Denver was established as a city and county by a constitutional amendment in 1902. The Denver economy grew as tourism and the service sector expanded, energy resources were exploited, and federal offices were attracted. The Denver Livestock Exchange and the National Western Stock Show anchored Denver’s cattle town reputation. Growth began to pick up slowly after 1900 as the city’s economy improved due to stockyards, brickyards, canneries, flour mills, and leather and rubber goods. There were many breweries in Denver then, but only Coors Brewing survived and has become one of the country’s largest beer producers.
During Speer’s tenure as mayor from 1904 to 1912, several projects were initiated to add landmarks, update existing facilities, and enhance the city’s landscape. These included the City Auditorium, the Civic Center, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Denver’s city leaders went to Washington D.C. and convinced the politicians there that Denver was no longer a frontier town. This allowed the first major party convention to be held in a western state. While jobs began trickling back into Denver in 1897, real estate prices remained depressed until 1900, as the U.S. economy began to recover.
Here are some interesting historical photos that will take you back to the 1900s in Denver. While buildings, streets, and wardrobes have evolved over time, many attractions remained popular today that have remained popular for a long time.
#1 Panoramic view of Denver, 1909.
#2 View of Cheesman Memorial Pavilion, Cheesman Park, Denver, 1909
#3 View of the Denver Club at 17th (Seventeenth) Street and Glenarm Place in Denver, 1900
#4 Denver County Courthouse (Arapahoe County Courthouse) on Fifteenth (15th) and Tremont Street in Denver, 1909
#5 Exterior view of Walter Scott Cheesman’s residence (later called Cheesman-Evans-Boettcher mansion & Governor’s mansion), 400 East 8th (eighth) Denver, 1908
#6 Ice skating on City Park Lake, Denver, Colorado, 1901. View east to Museum of Natural History building under construction.
#7 Denver Fire Department’s Engine House Number One is being dismantled, corner of Colfax and Broadway, Denver, 1909
#8 View of columned gateway at Fourth (4th) Avenue and Franklin Street, in the Denver Country Club neighborhood, Denver, 1907
#9 Welcome Arch at Union Station in Denver, Colorado; view of 17th (Seventeenth) street, street railway car number 248, 1906
#10 Men and boys pose on the Denver City Tramway Company ‘Steam Dummy’ steam-powered street car at 30th (Thirtieth) Avenue and Zuni Street in the Highland neighborhood of Denver, 1900.
#11 West Denver High School women’s basketball team, Denver, 1908
#12 View of the lily pond and rock garden at Washington Park in Denver, 1909
#13 Pennsylvania Street (ca. 900 block south), in Denver, 1909
#14 Denver Tramway cars no. 74 and no. 63, 1900
#15 Haish Manual Training School located in the University of Denver Haish Building at 14th (Fourteenth) and Arapahoe Streets, Denver, 1900.
#16 Denver Republican Newspaper building at 1118 16th (Sixteenth) Street in downtown Denver, 1909.
#17 Workers dismantle the chassis and wheels from several old Denver Tramway Company cars in Denver, 1909
#18 The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad engine no. 701 pulls into the Union Station in Denver, 1909
#19 Boys pose with wood planes in the workshop at the Denver Orphans’ Home (later the Denver Children’s Home) at 1501 Albion Street in the South Park Hill neighborhood of Denver, 1909
#20 Exterior view of Saint Anthony’s Hospital, West 16th (Sixteenth) Avenue and Quitman Street, Denver, 1905
#21 The Denver, formerly Arapahoe, County Courthouse located at 15th (Fifteenth) and 16th (Sixteenth) Streets and Tremont and Court Places in downtown Denver, 1909
#22 View of Tremont Street, in downtown Denver, 1909
#23 Passengers, conductors, and a tour guide with a megaphone ride on Denver Tramway Company trolley number 112 in Denver, 1900
#24 View of Denver Tramway Company trolleys number 166 and 53 on Colfax Street at Broadway in Denver, 1900
#25 View of a yard at 742 South Emerson Street, Washington Park West, Denver, 1907
#26 Denver and Rio Grande Railroad employees, men and boys, pose by a horse drawn railroad boxcar in front of the Stout Street Post Office, in Denver, 1909
#27 View of construction of the Denver Tramway’s storage yard and tracks near Jason Avenue (Santa Fe Drive) and Bayaud Street in Denver, 1904.
#28 Girls and their teacher sit at tables and on chairs and sew in a classroom at the Denver Orphans’ Home (later the Denver Children’s Home) at 1501 Albion Street in the South Park Hill neighborhood of Denver, 1909
#29 Sick men lie in beds in a ward of Denver General Hospital in Denver, 1909
#30 View of 18th (Eighteenth) and Arapahoe Streets with the Denver Cable Car power plant smoke stack in Denver, 1909
#31 View of a ditch adjoining the South Platte River in Denver, 1909
#32 View of a Victorian Richardsonian Romanesque house at the corner of 1st (First) Avenue and Grant Street in the Speer Neighborhood of Denver, 1905
#33 View of Denver Tramway Company Park Hill trolley number 230 on 17th (Seventeenth) Street in front of Union Station, Denver, 1905
#34 Boys in a marching band participate in a parade on Champa Street in downtown Denver, 1909
#35 Two women and a young girl sit in a canoe near the shore of Smith Lake in Washington Park, Denver, 1909
#36 Jolin Wright and Nora B. Wright play croquet in the fenced playground of the Detention Home School (later the Gilliam Youth Center for Juvenile Justice) at 2844 Downing Street in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver, 1903
#37 View of Larimer Street from 16th (Sixteenth) Street in Denver, Denver County, 1900
#38 Eighteenth 18th Street cable car house Denver City Cable Railway Co., 1906
#39 Exterior view of Ernest and Cranmer Building located at 17th (Seventeenth) and Curtis Streets, Denver, 1906
#40 Members of the Denver Bears baseball team pose outdoors at a baseball field in Denver, 1909
#41 Denver, Colorado west Denver Turnverein meeting hall at 133 – 12th Street, west Denver, 1909
#42 View of Denver Tramway Company car number 126 and a 500-series trailer (South Pearl Street Line), and men in conductor uniforms, in Denver, 1909
#43 Parade at the intersection of Broadway and 16th (Sixteenth) Streets in Denver, 1905
#44 Denver Sanitation street cleaning division flushing machines.1905-1915
Parade at the intersection of Broadway and 16th (Sixteenth) Streets in Denver, Colorado; shows horse-drawn water tank wagons, a steamroller, a man with a United States flag, the Majestic Building, and a street lamp traffic island. Signs read: "Tremont Grocers," and "Cassell Abbot-Detroit The Dominant Six."
#45 Denver Sanitation sprinkling department, 1905
#46 Engine No. 701 of the Denver and Rio Grand Railway is parked on the tracks at the Union Station in Denver, 1909
#47 Cheeseman Park, Denver, 1909
#48 16th St. from Arapahoe, Denver, 1907
#49 View of 16th (Sixteenth) Street from a three-story building on Stout Street, Denver, 1905
#50 View of 16th (Sixteenth) Street in Denver, Colorado; shows pedestrians, traffic, Denver, 1900s
#51 Conductors pose with Denver Tramway Company trolley, Leyden number 68, on Lawrence Street in Denver, 1905
#52 Denver Tramway Company 17th (Seventeenth) Ave. trolleys number 45 and 42 on 16th (Sixteenth) Avenue at the corner of Champa Street in Denver, 1905
#53 The Arapahoe County Courthouse at 16th (Sixteenth) and Tremont streets in downtown Denver, 1902
#54 Denver Tramway Company trolleys, led by number 36 and followed by the Stock Yard and number 333, are on 15th (Fifteenth) Street in Denver, 1905
#55 Two men shake hands in front of the Albany Hotel at the corner of Stout and 17th (Seventeenth) Streets in Denver, 1909
#56 View down 15th (Fifteenth) Street from Welton Street, Denver, 1900s
#57 View of Denver Tramway Company trolley number 237 on Broadway Street in Denver, 1905
#58 Denver Tramway Company trolley Golden number 67 at Union Station on the 16th (Sixteenth) Street viaduct in Denver, 1905
#59 An African American (Black) man stands near a woman on horseback, possibly a drum majorette, during a parade on 17th (Seventeenth) Street at California Street in downtown Denver, 1905
#60 A marching band participates in a parade on 17th (Seventeenth) Street in downtown Denver, 1900s
#61 A marching band participates in a parade on 17th (Seventeenth) Street in downtown Denver, 1909
#62 Children, women and men skate on the ice of Smith Lake at Washington Park, Denver, 1900s
#63 McLellan Gate, 18th (Eighteenth) Avenue entrance to City Park, Denver, Colorado, completed in 1904 as a gift of William W. McLellan, founder of City Park.
#64 Denver Public Library at Colfax Avenue and Bannock Street in Civic Center Park, Denver, 1909
#65 Denver Tramway Company trolleys number 334 and 68 on 15th (Fifteenth) Street at Lawrence Street in Denver, 1905
#66 A man and Denver Fire department horses, in Denver, 1900
#67 Denver Fire Dept. fire run or parade, 1902
#68 Denver Tramway Company station, with conductors and trolley cars Lawrence Street number 214, and Larimer Street number 183, 1905
#69 Group portrait of East Denver High School students in Denver, 1900
#70 The Denver Dog Pound with animal control officials and dog posing outside of the building, 1909
#71 View of horse-drawn wagons, one filled with furniture, next to the American Furniture Company warehouse at 1542 Lawrence Street in Denver, 1905
#72 View of Leyden Mine coal trains, Denver & Northwestern Railway cars number 1101, 1555, 1523, and 1546 with Alcott Public School at West 41st (Forty-first) Avenue and Tennyson Street, Denver, 1900
#73 Conductors pose with Denver Tramway Company trolley West 38th (Thirty-eighth) Avenue number 312 at the entrance to Elitch Gardens in Denver, 1905
#74 View of Denver Tramway Company trolley “Seeing The Foothills Observation Car” on 17th (Seventeenth) Street in Denver, 1905
#75 Panoramic view of Denver, Colorado from the Capitol Building, 1900
Shows the intersection of Colfax and Broadway, Denver Fire Department Engine House No. 1, the Denver Cable powerhouse with a large smokestack and storefronts, a park, sidewalks, commercial buildings, houses and apartment buildings. The rusticated stone Denver County Jail, with clerestory windows, and St. Elizabeth Church are in the distance.
![Women who include Frances Sims, Agnes S. Hall, Anamtille [?] McClung, and Louise Wells work at desks in the catalog department of the Denver Public Library at Colfax Avenue and Bannock Street in the Civic Center neighborhood of Denver, 1910](https://www.bygonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Denver_1900s_122.jpg)
![Looking south on B'way extension from East Denver Hi [sic] School, 1909](https://www.bygonely.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Denver_1900s_143.jpg)
Oooh, grass.
This was a great use of time! So wild to see lakes with ice on them and people skating, all the buildings that still exist (like the freemason bldg on Bwy) and so on. Just so many things to comment on.
My hope is one day they unbury the lower foundation of the Cheesman Pavillion. It’s such a shame it was buried up in the first place. It’s like a time capsule.
I was wondering where the bottom half went in modern times. Why’d they bury it?
“Schuetze’s plan called for the pavilion to be set on a platform and for gardens to surround the pavilion. The platform was to be accessible by motor car from the east to a central court punctuated by a fountain. Formal gardens were to mark the north approach. Wide steps were to descena from the platform to the lawn. The basics of Schuetze’s plan, influenced and changed in later days by Kessler, DeBoer, and others, remain in place today. The auto court was enlarged so that it was possible to drive directly to the pavilion and thus enjoy the mountain view without leaving the car. Concrete balustrades were built around the platform and next to the steps which descended to the north, south, and west. Round basins and fountains were installed on the west platform. A formal rose garden was installed at the north approach (beautifully commemorated by ihe 1920s Jerome water colors in the collection of the Colorado Historical Society). A retaining wall for the platform was installed (seen from the central lawn, the wail was in the image of an Italian Renaissance palazzo, with ashlar stonework, arched entries, and wrought iron lighting standards). An Italian water garden (the central feature of which consisted of three basins used for many years as wading pools) was created at the foot of the west steps. Most of this work was in place by 1910, or shortly thereafter, and, for the most part, remained in place until the 1970s. At that time the crumbling concrete of the original platform, steps, and balustrades was removed (rather than restored); auto access to the east of the pavilion was cut off; the former platform was terraced and grassed and wide concrete steps to the lawns were installed (the terraces are in four levels on the north and south of the pavilion); formal rectangular beds of annuals replaced the auto court; a rose garden, with walks and benches and appropriate peripheral plantings, was installed to the north of the pavilion and repeated on the south approach; and the wading pools were refurbished and a single jet d’eau (not in the original plan) was installed in the central pool. The image of the pavilion, notwithstanding the removal of the platform ana balustrades, remains as strong and central to the image of the park as ever”
It was in disrepair because the old version literally had people driving up to the top of the pavilion.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/nrhp/GetAsset?assetID=ab28bdc4-d33c-47ce-ac37-ca4a6a7b5498
Denver’s early park system was partly designed in the 1910s and 1920s for the burgeoning number of private automobiles to give people a place to go on Sunday drives. This includes lot more auto roads in the internal city parks than there are now. Plus Denver purchased four dozen park areas in the foothills. Among them are the Mt. Blue Sky highest road in the USA and Winter Park ski resorts. There are others barely developed and closer to pristine nature.
https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Parks-Recreation/Urban-Parks-Trails/Mountain-Parks
So many transplants in those pics
All I’m seeing is gentrification from classic wooden shacks. Not the frontier town I grew up in :angryface:
Let’s be real. The Denver we knew died when they built Union Station.
Never forget how big business took our trams from us.