out front and peer up into the windows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought, \u2018What are they looking at?\u2019 \u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>After chasing down a group of onlookers, she learned that her house is a stop on several Denver ghost tours and that, rumor has it, a ghost is sometimes seen keeping watch in an upstairs window.<\/p>\n<p>Peek in those windows today and you\u2019re more likely to see someone snapping selfies in the newly Instagrammable interior.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s the Historical Room, modeled after a sitting room in the late 1800s or early 1900s. It all looks very stuffy and above-board until Leder opens a secret bookcase door that leads into The LED Room, which looks exactly like your best friend\u2019s stoner brother\u2019s basement circa 1999, but with a bit more polish.<\/p>\n<p>The Ladies Boudoir room (which even has some period clothing hanging in a display) leads into a faux speakeasy, and the Green Room is modeled after a typical music venue green room and includes a record player and ample 60s vinyl.<\/p>\n<p>Other rooms are pure, unadulterated selfie candy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything\u2019s about the photograph,\u201d Leder said. \u201cInsta. TikTok. You name it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Weed Room is the most popular room, equipped with a throne, swing and walls covered in (faux) cannabis leaves. The Mary Jane in a Marijuana Wonderland Room is decked out with a colorful and super-Instagrammable mural by artist Ellie Paisley. Several of the artist-created rooms are more reminiscent of Meow Wolf-inspired \u201cimmersive art exhibitions\u201d that usually come with a steep ticket price and long lines.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re lucky enough to get a peek in the basement, you\u2019ll find a doorway that leads to nowhere. When the Denver Fire Department came out to inspect the building, they found the tunnel \u2014 not shown in any of the building plans or blueprints for the mansion \u2014 that leads from the basement of the house to the carriage house. But sometime in the last 131 years, the tunnel was sealed shut on both ends, and no one knows why or what\u2019s inside.<\/p>\n<p>The Marijuana Mansion is available for private tours, at $25 a person. But the space feels most ideal for private events, which unfortunately are the only occasions when you can actually consume cannabis here, even with the dispensary just out back.<\/p>\n<p>While we could see some pretty epic cannabis industry parties here once the world goes back to normal, for now, Marijuana Mansion \u2014 much like the equally photogenic International Church of Cannabis in Wash Park \u2014 is the kind of destination canna-tourists often seek out for selfies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTourists are always thinking of Denver as cannabis tourism,\u201d Leder said. \u201cWe\u2019re still the original cannabis leaders in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And we\u2019ve got our own Marijuana Mansion to prove it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/newsletter-signup\/in-the-know\"><b><i>Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to get entertainment news sent straight to your inbox.<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/photos-take-a-tour-of-the-renovated-marijuana-mansion-a-weed-filled-selfie-paradise-in-cap-hill-1.jpg\" class=\"ss-hidden-pin-image\" data-pin-url=\"https:\/\/theknow.denverpost.com\/2020\/11\/20\/marijuana-mansion-denver\/249073\/\" data-pin-media=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/photos-take-a-tour-of-the-renovated-marijuana-mansion-a-weed-filled-selfie-paradise-in-cap-hill-1.jpg\" data-pin-description=\"PHOTOS: Take a tour of the renovated Marijuana Mansion, a weed-filled selfie paradise in Cap Hill\" \/> <!-- END .ss-inline-share-wrapper --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot of history in these walls &#8212; and, depending on who you ask, a lot of spooky stories, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,2435,6813,77,9,5019,1,3,7072,6923,61,1736],"tags":[2632,2436,6818,2655,5022,7073,6924],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}