The Person (brothers):
The Fleming Bros. were one of the largest developers, contractors, and lumber suppliers in the area of town originally known as South Denver. They built this building in 1890 as their company’s administrative headquarters and as a showpiece for their construction business.
The Fleming brothers were Jesse W., Calvin, D. Carson, and Patrick, who originally hailed from western Pennsylvania. Jesse moved to Denver in 1884 following the lead of his cousin, the successful businessman and real-estate developer James A. Fleming, who arrived in Denver in 1880. (More on James, later.) Calvin moved west in 1886, as did D. Carson, a carpenter, and Patrick, a bricklayer. In the mid-1880s, the four brothers formed the Fleming Bros. Lumber Company, which originally supplied lumber to contractors and builders. The brothers quickly got into the development and construction business themselves and built numerous houses in the Baker and Wash Park West neighborhoods. From the late 1880s through the early 1890s, they built speculative houses using architectural pattern books for designs, and supplied their own lumber and masonry materials for the construction. They then sold these spec houses on installment plans, which allowed South Denver to develop into a middle-class community. They also became wealthy selling lumber to railroad companies during the railroad expansion of the 1880s and 1890s.
In the 1890s and 1900s, the Fleming Bros. Company started building commercial buildings on Broadway in addition to their residential construction projects. Commercial buildings constructed by the brothers include the First Avenue Hotel at the northwest corner of First Avenue and Broadway (designed by Charles Quayle), and the Stuart Hotel at the southeast corner of 1st and Broadway (designed by Willis Marean and Albert Norton).
In 1909, the Fleming Bros. formed the Fleming Bros. Bank, whose headquarters was at their First Avenue Hotel. (It was also their construction company’s headquarters.) They eventually changed the name of the bank to the Broadway National Bank and erected the building at 100 Broadway (now a Key Bank branch) in 1914 based on the design by architects William E. and Arthur A. Fisher.
As their companies became more established, the Fleming brothers grew more connected in Denver’s political and business circles. Jesse Fleming, who was the president of the Fleming Bros. Bank, was also the brother-in-law of Governor Elias Ammons and was Chairman of the Moffat Tunnel Commission. (In a bit of a scandal, he was arrested for supplying inferior furniture for the decoration of the State Capitol in 1914.) Calvin ran the Broadway National Bank and served on the board of the Farmers Life Insurance Company.
Fortunately for us, many of the Fleming Bros. commercial and residential buildings remain.
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The Place:
It’s a pretty red brick building with red sandstone trim. What struck me were those wonderful brick arches at the third floor. The bricks that make up the arches are either specially molded or more likely custom cut to form wedge shapes that get wider toward the outside of the arch. If you look closely at the photo below, you might also notice that the corners of the bricks that make up the intrados of the arch are slightly curved to give the arch a softer edge. The same thing was done to create the small arches over each transom window.
The words ‘Fleming Bros.’, carved into sandstone above the arches at the center of the building. (from (
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