“Building Denver: Visions of the Capital City,” on exhibit at History Colorado,” is a fascinating time machine that transports viewers from 1860 to 2020, and beyond.
Similar to the Hebrew injunction “Know the previous generations,” this informative four-part journey supplies the where and how behind the places we tread daily.
“Building Denver” is divided into “A New City: 1860-1900,” “A Beautiful City: 1900-1940,” “A Contested City: 1940-1980” and “A Great City: 1980-2020.”
Anna Mascorella, History Colorado’s Temple Buell associate curator of architecture, the lead exhibit curator and the IJN guide, begins in 1860, after Auraria and Denver City merged into a unified Denver in 1859.
A photocopy of the Petition to Extinguish Indian Ownership, published in the Rocky Mountain News in 1859, testifies to the then legal acquisition of the South Platte and Cherry Creek inhabited by the Arapahoe, Cheyenne and Ute tribes.
“The Indians did not voluntarily give away their land,” Mascorella confirms. “Newcomers to the area believed they had a right to it, and petitioned Congress to appropriate it.”
By the time Denver was admitted to the Union in 1876 and selected as Colorado’s capital, Native Americans had been forced onto reservations. Two Ute tribes remain in Colorado.
Mascorella turns to a gigantic partial reconstruction of a wall of the Plank House, believed to be the oldest surviving structure in Denver dating back to 1858 in Auraria. Tempted hands refrain from touching.
Smaller artifacts abound: the first marriage license issued in the state of Colorado; photos of the Great Fire in 1863, the Great Flood of 1864, Chinatown (once located where LoDo is now); and historical architectural drawings and images.
Architects contributing their talents to Denver’s early development included Robert Roeschlaub, Colorado’s first licensed architect and designer of Corona School (now Dora Moore); William Lang, the key residential architect who built what later became the Molly Brown House; and commercial architect Frank Edbrooke, who designed the Brown Palace, the Oxford Hotel and Denver Dry Goods.
Union Station, subtitled the “Wall Street of the West” and designed by architects William E. Taylor, Aaron Gove and Thomas Walsh, was the largest structure in the West when it was completed in 1881.
Elitch Amusement Park, the first zoo west of Chicago, opened to the public in May, 1890. A photograph of young North High School students who created Elitch’s entrance model and presented it in 1891 evokes “Seize the Day” whispers.
The Colorado State Capitol, which opened in November, 1894 and is the defining monument in Denver, was built by Detroit architect Elijah E. Myers, with Edbrooke supervising construction.
Images record the evolution of the Capitol from the ground to the dome, as well as workmen and masons. Salt- and peppershakers and playing cards celebrating the achievement are on display.
Cities are inevitably associated with the buildings that define them, but Mascorella stresses the role that residents played in Denver’s development. “We show how civic leaders, designers and residents all worked to bring their own visions of Denver to life,” she says.
“The Beautiful City: 1900-1940” focuses on the Beautiful City Movement (BCM), a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that permeated Denver’s evolution.
“At the turn of the 20th century, we have these polluted and unsanitary industrialized cities,” Mascorella says. “The Beautiful City Movement sought to correct this.”
It also showed “how beauty, order, urban development and urban planning could lead to carefully designed public spaces that inspired civic virtue.”
The 1893 Chicago world’s fair, which epitomizes BCM’s emphasis on neo-classical buildings and formal placement, is highlighted, as are tickets and souvenirs.
Denver’s Greek amphitheater, warrior’s memorial and the City and County Building in Civic Center perfectly capture BCM’s aesthetic ideal of public neo-classical structures and placement.
Civic Center “was designed to foster city engagement,” Mascorella says, pointing to slides demonstrating its current nexus for festivities, parades, protests, fairs and memorials.
Denver’s parks and parkway system — “the greening of the city” — also took root. Although parks existed in Denver prior to 1900, they expanded and connected to parkways in this time frame.
Mayor Robert Speer, who held office from 1904 to 1912 and was reelected in 1916, removed “Keep off the grass” signs to encourage residents to picnic and play in parks.
Speer, an advocate of residential beautification, handed out seedlings to homeowners and urged them to plant trees. Before-and-after shots of South Williams St. circa 1910-1920 chronicle the growth of leafy foliage by 2020.
This segment of the exhibit ends with photographs of commercial art deco and neo-classical buildings that still line downtown Denver, although some, like the Paramount Theater, have been repurposed.
An art deco hatbox from the former Daniels and Fisher Department store features the tower that crowned the store. The tower is now a downtown Denver landmark.
“The Contested City: 1940-1980” outlines multiple competing forces that dominated this time span, such as urban renewal, decentralization, urbanization and vacillating economics.
“We didn’t have a single vision,” Mascorella says of the impact of cars, I-25 and the late-1940s rise of Cherry Creek Shopping Center, Denver’s first pedestrian shopping mall.
Visitors can listen to a clip of (Cherry Creek Mall) designer Temple Buell explaining why he built parking lots around the center: “You have to take care of your beast of burden. You have to park.”
Mascorella says that urban renewal efforts and historic preservation groups worked together as Denver demolished existing neighborhoods to make way for redevelopment.
For instance, architect I.M. Pei and Denver’s architectural conservationist and preservationist Dana Crawford, who saved 1400 Larimer Street, designed Larimer Square.
Denver Landmark Preservation was founded in 1970. Historic Denver rescued the Molly Brown House downtown. While many mansions were torn down, others survived as private residences and museums.
Redlinining, the unethical yet legally sanctioned process of preventing Jews and people of color from moving into certain Denver neighborhoods, was practiced during this period.
Mascorella regards the large, multi-colored residential security map on display and explains how it determined where minorities were allowed to reside.
“The Federal Homeowners Loan Assn. made maps for all American cities that highlighted risk assessments for federal investment home ownership programs,” she says.
Areas deemed high risk — primarily inhabited by minorities and immigrants — were colored in red, hence the term redlining.
“Banks, insurance companies and realtors often denied access to people living in redlined areas,” she says. Green neighborhoods, on the other hand, symbolized solid investments.
Certain neighborhoods, like Crestmoor, had restrictive covenants that excluded Jews and people of color. The Fair Housing Act, passed in 1968, dissolved these restrictions.
Numerous urban renewal projects flourished between 1940 and 1980: Lawrence Halprin’s Skyline Park; Sakura Square, erected for Denver’s Japanese-American community; Auraria Higher Education Center, which led to development of the Auraria Campus; Denver Art Museum’s north building; Denver Botanic Gardens.
The opening titles of the hit 1981 show “Dynasty,” an upbeat visual tribute to Denver’s majestic oil-boom skyline of the late 1970s and early ‘80s, concludes this segment.
Mayoral candidate Federico Peña’s 1983 campaign slogan “Imagine a Great City” and its post-election blitz is the foundation of “The Great City: 1980-2020,” the last leg of the exhibit.
“We draw upon Mayor Peña’s campaign promise, which impacted the growth of the city and the region,” Mascorella says. “It was a time of bold design initiatives, and grassroots advocacy for historical preservation and greener spaces.”
One of her favorite artifacts is an original light post from the 16th Street Mall. Designed by architects Pei, Henry Cobb and landscape architect Laurie Olin, it debuted in 1982.
Who hasn’t conversed over coffee or investigated either the high-fashion stores or touristy shops along this nationally recognized pedestrian mall?
Several structural additions to Denver erected during these decades have achieved eye-popping status:
• Denver International Airport.
• Michael Graves’ winning redesign of the Denver Public Library on 14th Street.
• Daniel Libeskind’s Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum.
• Coors Field, testament to Major League Baseball in to Denver.
• The re-envisioned Union Station, surrounded by new restaurants, residential and commercial developments.
• The Webb Municipal Building.
This is a sample of the Great City that rose in answer to Peña’s call, which visitors hear as they peruse photos, drawings and campaign memorabilia.
“It’s important to realize that Peña welcomed residents into the redevelopment process,” Mascorella says. “His office accommodated 130 registered neighborhood organizations; the public was invited to voice their opinions at meetings.”
The 1980-2020 concluding section of “Building Denver” is not only an affirmation of today’s architectural wonders but also what lies ahead — literally, right around the corner.
“A Resilient City: Denver’s Future” coalesces every step along Denver’s journey from 1860 to 2020 into an opportunity for visitors to contribute their visions and hopes for the next 40 years.
“We let people put on their urban designer cap and think about ways to address key issues — housing, urban planning, environment, public realm, mobility — in our design studio here,” Mascorella says.
An interactive analog kiosk enabling guests to make suggestions and receive direct replies also lists relevant resource agencies.
“It’s a platform where Denver residents can advocate for their city — dig deeper; find people who deal with these issues; see who’s doing what.”
Everyone is invited to affix a pin to his or her neighborhood on a large Denver-area map and listen to the Living Denver podcast, a four-week collaboration with the House of Pod.
“People wrote original poetry about their neighborhoods, shared memories and challenges,” Mascorella says as a recorded male voice tells his Denver story.
“Building Denver: Visions of the Capital City,” which runs through Aug. 31, 2022, is an expertly choreographed exhibit. To paraphrase the poet, it feels like coming home — but knowing the place for the first time.
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