Denver’s Country Club neighborhood is a trove of traditional architecture dating from the 1910s and 1920s. But agent Ann Atkinson with LIV Sotheby’s International has a rare, contemporary home in Country Club that happens to be the least expensive one on the market now in the historic district.

At 350 N. Marion St. she’ll show you a 4-bedroom/3-bath design that began life in 1923 as a bungalow, then had an extensive makeover in 1985 that gave it an updated look — a contrast to the classic revival styles in other parts of the neighborhood.

Elbow room

Atkinson, who lives nearby, said the home is an opportunity to be in a select, historic community, but with more elbow room than builders were delivering 60 years before, when interiors didn’t have the wide-open feel that later became popular.

“People get inside it and say, ‘This is cool,’” Atkinson said. She added that the atmosphere is more like the larger townhomes that builders began doing a mile east in Cherry Creek North around the same moment as the remodel.

The plan enters from a broad flagstone terrace facing the street into a formal area, then steps up into entertaining spaces that are rendered wide open to the canted ceiling above. An open, 3-story stairwell joins the bedroom level above to finished basement space below — something architects weren’t doing a century back.

The remodel also joined the house to the alley-load garage by way of a roomy family room extension, while creating a sheltered, outdoor living area alongside. Despite the expansive feel, the home has two office spaces, along with a media room in the lower level.

The price is $1.795 million — among only three listings available now south of Fourth Avenue in Country Club proper, with the other two each showing as closer to $5 million. Atkinson, who handled one of the five most expensive sales in the city last month on E. Seventh Avenue, says that in addition to the lower price, there’s a second reason this might save a buyer some money.

Need to open up spaces

“It’s priced for someone to do what they want with it,” she said. When one of the more historic plans sells, she says she will then see a dumpster appear out front — a sign that the buyers are opening up spaces for the brighter look that’s a better match to how people live today.

“But here you don’t have to pay for what someone else did,” Atkinson added. “It’s perfectly livable now.”

She noted that homes have continued to turn over in Country Club despite a slow market in the broader price ranges. “This area has always been solid financially, the last to feel a downturn and the first to see a turnaround,” she said.

At a moment when all the attention is on big plays for tech stocks, she finds there are buyers in this range that continue to feel that real estate is a more solid investment over the long run. She’ll have the home open this Saturday, noon-to-3 p.m.

OPEN SATURDAY, JUNE 13:

WHERE: 350 N. Marion St., Denver; from University Boulevard at First Avenue, head west on First, past Denver Country Club, nine blocks to Marion Street and turn north. Continue north a block and a half.

SIZE: 4 bed/3 bath, 4,103 sq. ft., 2-car garage  PRICE: $1.795 million WEB:  AnnAtkinson.com  OPEN: Saturday, June 13, noon-to-3 p.m.  AGENT:  Ann Atkinson, 303.725.6789