La Alma Lincoln Park A STORY OF TWO ERAS LINKED BY ONE NEIGHBORHOOD - - PDF document

A STORY OF TWO ERAS LINKED BY ONE NEIGHBORHOOD

La Alma Lincoln Park

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Early History of La Alma Lincoln Park

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1859

• Gold in them

hills

• Grazing land for

buffalo

• Seasonal Native

American encampments

• Military base

In 1861, Camp Weld was established in the area now known as Lincoln Park. Image courtesy Stephen H. Hart Library & Research Center, History Colorado.

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A view of the Confluence from 1859. Gold had been discovered in the mountains and panhandlers rushed to Colorado. In the 2 square miles leading to the confluence of the S Platte River and Cherry Creek, the lower 1.3 square miles (which would become La Alma-­Lincoln Park) served, at different times, as grazing land for buffalo, seasonal encampments of Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes, a watering hole for pioneers traveling west, and for a short time a civil war military base.

a.c.hunt

• Entrepreneur who

staked a claim on land that was to become Lincoln Park

• Brought Denver

and Rio Grande Railway through Lincoln Park

• 4th territorial

governor

• Lived in the

neighborhood

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Neighborhood started as a claim staked by A. C. Hunt. As an entrepreneur, Alexander Cameron Hunt had helped form the Auraria Town Company in 1858 (and then united it with its rival mining settlement across the creek, thereby incorporating Denver). He was later instrumental in building out Denver’s water infrastructure and bringing the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad through the neighborhood and to the city. He would go on to become Colorado’s 4th territorial governor (1867-1869), and he built his home in the neighborhood.

• 7 structures from

1870’s still in neighborhood

• Neighborhood has
• ne of the city’s

highest concentrations of homes from the 1880s

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Source: Denver County Assessors Office 2010

1870s

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It turned out that the areas around the creek and river were reliably good at flooding. Cherry Creek floods would destroy buildings in this area in 1864, 1875, and 1878, 1897, and 1912 for starters. Many of the neighborhood homes were washed away. But we retain 7 structures that still stand from the 1870s, and the neighborhood has one

• f the city’s highest concentrations of homes from the 1880s (along with

Five Points, Cole, and Whittier). By the 1890s, the focus of development had moved to Baker and the Highlands.

• Transcontinental

Railway connected East and West through Cheyenne

• Denver connected to

Cheyenne and Kansas City

• Opened up the West

to families

1870s

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1863 - 1869 Transcontinental railway was constructed to connect the eastern railway system, ending in Omaha, to San Francisco. The rail company chose Cheyenne over Denver as its major railroad center. So, the race was on to become a secondary hub by connecting to Cheyenne. In 1870, the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company railroad line ((here in the neighborhood) beat out Golden to make that connection, and it also connected the Transcontinental Line to Kansas City through Denver. This sped up migration west, quickly transforming the city from one of mostly single, transient men to an area of commerce and families.

1880s &1890s

• Lincoln Park was a

landing place for many working class immigrants.

• The West promised

railroad jobs.

• Union Pacific

Railway was the largest employer in La Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood.

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The 1880s saw a building boom in Denver. And the completion of the railroad facilitated commerce and movement of immigrants. With its proximity to the railway and the industry it supported, Lincoln Park became a natural landing place for generations of working class immigrants, refugees, and families seeking a place in which they could have a stake and upon which they could build an identity. In the 19th century, many Irish arrived in America impoverished and unskilled, and discrimination was common. When many Eastern Seaboard businesses still hung signs reading “No Irish Need Apply”, many Irish people came West with the promise of guaranteed railroad jobs and found greater social mobility. Irish saloons, churches, and social clubs

• thrived. Denver even had the only Irish-oriented newspaper: Rocky

Mountain Celt. In 1890 the Irish-born population in America reached its peak at nearly 1.9 million. John and Mary Donovan separately found their ways to USA from Ireland at age 17, in the late 1860s. They married in 1887 and had their only child--a daughter, Anna--a few years later and made their way to Denver.

• Union Pacific

Railway largest employer in neighborhood

• Burnham Yards city

in itself

• The Buckhorn

Exchange was across the street from the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad yard.

• Railmen could cash

paychecks at the Exchange, and then stay to drink it down

1890’s

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Lincoln Park’s largest employer was the Union Pacific Railway Company. And, Burnham Yards, was like a city unto itself. All the trades were represented, including foundry [workers], upholsterers, carpenters, machinists, car men, firemen, engineers, boilermakers... It had its own

• powerhouse. They had the ability to build a car [or locomotive] from the

ground up. A short block away, the Buckhorn Exchange had recently opened its door and began attracting rowdy crowds cattlemen, miners, railroad builders, silver barons, Indian chiefs, roustabouts, and gamblers. Railmen could cash their paychecks at the Buckhorn Exchange, and then stay to drink it down. In 1894, John, with the equivalent of an 8th grade education, began working as a laborer at Union Pacific Railway Company, and they settled into a house at 1257 10th Ave, down the block from the rowdy Buckhorn (and where the Catholic Charities daycare in Mariposa now stands).

• Early 1890’s, the

Donovans arrive in Lincoln Park

• John Donovan a laborer

at Union Pacific

• Made foreman within a

year

• Settled in north part of

the neighborhood

• Part of finding their

place was to purchase a 5-bedroom, Terrace-style house near Lipan & W 13th Ave

An Immigrant Family’s Story

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Within a year at Union Pacific, John was made foreman. A residential building boom was filling the northern end of neighborhood with brick, single-family homes. The Donovans purchased a 5-bedroom, Terrace style house near Lipan & W 13th Ave. As the tallest house on the highest lot on the block, the Donovans would have had an unobstructed view out the back windows of the Capitol building as it was being constructed.

Architectural Styles in La Alma Lincoln Park (late 1890s – early 1900s)

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• Terrace style house
• Bracketed cornice
• Tall and narrow

double hung, one

• ver one windows
• Typically 2 stories
• Low pitched roof
• This homes still

stands today on Lipan at 13th street

The Donovans’ Home: Late 1890s

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• Early Vernacular Cottage
• Frame

Vernacular/Temple Front

• Queen Anne

Two to three stories. Asymmetrical shape. Decorative trim Wrap around porch with

• rnamental spindles and

brackets Vibrant colors

• Terrace Form

Flat Roof Likely a corbelled parapet behind the stucco

VERNACULAR COTTAGE PAINTED QUEEN ANNE ONE STORY TERRACE TEMPLE FRONT

1890s 1900s

City purchased Hunt’s claim for $40k in 1885 and the building boom

• began. More than 93% of the blocks were developed one-half or more by

1900. In the same time frame we have the beginning or grander projects like Union Station in 1881 and the Brown Palace in 1892.

• Here are examples
• f Italianate style in

the neighborhood

1890’s

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Gabled Terrace

• Bracketed cornice
• Tall and narrow

windows

• Window hood

molding

• Wide roof eave

1890s 1900s

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TERRACE TEMPLE FRONT VICTORIAN COTTAGE

Urban elements

• Front lawn setbacks
• Front porches
• Low scale
• High density
• Visual diversity
• Large front lawn

gardens

• Diversity of house

styles

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1890s 1900s

Single-family detached brick housing was the primary residential style in Denver in the 1880s and is still evident today. In fact, many hundreds of the area’s original structures remain on the narrow lots in La Alma Lincoln Park and portray the stories of successive groups of working class people who have lived here since the 19th Century.

TERRACE SHOTGUN BUNGALOW TERRACE

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1890s 1900s

Urban elements

• Front lawn setbacks
• Front porches
• Low scale
• High density
• Visual diversity
• Large front lawn

gardens

• Diversity of house

styles

Development in this area began shortly after the railroad’s arrival in Denver and with the establishment of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in 1870, along the western edge of the neighborhood. A significant portion of the houses retain the distinctive modest size and scale with structures displaying popular 19th Century architectural styles including Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Italianate building form. Of the more than 200 structures in this study area, 90% are residences built in the 19th Century.

Evolution of The Neighborhood (the early 1900s-1950s)

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• Denver’s population

grew 20-fold

• Cable car

connection down 1st Ave and Kalamath

• Small businesses on

Santa Fe

• West Denver, an up

and coming place to live

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1890s 1900s

Between 1870 and 1890, Denver’s population grew 20-fold. Saloons and gambling flourished alongside churches and temperance. Santa Fe Drive was booming from 6th to 10th, having been connected to down on a cable car route the extended from downtown to 1st Ave and back up

• Kalamath. You could find dry goods, barbers, tailors, and other small

businesses. West Denver was an up and coming place to live.

• The Donovans remained

and ran their house as a boarding house for single professionals

• Daughter Anna married

and lived in this house with her parents and husband

• By 1940 Anna (49), John

Donovan (89) and her son were still living in house

• Family had been on block

& neighborhood for 40 years

An Immigrant Family’s Story…

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John Donavan continued to work at the railroad, and they ran the house as a boarding house, hosting single professionals. Over the decades, the census shows hotel workers (linen and pantry), one clerk from the railroad

• ffice, and 1 inspector working at the gas and electric company. In 1920,

they had one couple as boarders: He was a superintendent and she a

• milliner. Anna had become an adult and was working in an advertising

company. Just on their side of the block in 1910, 70% of the residents were foreign-born--mostly Ireland, England, and Scotland, with one Italian family and a “Yiddish” family from Russia. Anna married in 1920 and lived in the house with her parents and husband John O’Neill. By 1940, Anna’s mother and husband had died, and Anna (age 49), her father John (age 89), and her son Eugene were living in the house, but no longer running it as a boarding house. The family had been on the block for over 40 years.

1940s

• La Alma-Lincoln Park

was well connected.to the metro area.

• World War II brought

new military installations and industries to the region.

• Exposed tens of

thousands of servicemen and women to the region.

• Denver popular post-war

growth area.

• By Thanksgiving 1946,

Denver was in the midst

• f the worst housing

shortage in its history.

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In 1940, Denver city encompassed about four-fifths of the region’s population of 407,962. Interstate freeways had yet to be built. Denver’s three principal U.S. highways passed through or adjacent to the neighborhood, with US 85/87 proceeding up Santa Fe Boulevard and US 40 (Colfax) marking the northern boundary of the neighborhood. Seven major railroads connected the Denver area with the rest of the nation, and an estimated 60 passenger trains passed through Union Station during summer months. An extensive streetcar system criss-crossed Denver neighborhoods, with lines extending to Aurora, Englewood, Littleton, and Wheat Ridge. La Alma-Lincoln Park was well connected to the heart of the city and the extents of the region. World War II brought new military installations and industries to the region, expanded the transportation system, and exposed tens of thousands of servicemen and women to the region, making Denver a post-war growth area. By September 1946, Denver was identified as the “second most critical housing area of the nation”. By Thanksgiving 1946, Denver was in the midst of the worst housing shortage in its history.

• FHA establishes

housing standards and priorities.

• Investment was

focused on new housing—and lots of it, fast.

• Denver annexes
• utlying areas since it

was established.

• Redlining

institutionalizes segregation, discrimination and disinvestment in the neighborhood.

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1940s

The Federal Housing Authority intervened. The FHA stimulated residential building programs and defined the housing standards and priorities by which investment and loans would be made. The city and county permit systems established in Denver and surrounding municipalities resulted in standardization of the local construction industry, forcing small builders to conform to city and federal regulations. Investment was focused on new housing—and lots of it, fast. Denver had not expanded its boundaries since a constitutional amendment established it as a city and county in 1902. Now, outlying, open areas surrounding Denver previously used for orchards, truck farms, and grazing in the suburban periphery were absorbed for residential, commercial, and industrial uses. And to facilitate compliance with these standards, new builds emphasized homogeneity in lot sizes, architectural styles, materials. Meanwhile public investment in older homes and certain city neighborhoods

• lagged. In particular, the FHA surveyed and color-coded areas based on factors

such as demographics and the age and general state of repair of the housing

• stock. La Alma-Lincoln Park was “red” or, rather, ineligible for loans.

In 1947, Denver’s chief building inspector reported that one of every four dwellings in the city failed to meet the building code, mostly due to a lack of indoor toilet facilities. 60 to 90% of the substandard units were found in areas along the Platte River, where 2/3 of Denver’s Hispanic population lived. Whereas 26.7% of existing, white-occupied housing was classified as substandard, 88.8%

• f housing for Hispanics was substandard.

• Original homes knocked

down to create Denver’s largest public housing.

• The new units housed

1732 people

• Residents were

displaced and veterans were given preference

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1940s

While discrimination in access to well-built, affordable, private housing had been common in the metropolitan area during the years before the war, members of minority groups also faced discrimination in public housing. From 1940 to 1942, original neighborhood homes and business were demolished for the newly formed Denver Housing Authority to create Lincoln Park Homes, which gave preference to military workers and then returning vets and explicitly those of ‘European’ descent. Meanwhile, DHA faced charges of discrimination against Hispanics for the deficient conditions of its planned Las Casitas facility in neighboring Sun Valley. Additional threats to residents arose again in the 1950s when the South Lincoln Park Housing project was built, destroying more 19th Century homes.

1950s

• No parking lots in

downtown Denver in 1940

• Street car systems and

trees along parkway removed to accommodate automobiles

• I-25 surgically cuts off La

Alma Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1958.

• 1-70 bypasses it

altogether in 1961

• Streets converted to

wide, one-way thoroughfares.

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If you look at picture of downtown Denver in 1940, there’s not a parking lot to be found anywhere. But changes in access and habits led to increasingly car-centric planning. This radically shifted the mode of local transportation, giving rise to a network of freeways to link suburban communities with the business core of the city. Streetcar systems and many of the trees planted along Denver's parkways were removed to make way for the primacy of the

• automobile. Our once-vibrant neighborhood, which had served as the southern

gateway to the city and bordered the longest Main Street in the country, became surgically disconnected from the region as the last trolley ran down Colfax Avenue on June 3, 1950; the construction of I-25 in 1958 severed its western edge and the conversion of 6th and 8th Avenues into one-way thoroughfares disconnected it from its southern neighbors; I-70 provided a full East-West bypass around the neighborhood in 1961; and the conversion of Santa Fe and Kalamath into wide, one-way passthrus cut it down the middle in 1965.

Transformation of La Alma Lincoln Park (1960s & 1970s)

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1965

• June 16 flood roared In

from countryside south

• f town.
• Butane tanks, trailers,

cars, houses got picked up and pinned against bridges.

• Ruptured tanks,

explosions and flames, downed power lines, power outages.

• Bridges fell all the way to

the Colfax viaduct, which held but acted like a sieve.

• Destruction similar to the

1864 flood of Denver, although more was in place in the city in 1965

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Remember the flooding? It happened most often on Cherry Creek. By the time the 1912 flood hit, cattle and mill baron John Kernan Mullen, who lived downstream from where the improvements stopped, had filed suit against the city for turning its back on the residents of “the Bottoms” in its flood planning. By 1948, a dam was built for Cherry Creek. But no one had really paid attention to the dangers of the South Platte. It had become a dumping ground for industry. No fewer than 250 drains poured directly into it, gunking it up with raw sewage. It was an open sewer flowing through an industrial wasteland. When the flood came in from the south in June of 1965, it pick up fuel tanks and heavy equipment from the rail yards, and mobile homes, then brick homes, knocking out everything in its path and leaving behind sewage and piling up debris under the Colfax viaduct (one of the few bridges to hold). Lincoln Park was one of the worst-affected neighborhoods.

1960s

• Industry encroaches

from the west and south

• Owner occupancy rates

dropped to 25%

• A once-­thriving

community experiences poverty and crime much higher than the city and national averages

• By 1980, population in

the neighborhood was ½ from previous 20 years

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Let’s take a moment to take stock of what has transpired: the disinvestment in the neighborhood since the 1940s has become chronic and institutionalized. The community has been threatened by

• displacement. The integrity and health of the neighborhood has been

encroached upon by industry, disconnected by the highways, and disfavored by residential loan programs. And then the flood poured in. The dis-investment had left the community largely on its own. And things are not about to get easier. In the coming years,

• Owner occupancy rates will drop to 25%, as many longtime residents

leave for greener pastures.

• Poverty and crime rates will exceed the city and national averages.
• By 1972, the Denver Community Renewal Program will declare the

neighborhood “blighted”.

• By 1980, the population will be nearly half of what it had been 20 years

previous, with a significant number of people living below the poverty line. But there were those that stayed and fought, and their impact redefined the identity of the neighborhood.

1970

• Neighboring Auraria very

similar to Lincoln Park but is the Hispanic cultural and spiritual center of Denver.

• DURA affecting change

across Denver

• Auraria deemed a “slum

beyond repair” and home and businesses were demolished.

• Residents had no recourse

and were displaced. La Alma absorbed residents, became cultural center & inspired activism for the Chicano Movement.

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Neighbors had successfully fought off closure of Byers library four times, starting in 1952, and the establishment of porn theaters on Santa Fe in

• 1968. But the major catalyst came when sister neighborhood Auraria was

targeted for “renewal”. While the Denver Urban Renewal Authority was affecting change all across Denver at this time, it had declared neighboring Auraria “condemned”, acquired the land, and ousted neighbors to make way for redevelopment. It was cause for great alarm. Auraria and Lincoln Park had much in common—immigrant families of many backgrounds lived and made their livelihoods alongside each other in a way that “walkability” proponents mostly dream of now. There were shops, industries and homes, cultural centers and restaurants, schools and churches. However, since 1920, Auraria in particular had attracted so many new residents from various parts of New Mexico, Southern Colorado, and Mexico that by 1922 the Irish Catholic church (St. Leo’s) was holding Spanish-language services; and, by 1926, residents had erected St. Cajetan’s church, which became the center of a thriving culture of indigenous and Latina/o heritage within the region. In September 1969, though, DURA received a federal grant to demolish the Auraria neighborhood and build what would become the Auraria Higher Education Campus. Auraria residents had not yet been informed.

In November, Denver voters approved the remaining funds. By January, Auraria residents and businesses were sent notices in English only that they would have to move. Between 1966 and 1970, La Alma-Lincoln Park demographics shifted from 61% white to 80% Hispanic. With the destruction of Auraria, La Alma would become the activists’ headquarters for preserving Auraria, the seat

• f the Chicano rights movement, and the new heart and soul of the

Hispanic heritage and culture in Denver.

Waldo Benavidez

• Director at the Auraria

Community Center

• Interested in

neighborhood preservation, both of buildings and people

• House at 1175 Lipan was a

hub for the civil-rights movement in the mid-1960s

• Helped keep the Byers

Branch Library open

1970’s

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Waldo Benavidez--who had previously helped with the preservation of resources for Byers--organized neighbors into the West Side Coalition, which put forward 30 demands to preserve the Mexican community and campaign for the Coalition to operate as the bargaining agent in all development affecting the Westside. Throughout its history, the Coalition served as an umbrella for 136 organizations serving the population living

• n the West Side. Waldo’s main interest was neighborhood preservation,

both of buildings and people, despite his “brusque demeanor”. He worked alongside Richard Castro as a reformist and served for decades as a community organizer and executive director of non-profits--in particular, the Auraria Community Center. With his wife, they went door to door advocating for political recalls and better representation and living conditions. Their house at 1175 Lipan was a hub for the civil-rights movement in the mid-1960s. Waldo initially worked for El Centro Cultural (in the 1881 church at W. 11 th & Kalamath), then became a community organizer and later the director

• f the Auraria Community Center. The Coalition successfully opposed the

Greyhound bus terminal on Colfax at the old Franklin School site, reduced infant mortality by working with the Mariposa Health Clinic to focus on the risks of strep throat (1972), got residential parking permits in place,

and prevented AHEC-sponsored student housing south of Colfax for 45 years.

Betty Benavidez

• First Latina elected to the

Colorado legislature

• Friends with Cesár

Chavez

• Joined Chavez in his fast

for farmworkers across the nation

1970’s

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Betty Benavidez’s impact extended well beyond the neighborhood. In 1970, on the urging of her community, with no background in politics, she ran for and was elected to the state House, the first Latina elected to the Colorado legislature, where she served until 1974. Benavidez and her husband were friends with Cesár Chavez, the civil-rights activist and American farmworker. In the legislature, she worked to better the lives of farmworkers. In 1971, she joined Chavez in his fast for farmworkers across the nation, which helped bring national attention to the cause. Eventually, neighboring Auraria became the Auraria Higher Education

• Campus. Her daughter-in-law, Celina Benavidez, was elected to her seat

in 1990 and continued the fight for the reparations that Aurarians were promised.

Significance of La Alma Lincoln Park

▪ Neighborhood’s vibrant history is linked through two eras

• f contributions from working class and immigrant

residents: the 1860s and the beginnings of Denver and the 1960s activism and the Chicano movement. ▪ Diversity runs through the architecture and history of the

• neighborhood. Heterogeneity rather than homogeneity.

▪ Our neighborhood and the heritage it represents has, in the past, been threatened by housing policies and the pressures of economic growth. ▪ Today, it is important to retain these examples of Denver’s beginnings and of the stories of those that helped build the city which created a sense of place, identity, and culture unique to the region.

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Two eras linked by one neighborhood, history and hard working residents.

• Neighborhood is significant and unusual because it has two eras of important

history, the 1870s/1880s and the 1970s/1980s.

• Diversity runs through the history, from Hunt’s early relationship with Native

American tribes to many generations of immigrants from all over the world, to the late 20th century of Latino residents.

• Working & striving are parts of the history, many working class people seeking

to put down roots and grow a community over many generations

• Today, it is important to retain the buildings that housed this history and can

tell the stories of each decade of the people that created La Alma Lincoln Park and had a significant influence on Denver history too.

The Future of La Alma Lincoln Park

Where do we go from here: Please answer a short questionnaire to get your thoughts on the future of the La Alma Lincoln Park’s cultural heritage, stories and its buildings (Questionnaire link in the email)

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