The history of the John Walters House Bed and Breakfast in Denver begins in the late nineteenth century, when the lure of making a fortune in the West and of living on a frontier brought many men to Colorado. Among these men were John Walters and Keppel Briefly, whose families and descendants would add distinction to the state's history.
John Walters was a young pioneer seeking a fortune in the Rocky Mountain West. Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1853, Walters came to Colorado in 1870 to raise sheep. He started the Walters Livestock Company in land near the present Denver stockyards. The company eventually stretched its activities from Rawlins, Wyoming, to the Mexican border. As his business expanded, Walters changed the name of his company to the Standard Meat and Livestock Company, which became one of the most successful businesses of its time.
Walters and his wife, Mina E. Burgie, built one of the early Colorado "mansions" at 2269 Gilpin Street in Denver, a house which has been officially designated as a Denver landmark. It is known to be the first house in Denver with electricity.
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 For Keppel
Briefly the West was a change from the
aristocratic life led by his father, Sir Oswald
Walters Brierly, K.B., who was renowned as the
Royal Marine Painter for Queen Victoria. As a
young journalist, Keppel came to Denver and
married Violet Arley Strover, the daughter of
General Searle Strover. Their only child, Justin
Keppel Brierly, who was born in 1884, grew up in
Denver. At Manual High School, Justin met Pearl
Walter, daughter of John and Mina Walters. After
graduating from the University of Colorado, Justin
and Pearl married.
A family of two boys,
Justin Walters (1905-1985) and Keppel Burgie (born
1909), occupied Pearl Brierly's time. She is
remembers as a warm, loving person with many
friends. Like their parents, Justin and Keppel
attended Denver public schools. Justin received
his B.S. degree from Columbia University in 1929
and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the
University of Denver in 1933. In his professional
career, Justin not only had a law practice but
also taught literature and was director of college
guidance with the Denver Public Schools. He was
the originator and organizer of the Denver Public
Schools program of  college and scholarship
guidance, which operated with great success from
1956 to 1971. Leading directors of admissions from
such colleges and universities as Harvard,
Wellesley, Chicago, and Stanford lauded the
program, remarking that it was the most
outstanding college guidance program in any large
public school system in the United States.
Justin's brother, Kepper Brierly,
entered the Colorado School of Mines after
graduating from Manual High School in 1928. He
interrupted college at Mines to attend West Point
for a year and returned to Colorado to graduate
with an engineer of mines degree. That year he
married Ruth Elizabeth Davis and went to work in
the Engineering Department of the Public Service
Company of Colorado.
The landmark house at 2259 Gilpin
Street in Denver, Colorado, stands as a testament
to western entrepreneurial spirit and intellectual
accomplishment. The descendants of John Walters
and Keppel Brierly continue to exhibit that spirit
and that record of success.
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