Most people familiar with Denver know there is a difference between the names Highland and Highlands to describe the area northwest of Downtown, but I suspect few are very clear as to when to use the one versus the other or if there should be any distinction at all. Even on my DenverInfill maps, I use the name Highland for the entire district, even though I know that’s not entirely accurate. So, in the spirit of civic enlightenment, here’s a brief primer on the difference between Highland and Highlands. My sources for this information are the books Rediscovering Northwest Denver by Ruth Eloise Wiberg and Denver, A Pictorial History by William C. Jones and Kenton Forrest.
The first attempt in establishing a settlement in what is today Denver occurred on September 24, 1858, when some Kansans established the St. Charles Town Association, which claimed the area immediately east of the Platte River and north of Cherry Creek (known today as Lower Downtown). However, they didn’t stick around to actually settle the site; instead, they went back to Kansas to seek a legal town charter from the territorial legislature with plans to return in the Spring of 1859.
Meanwhile, a separate party—from Georgia—established the Auraria Town Company on November 1, 1858 and immediately started building cabins and laying out streets in the area immediately east of the Platte and south of Cherry Creek. Consequently, we will officially celebrate the sesquicentennial of our city’s founding on November 1, 2008, thanks to those Georgians and their settlement named after the town of Auraria, Georgia.
Another party of Kansans, led by General William Larimer, showed up a few days later and unilaterally “assumed” the St. Charles Town Company’s claim and established the town of Denver City on November 17, 1858 in the same area east of the Platte and north of Cherry Creek. (Later, the St. Charles people would return but they failed to assert their claim.) On December 11, 1858, General Larimer waded across the Platte and established on the west side of the river the third town in the area, Highland (without the “s”). Of particular importance to this blog topic is that the western boundary of the town of Highland was Zuni Street (Gallup Avenue at the time).
Among these three towns, not quite one hundred cabins existed that first winter of 1858-1859.
The towns of Auraria and Denver City didn’t get along very well. A rivalry existed as to which town would become the dominant community. Although Auraria had the early lead, thanks in part to the fact that Denver City had the stagecoach station and the only official U.S. Post Office for the three towns, Denver City prevailed. On April 3, 1860, Auraria residents voted to merge with Denver City, and Highland joined in as part of the merger too. The new combined town was named just Denver, and had a population of about 4,700. The area that was once Highland became known within the local government as North Denver, Auraria became West Denver, and Denver City became East Denver.
Over the next decade or so, most of the growth in Denver occurred east of the Platte. But by the mid-1870s, the land to the west of the original town of Highland—i.e. west of Zuni Street—finally caught the attention of a real estate speculator. In the area around what is today W. 32nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard, a new upscale subdivision named Highland Park was platted in 1875 that was modeled after a Scottish village and included curvy streets with names like Argyle, Dunkeld, Caithness, Firth, and Fife. Dozens of additional subdivisions sprang up nearby and later in 1875, the town of Highlands (with an “s”) was established. The eastern boundary for the town of Highlands was Zuni Street (the western boundary for the original Highland), and Highlands eventually extended north to W. 38th Avenue, south to Colfax, and west to Sheridan. Its city hall was located at the corner of 26th and Federal where Denver Fire Station #12 is today.
Highlands was an elite suburb that looked down (literally and figuratively) upon the dirty, crowded, smoggy, crime-ridden city of Denver. Highlands prided itself on its clean air, beautiful gardens and tree-lined streets and, in particular, its high moral standards. Thanks to a fee of $5,000 to obtain a town of Highlands liquor license, there wasn’t a single bar in the entire community. While sinful Denver surged by 1890 to a population of 106,000, affluent clean-living Highlands counted about 8,000 residents.
Denver tried to annex the town of Highlands several times, but Highlands residents always voted against it. Finally, it was their financial state that caused Highlands to give in. The lack of an industrial tax base, a treasury depleted by the Silver Panic of 1893, and a long list of needed infrastructure investments left the town with little choice. On June 22, 1896, the town of Highlands voted to be annexed to Denver.
That’s the story. So what does this mean for us today with regards to the Highland versus Highlands question? I suppose it means that if you are referring specifically to the oldest part of northwest Denver closest to Downtown (east of Zuni Street including the little section of the Downtown street grid west of the river), you should probably call it Highland, and if you are referring to anything west of Zuni, you should probably call it Highlands. Or, call the whole thing Highland and distinguish the part closest to Downtown and the Platte River as Lower Highland. But please, please, whatever you do, just don’t call it “LoHi”!!
