Own a midcentury time capsule home? This new Fort Collins tour might be just for you.
Kathryn Kurtz's home is straight out of the pages of a magazine.
Page 39 of a 1957 edition of New Homes Guide magazine, to be exact.
Handling it ever so delicately, Kurtz picked the magazine page off of her dining room table earlier this month, showing off the original plan for her 1958 north Fort Collins ranch home.
More than 60 years later, the four-bedroom ranch west of Long Pond has remained largely unchanged — still boasting its original layout and features like its blue metal GE kitchen cabinets, huge stone fireplace wall and seven sliding glass doors.
And thanks to a new Fort Collins home tour, the tidy time capsule will be once again be admired by the masses.
Hairpin Homes — a local renovation company that specializes in midcentury modern homes — plans to feature Kurtz's house and a handful of other Fort Collins midcentury marvels for its first midcentury modern house tour this fall, according to Hairpin Homes co-founder Angel Kwiatkowski.
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"I just feel like the midcentury aesthetic is very persistent. People continue to love it so much," Kwiatkowski told the Coloradoan. "A home tour is so fun for both established people who want to do higher-end remodels and just aspirational — (for) people looking for décor ideas."
Inspired by Denver Modernism Week, which celebrates midcentury modern homes and architecture each August, Kwiatkowski said she and her business partner Michelle Rambolt decided to start their own tour featuring Fort Collins homes. It is set to take place this fall.
While Poudre Landmarks Foundation has previously hosted a special midcentury modern version of its annual Historic Homes Tour, Hairpin Homes' tour will be the first that's wholly dedicated to the architectural era.
The Hairpin Homes tour will showcase around five homes generally built from 1949 to 1979, with some — like Kurtz's — being largely untouched midcentury time capsules and others being more recently renovated, Kwiatkowski said.
Kurtz's home was previously featured in the Poudre Landmark Foundation's 2016 historic home tour. For it, Kurtz said she pulled out the magazine clippings, architectural plans and illustrations that predate her beloved home.
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Kurtz and her husband, David, purchased the home from its original owner in 2012. Appropriately, they filled it with midcentury décor and embraced its original features — including a vintage xylophone doorbell chime, the teal water fountain in its kitchen and even an indoor charcoal grill, which Kurtz learned was quite the novelty in 1958.
"We jokingly blew kisses to this house (before we bought it)," Kurtz said, noting that she and David admired the midcentury ranch for years before it came on the market.
Now, they walk through its teal double doors every day — journeying back in time to 1958. And this fall, more midcentury fans will get to do the same.
Do you have a midcentury home worth showing off?
Head to HairpinHomes.com/mcm-tour for more information on the tour and how to become a featured home.
Erin Udell reports on news, culture, history and more for the Coloradoan. Contact her at ErinUdell@coloradoan.com. The only way she can keep doing what she does is with your support. If you subscribe, thank you. If not, sign up for a digital subscription to the Coloradoan today.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Own a midcentury time capsule home? This Fort Collins tour wants you.
