Quincy Farm's Off-Season Walk Shows What Changed This Year, and What Comes Next

"The west side of the Farm will be a quiet, tranquil open space featuring mountain views, where the Anderson House has been removed and replaced with natural vegetation."

That sentence is from The Vision for Quincy Farm, a city document dated July 2026. It describes a west side the city plans for, and the Anderson House in that picture is already gone. Today the house is still standing. City staff told Council in August that they expect to remove it in the second half of 2027. If you walk the High Line Canal past Quincy Avenue this fall, you're seeing the last version of the farm with both houses on the property.

Most of this year's finished work is easy to spot from the trail: the footbridge, the pond, new plantings. Those projects are also the groundwork for a larger change that's already decided. One half of the farm becomes the place for programs and gatherings, and the other is set aside for quiet.

The Farm Has Already Been Split in Two

Catherine "Cat" Anderson deeded Quincy Farm to the City of Cherry Hills Village in 2007, keeping the right to live there for the rest of her life. The same year, she placed a conservation easement on the land with Colorado Open Lands. The farm passed to the city after she died in 2016. It covers 17.5 acres, which Cherry Hills Land Preserve puts at 24% of the city's public open space and parks. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in April 2007 as a historic district, recognized for both its farming history and its buildings.

For about ten years, the city's question was how much public use the farm should get. A visioning committee filed a report in 2014. A Quincy Farm Committee followed, but its work was paused in 2020. In December 2021, the city signed an agreement with Cherry Hills Land Preserve to run educational programs on the farm. On June 16, 2026, Council settled the question. According to the meeting minutes, Council had weighed four options, from very passive to more active. It agreed to remove the Anderson House, rehabilitate the Hopkins House, allow small private events on the west side, and allow small to medium private events in the Big Barn on the east side.

Here's how the approved vision divides the farm:

The vision says the Hopkins House will be rehabilitated to the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Rehabilitation of Historic Structures, "subject to cost." Cherry Hills Land Preserve calls it the only 19th-century farmhouse in the area. Once the Anderson House is gone, the Hopkins House will be the one building left on the west side.

This Year's Finished Work Supports That Split

The projects completed over the past year line up closely with the two halves. Each one prepares a side for the role the vision gives it.

The pond is now smaller and deeper. The irrigation pond beside the canal dates to the 1930s. When the city took over the farm in 2016, the pond had filled with sediment and grown shallow, and it was suffering from extreme algae blooms. The High Line Canal Conservancy reports that the city dredged it to make it smaller and deeper, which improves water quality and wildlife habitat. Dredging finished in Fall 2025 and planting in Spring 2026. Citizen Portal reported that a $241,000 grant from Arapahoe County Open Spaces paid for part of the work. The vision lists the "improved pond area" as part of the west side's wildlife habitat.

The footbridge is new, but built to look like the old one. The bridge from the canal trail into the farm was replaced in Summer 2026. The city paid for it with matching funds from the Conservancy and built it to keep the character of the old wooden footbridge. Citizen Portal reported that city staff did the replacement in-house.

The east side got its anchor first. Cherry Hills Land Preserve says the Big Barn renovation was finished in 2025. The group hosted a Big Barn Grand Reopening and a Barn Party that year and counted more than 1,600 visitors to its events over the season. In 2026, the east side also got landscaping with 40 fruiting trees and shrubs, according to staff's August briefing as reported by Citizen Portal.

All of this sits on one of the canal's busiest stretches. The vision says the High Line Canal Trail runs through the middle of the property and is used by hundreds of people every day. More trees are planned along the canal in the village. The Conservancy reports that the city is finalizing plans for more than 500 trees between Belleview and Hampden, with irrigation and planting set to continue in Spring 2027.

The Rest Is Scheduled but Not Yet Built

The buildings, more than the landscape, are where the remaining change will happen. Here is the timeline from the city's own documents and recent reporting:

1. 2026 budget. The city's 2026 Quincy Farm Annual Plan, approved by Council on October 21, 2025, set aside $500,000 for East Farmhouse construction, $100,000 for program parking and $30,000 for a landscape plan, within a total Quincy Farm budget of $1,286,000. The same plan includes a crusher-fine trail from behind the Big Barn around the east pasture.
2. June 16, 2026. Council approved the vision. Staff said the East Farmhouse renovation would go out to bid over the summer, with construction expected to start in early fall. The minutes also note that event sizes, event hours and building details will be decided later through separate policies and annual plans.
3. August 18, 2026. Staff presented a draft 2027 Quincy Farm budget of $842,000. It includes $700,000 in capital carried forward for the East Farmhouse, the Anderson House demolition and a feasibility study on the Hopkins House. Citizen Portal reported that construction documents for the farmhouse were complete and bidding was expected soon. Staff also described what has to be in place before private events can happen, including a 24-space grass parking area.
4. November 17, 2026. The public hearing and first reading of the city's 2027 budget ordinance are scheduled for this date, according to the October 20 Council packet.
5. Second half of 2027. This is when staff expect the Anderson House to be removed.

The 2027 figures above are drafts. The Hopkins House line in the carryforward pays for a study of feasibility, not for rehabilitation itself. The vision makes that work depend on cost, so the oldest building on the farm is the least certain part of the plan. Councilors also raised questions in June. One asked that the public be heard before the Anderson House comes down. Another asked that small events on the west side be treated separately from the Hopkins House renovation, and offered outdoor stargazing as an example of a public event that fits that side.

Visiting Between Seasons

Cherry Hills Land Preserve's last dated event this year was "Raptors, Ponies and Pumpkins" on October 4, with live birds of prey, pumpkin decorating, nature tables and miniature horses. Its programs page now signs off with "See you at Earth Day 2027." The farm stays open between seasons, and the rules are short:

• Both the east and west sides are open every day, sunrise to sunset.
• Enter from the High Line Canal trail at Quincy Avenue.
• There's one accessible parking space and no other parking on site.
• Buildings open only during scheduled programs.
• Bikes can't be ridden on the farm, but there's a bike rack.
• Dogs aren't allowed.

Cross the new bridge, then go west along the nature trail, past the pond and toward the Hopkins House. That's the half of the farm the vision describes as primarily a place for individual encounters with nature. If you're combining the walk with other errands in the village, the Calaveras en Mi Ciudad exhibition is at City Hall through November 2 during regular hours.

The 2027 budget, including the money for the East Farmhouse and the Anderson House removal, comes before Council for its public hearing on November 17.

At Quincy Farm, each building got a decision: keep it, restore it to standard or remove it. Then the budget had to cover it. If you own an older home in Cherry Hills Village and are weighing the same choices, Charles Ward brings a construction background to the question of what to restore, what to replace and what it means for your home's value. Request a Complimentary Home Valuation to get started.