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A prominent visual landmark at 110th and Federal Boulevard is the
circa 1925 Savery Savory Mushroom Farm Water Tower, the only intact
remnant of what was originally an extensive collection of
buildings, structures and other features that made up the corporate
agricultural facility owned and operated by Colorado's "mushroom
magnate," Charles William Savery, from 1923 through 1953.
The tower is a local Westminster historic landmark and is also
listed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties.
History of the Savery Savory Mushroom Farm and Water
Tower
Charles William Savery was born on 15 November 1878 in
Parkersville, Chester County, Pennsylvania, the third of six
children born to Stephen Webb Savery and his wife, Susanna (Susan)
Forsythe. Long citizens of the United States, the family could
trace its lineage back to ancestors who moved from England to
Chester County in the early 1700s.
Charles Savery attended public schools in Westchester, Pennsylvania
and little else is known about his childhood. As a young adult he
worked in the lumberyard business, owning a facility in
Philadelphia from 1900 through 1908. On 16 June 1904, Savery
married Denver resident Frances Darlington and the couple had two
sons, Robert and Stuart, and a daughter, Jean. When the lumberyard
operation failed, he was forced to repay heavy debts in
Philadelphia. With that achieved, the family headed west in 1909
and settled in Denver, where they arrived with less than $600 to
their name.
The following year Savery turned to the securities business when he
opened a mining stockbrokerage office in Denver. Initially, he and
a partner operated the business under the name Savery-Petrikin
Securities Company, with offices strategically located in the
Mining Exchange Building. The Petrikin side of the business appears
to have been William Petrikin, who after 1917 became president and
chairman of the board of the Great Western Sugar Company. Savery
remained partners with Petrikin through 1917 and the two may have
parted ways as the latter was elevated to his new position as one
of the most prominent sugar industry executives in the country.
During this time, Savery invested in a molybdenum mine in Questa,
New Mexico, and sold his interest for enough money that he was able
to retire. However, retirement didn't suit him well and he returned
to the securities business. In 1918, the brokerage's name changed
to C.W. Savery Securities Co., with offices in the Denham Building.
Savery continued working in the business through 1920, although he
appears to have dabbled in mining investments on a part-time basis
well into the 1930s. At the same time, he invested in an 80-acre
irrigated farm located over seven miles north of the city in
unincorporated Adams County. Savery purchased the property in 1918
for $18,000 from Jacob and Nettie Milstein, Russian-Jewish farmers
who had migrated to the Denver area from the failed Cotopaxi colony
in southern Colorado.
In the early 1920s, Savery embarked on the third and final phase of
his career when he entered the mushroom growing and canning
business. His interest in mushrooms did not emerge from a vacuum.
Rather, it was based in the fact that the center of the mushroom
business in the United States was Charles Savery's boyhood home of
Chester County, Pennsylvania. Introduced to the United States from
France in 1902, mushrooms quickly became a popular delicacy, with
80% of the nation's crop produced in Pennsylvania. Savery
reportedly had a cousin, Ed Jacobs, engaged in the business there
who introduced him to the growing of mushrooms.
In 1922, Charles Savery and partner L.A. Hughes began limited
production in a building under Denver's 20th Street viaduct. The
facility, however, was soon ordered closed by Chief of Police
William Candlish, who told the men that he had received complaints
about the unpleasant odors produced by the large amounts of horse
manure used in the growing process. Savery, though, recalled in
later years that the chief had it in for him after the official was
caught cheating in a poker game.
The Cache
You will be searching for a small plastic creamer jar about four
inches tall and two inches in diameter. I am starting this cache
out with a key chain, a CoinFest pin, and a travel bug. Cache also
has a log book and pencil but you may want to bring your own
writting utensil just in case.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)