Loretto Heights University
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Teikyo University Old Main(Loretto Heights University)
1890, Frank E. Edbrooke. 3001 S. Federal Blvd. (NR)
A traditional idea of what a college should look like is epitomized in towering Old Main, originally the centerpiece of a Catholic women's college run by the Sisters of Loretto. Old Main's grand stone entry arch bears the Latin inscription Fides-Mores-Cultura under an open bell tower that dominates the southwest Denver skyline. For this four-story administration building, Frank Edbrooke used rough red Manitou sandstone and the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The building has a cross-gable roof punctuated with dramatic dormers and carved stone crosses on the gable ends. Perpendicular gabled bays at each end form a modified H plan. A heroic statue of the Blessed Virgin rests in a grotto above the entrance. The chapel addition (1910) contains eighteen stained glass windows made in Munich, Germany. Teikyo, a multibranch, international Japanese university that took over the school in 1989, has diplomatically preserved Old Main and other landmarks, including the nuns' graveyard, on the 160-acre campus.
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