One of the things I enjoy most about downtowns and urban environments in general is the history found in these oldest parts of our communities. In Downtown Denver, not only do we have today a great collection of beautiful late-19th Century and early-20th Century buildings, but we also have at the Denver Public Library a tremendous archive of photographs, maps, and other resources that document the hundreds of historic buildings that, unfortunately, are no longer with us, as well as the people and events that have shaped our city’s history.
We can learn a lot about our future course as a Downtown community by understanding Downtown’s past–its mix of uses, the form and scale of its buildings, the quality and nature of its streets and public spaces. In fact, if we are able to implement the recommendations outlined in the recently-completed Downtown Area Plan, we’ll end up with a Downtown that will be very similar in character to the Downtown Denver of the early 1900s.
When I was doing the Worst Parking Lot contest last month, I had a lot of fun delving into the history of the five candidate blocks and learning about the generations of buildings that once occupied the ugly slabs of asphalt that are found on those blocks today. I hope you enjoyed those historical perspectives as well. If you did, then there’s a new blog that you’re going to like that I’m happy to help introduce: the Denver History Tours Blog!
Denver History Tours is a local business run by my friends Kevin and Shawn that offers a variety of walking and motor tours that explore Downtown Denver’s rich history and its historic buildings and districts. Their highly recommended tours are available to parties as small as four people to large groups requiring a fleet of charter busses, all at very reasonable prices. Denver History Tours also helps me with the logistics for my DenverInfill tours–walking and motor tours I offer of Downtown Denver’s urban environment from a real estate development and urban planning perspective.
To help celebrate Denver’s sesquicentennial and to share Denver’s history with a wider audience via the internet, Shawn (who’s not only a fellow urban planner but also an historian and Denver native) has just launched their new Denver History Tours blog, which will feature a “nugget” of Downtown Denver history in every post. Where DenverInfill focuses on the existing conditions of each Downtown block and what is planned on that block in the future, the Denver History Tours blog will focus on the historic buildings and past of each Downtown block. When I blog about a new Downtown infill project, I will provide a link to Shawn’s blog that covers the history of the same block, and vice versa. Shawn’s just completed his first post, focusing on Block 098.
I’m excited that there’s now a blog focusing on Downtown Denver’s history and featuring the incredible historic photos at the Denver Public Library, and how nicely that will complement DenverInfill. I hope you will enjoy reading the Denver History Tours blog too!
