DenverUrbanism Blog

The ghosts of Denver’s past buildings are fading fast from our collective memories.  For every preserved Larimer Square or D&F Clocktower, there are hundreds of structures that have been demolished since Denver was founded back in 1858.   Unfortunately, detailed photographs of this built environment are limited to the most prominent structures of the time and even then, much of the early residential character of downtown has been lost, both in memory and in any photographic archive.  If we are lucky, some of this early history can be dug up at the library or even on E-Bay.  Such was the case recently when I was searching for early Denver school photographs.  Among all of the Denver Broncos paraphernalia, a photo of Public School #1 (later known as the Arapahoe School), was for sale.  While I had seen many archival photos of this school in library collections, I was anxious to own one for myself.

Public School #1 circa 1875

Club Building circa 1890

In 1955, both buildings were summarily demolished for a big parking lot without much thought given to their histories.  So next time you’re walking through Skyline Park north of 17th Street, nod your head to this ghost of Denver’s past and listen for the screams and laughter of the school children of pioneer Denver.

For more information on this subject, consult:

Snow, Shawn M. “ ‘A Premonition of Our Future Grandeur:’  Building Denver’s First Schools.” Colorado History:  Denver Inside and Out 16 (2011): 21-30.

We’ve finally arrived at our last full decade in Denver’s history… the 2000s! This is the fourteenth post in our series exploring the geographic and architectural attributes of Denver’s single-family homes. For previous installments, please use the links below:

1870s (plus series introduction)
1880s
1890s
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s 

The 2000s was Denver’s fifteenth full decade as a city. We celebrated our city’s sesquicentennial in 2008 in a relatively low-key fashion, but with all the attention and events related to the Democratic National Convention, I think most people didn’t mind that we didn’t have a big blowout celebration. In short, the 2000s was a fantastic decade for Denver, as the city’s renaissance that started in the late 1980s continued with little interruption.

The decade began with tremendous momentum. The 1990s saw a huge amount of civic investment and new infrastructure put in place that set the stage for the private sector to respond accordingly… and did they ever! For an overview of what was built in the greater Downtown area in the 2000s, you can check out the original DenverInfill website. By 2004, there were so many new infill project planned or under construction in the Downtown area, that it prompted me to launch DenverInfill just to keep track of the numerous residential, office, hotel, and civic projects that seemed to pop up on almost a daily basis. But perhaps the best way to reflect upon our city’s accomplishments in the 2000s is to revisit my “Top 10 Urbanism Achievements of the Aughts” series, which detailed how significant the decade was:

10 – Democratic National Convention
09 – Convention Center Expansion and Hotel
08 – Stapleton Redevelopment
07 – Downtown Denver Historic District
06 – T-REX
05 – Central Platte Valley Redevelopment
04 – Progressive Plans and Policies
03 – The Amazing Denver Voter
02 – FasTracks and Union Station
01 – Downtown Denver Infill Boom

From 2000 to 2009, over 11,100 single-family detached homes were built in Denver, which is pretty significant considering the city’s boundaries remained fixed due to the Poundstone Amendment. This total was up from the 1990s by over 5,000 units. The Stapleton redevelopment had a lot to do with this, but it was also the thousands of single-family homes that were built on the random vacant lots here and there and the continuation of the scrape-off phenomenon that contributed to this total. Keep in mind, however, that all the infill development in the greater Downtown area documented on DenverInfill and in the “01 – Downtown Denver Infill Boom” link above is not counted in our 2000s total. Those were all multi-family residential projects, not single-family, so the grand total number of new housing units built in the city in the 2000s was substantially higher.

In the decade, Denver’s population increased from 554,636 in 2000 to 600,158 in 2010, an 8.2% increase. And if the trend so far in the 2010s continues, we may easily surpass that rate of increase: the State Demographer’s Office estimates Denver’s population in 2020 at about 686,000.

Here’s our Denver Neighborhoods Map showing the city’s single-family residential growth in the 2000s. Parcels with single-family homes built during the 2000s that remain in existence today are colored red. Parcels with homes that were built in a previous decade that remain in existence today are colored gray. Click/expand to see images at full size.

What is obvious is the growth in the Stapleton, Lowry, Green Valley Ranch, and Gateway areas. But if you look closely, you can see that the Montclair, Hilltop, Washington Park, Belcaro, Cory-Merrill, University Park, University Hills, and College View-South Platte neighborhoods also had a lot of scattered new development—people capitalizing on their city location by putting up new homes on vacant or underdeveloped lots.

Here are the 2000s parcels colored in red over a current Google Earth aerial:

Now, here’s Mark’s architectural photography and style descriptions:

The first decade of the new century began much like the end of the last, with the Neoeclectic phase of domestic architecture perhaps more pronounced than ever. The modern Ranch continued as the home of choice for the masses with greenfield subdivisions remaining the prototype.

1. Ranch. The style features typically asymmetrical single-story homes with very low-pitched roofs and broad, sometimes rambling facades. The eaves may be either boxed or open, with the rafters exposed and with a moderate or wide overhang. Both brick and wooden facades are common, sometimes in combination. Modest traditional detailing, usually loosely based on Spanish or English Colonial precedents is common and frequently entails decorative shutters and porch-roof supports. Ribbon windows are common as are large picture windows in living areas. Some examples from the decade of the Ranch and its variants (Gateway/Green Valley Ranch):

2. Postmodern. Postmodern architecture replaces structured modernist form and function with an eclectic amalgamation of borrowed styles. The style features diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Features include the use of sculptural forms, ornaments, anthropomorphism, and materials which perform trompe l’oeil, creating the illusion of space or depths where none actually exist. Left (Hilltop), right (Cherry Creek):

3. Neoeclectic/Neocolonial. The style features a very free adaptation of the preceding Colonial Revival style showing less concern for copying the more historically precise Colonial prototypes; metal windows and widely overhanging eaves are common with free interpretations of Colonial door surrounds, colonnade entry porches, and dentiled cornices. Roof pitches differ in that they may be either steeper or lower than earlier Revival examples. Left (Country Club), right (Hilltop):

4. Contemporary. The style is oftentimes used as a catch-all to describe modern styles that share a variety of features that haven’t yet been classicized. Generally few, if any, traditional building methods and ornamentation features are used. It’s also one of the first architectural styles to embrace completely new building methods, and forms that are based more on functionality than style. Characteristics include facades that usually feature a mixture of materials, like stone, brick, and wood, all combined on the same surface, flat roofs, split levels, and large overhangs, and an abundance of glass (Cherry Creek):

5. Neoeclectic/Neo-Mediterranean. The style is loosely based on earlier Italian Renaissance, Spanish Eclectic, Mission, or Monterey precedents. Common features include tile roofs, stucco walls, and round-arched windows and doorways. Left (Belcaro), right (Hilltop):

6. Neoeclectic/Neo-Victorian. More rare than the other traditional revivals, Neo-Victorian was one of the last Neoeclectic styles to appear. Most examples feature free interpretations of Queen Anne spindlework porch detailing which mimic the cross-gabled hipped-roof form commonly seen in earlier prototypes. Left (Lowry), right (Stapleton):

7. Neoeclectic/Neo-Tudor. The style, similar to its Tudor predecessors, characteristically features dominant front-facing gables with steeply pitched roofs. Decorative half-timbering detailing is nearly universal and windows are grouped and sometimes include diamond-shaped panes. As with other Neoeclectic styles, little attention is paid to precisely copying its Tudor antecedents. Left (Stapleton), right (Hilltop):

8. Neoeclectic/Neo-French. Perhaps the most dominant Neoeclectic style, the Neo-French typically features steeply pitched hipped roofs and through-the-cornice dormers. Doors and windows are frequently round or segmentally arched (Hilltop):

9. Late-Modernism. As described previously, late Modernism refined and reformulated earlier Modern concepts and revived disfavored Modernist features such as radial corners, belt courses, and glass block. Defining characteristics include a horizontal orientation, use of industrial materials such as concrete, ribbon windows and belt courses, hooded or deep-set windows, large areas without windows, no ornament, decorative use of functional features, walls that are eaveless or with boxed or cantilevered eaves, and flat or shed roofs. Left (Lowry), right (University Hills):

10. The following are some examples of infill from the 2000s in the Stapleton neighborhood:

One more post to go in the series! Next, we’ll wrap the project up with a final look at Denver’s geographic growth and some statistics about the city’s single-family housing stock.

Our march through Denver’s decades continues into the 1990s! This is the thirteenth post in our series exploring the geographic and architectural attributes of Denver’s single-family homes. For previous installments, please use the links below:

1870s (plus series introduction)
1880s
1890s
1900s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s

The 1990s was Denver’s fourteenth full decade as a city and also the decade it came roaring back from the difficulties of the 1970s and 1980s.

Perhaps the city’s lowest point came in 1986 when the full impact of the energy bust was felt across the city. The tower cranes that had dominated the downtown skyline for a dozen years were gone and in their place were shiny new, and mostly empty, skyscrapers. Property values tanked. People saw 50% of the value of their homes disappear virtually overnight. There were no jobs and the outlook was bleak.

By 1990, however, things were looking up. Mayor Peña’s visionary leadership and a slate of ambitious civic projects began lifting the spirits of Denverites and the city’s economy. By 1990, the new airport was under construction, and hundreds of millions of dollars of new libraries, bridges, and parks were underway thanks to the 1988 bond issue. In 1990, Denver citizens passed a $199 million bond issue to improve the city’s schools, and that same year, metro Denver voters approved a 0.1 percent sales tax for a new major league baseball stadium. Our faith in “If you build it, they will come” was rewarded in 1992 when Major League Baseball granted the Mile High City an expansion team—the Colorado Rockies.

We’re just getting started: In 1990, the new Colorado Convention Center (Phase 1) opened, as did the upscale new Cherry Creek Shopping Center, which gave Denver a huge boost in recapturing retail dollars from the many suburban shopping malls that ringed the city. Also in 1990, Denver voters approved a $90 million bond issue to build a new Central Library, several new neighborhood branches, and improvements to dozens of existing branch libraries.

Mayor Wellington Webb was elected in 1991 and continued to push a strong agenda for civic investment and infrastructure in Denver. In 1991, the Buell Theater opened in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, and in 1993, a half million Catholic youth descended on downtown Denver to celebrate World Youth Day. In 1994, Denver’s first light rail line—the 5-mile long Central Corridor through downtown—opened in 1994. Then, in the spring of 1995, Denver celebrated an amazing quartet of grand openings with Denver International Airport in February, the Denver Central Library in March, Coors Field in April, and Elitch Gardens in May.

The good times continued to roll throughout the rest of the decade. Denver snagged an NHL team from Quebec—the Colorado Avalanche—who promptly won the Stanley Cup, giving Denver its first major sports title. The city hosted the Summit of the Eight (G8) gathering in 1997 and, in 1998, voters approved another $95 million bond issue for neighborhood improvements and funding to build the new Mile High Stadium, while the Denver Broncos gave us back-to-back Super Bowl victories. A new aquarium and the Pepsi Center opened in 1999 and, by the end of the decade, most of the old viaducts and crumbling infrastructure in the Central Platte Valley had been replaced, paving the way for the valley’s remarkable redevelopment in the 2000s.

Finally, the 1990s was the decade when Lower Downtown transformed from a gritty historic area where urban pioneers began converting old warehouses into lofts and brewpubs, into the thriving mixed-use “LoDo” district where virtually every historic building had been renovated by mid-decade, and new construction started replacing parking lots.

From 1990 to 1999, approximately 6,100 single-family detached homes were built in Denver. This total was up from the 1980s by over a thousand units, but perhaps the bigger story about single-family detached homes in Denver in the 1990s was the pop-top phenomenon. Not counted in that 1990s total of 6,100 new units are the thousands of Denver homeowners who popped the tops off their smaller historic homes to add more square footage so they could stay in their favorite Denver neighborhood and have a bigger home too. Denver homeowners’ willingness to invest in their homes and in their city during the 1990s was a clear sign that Denver was, once again, a city on the move.

In the 1990s, Denver stopped its two-decade streak of population losses, increasing in population from 467,610 in 1990 to 554,636 in 2000, a 19% increase, and the second-largest (after the 1940s) numeric increase in one decade in the city’s history.

Here’s our Denver Neighborhoods Map showing the city’s single-family residential growth in the 1990s. Parcels with single-family homes built during the 1990s that remain in existence today are colored red. Parcels with homes that were built in a previous decade that remain in existence today are colored gray. Click/expand to see images at full size.

In addition to the obvious completion of new subdivisions on the city’s edges, in places like Marston, Montbello, and Green Valley Ranch, two other things stand out in this map: First, the beginning of the redevelopment of the former Lowry Air Force Base is visible. Second, if you look carefully, you can see red scattered throughout much of southeast Denver, particularly neighborhoods like Hilltop, Cherry Creek, Washington Park, Cory-Merrill, and University Park. Those are mostly scrape-offs.

Here are the 1990s parcels colored in red over a current Google Earth aerial:

Now we’re ready for Mark’s architectural photos and descriptions:

In the 1990s, the Neoeclectic phase of domestic architecture continued as Neoeclectic styles were the fashion while the modern Ranch continued to be constructed in large numbers attesting to its popularity and longevity.

1. Ranch. The style typically includes asymmetrical single-story homes with very low-pitched roofs and broad, sometimes rambling facades. The eaves may be either boxed or open with the rafters exposed and have a moderate or wide overhang. Both brick and wooden facades are common, sometimes in combination. Modest traditional detailing, usually loosely based on Spanish or English Colonial precedents is common and frequently entails decorative shutters and porch-roof supports. Ribbon windows are common as are large picture windows in living areas. Here are some examples from the decade of the Ranch and its variants. Top left (Gateway/Green Valley Ranch), top right (Indian Creek). Bottom left (Indian Creek), bottom right (Gateway/Green Valley Ranch):

2. Neoeclectic / Neoclassical Revival. The style features the full-height columns from the preceding Neoclassical style and applies them to a variety of house forms. Similar to other Neoeclectic styles, most examples show little concern for historically accurate detailing. Earlier versions were typically single-story while more recent adaptations are commonly two-story (Cherry Creek):

3. Neoeclectic / Neo-Mediterranean. The style is loosely based on earlier Italian Renaissance, Spanish Eclectic, Mission, or Monterey precedents. Common features include tile roofs, stucco walls, and round-arched windows and doorways. Left (Belcaro), right (Cherry Creek):

4. Neoeclectic / Neo-French. Perhaps the most dominant Neoeclectic style, Neo-French typically features steeply pitched hipped roofs and through-the-cornice dormers. Doors and windows are frequently round or segmentally arched (Belcaro):

5. Neoeclectic / Neocolonial. A very free adaptation of the preceding Colonial Revival style showing less concern for copying the more historically precise Colonial prototypes. Metal windows and widely overhanging eaves are common with free interpretations of Colonial door surrounds, colonnaded entry porches, and dentiled cornices. Roof pitches differ in that they may be either steeper or lower than earlier Revival examples. Left (Lowry), right (Belcaro):

6. Neoeclectic / Neo-Victorian. More rare than the other traditional revivals, Neo-Victorian was one of the last neoeclectic styles to appear. Most examples feature free interpretations of Queen Anne spindlework porch detailing and mimic the cross-gabled hipped-roof form commonly seen in earlier prototypes. Left (Lowry), right (Washington Park West):

7. Neoeclectic / Neo-Tudor. The style, similar to its Tudor predecessors, characteristically features dominant front-facing gables with steeply pitched roofs. Decorative half-timbering detailing is nearly universal and windows are grouped and sometimes include diamond-shaped panes. As with other Neoeclectic styles, little attention is paid to precisely copying its Tudor antecedents (Belcaro):

8. Late-Modernism. As described previously, late Modernism refined and reformulated earlier Modern concepts and revived disfavored Modernist features such as radial corners, belt courses, and glass block. Defining characteristics include a horizontal orientation, use of industrial materials such as concrete, ribbon windows and belt courses, hooded or deep set windows, large areas without windows, no ornament, decorative use of functional features, walls are eaveless or with boxed or cantilevered eaves, and flat or shed roofs (Cherry Creek):

9. The following are some examples of infill from the 1990s in the Washington Park neighborhood:

Next time, we’ll explore our last full decade… the 2000s!