"AURARIA
PANEL 1: OLD AURARIA
Though today Denver is the indisputable “Queen City of the Plains,” it initially faced serious competition from its neighbor on Cherry Creek’s west bank, Auraria. Named by optimistic gold-seekers after their Georgia home, Auraria, the “City of Gold,” started life as a collection of rude log cabins in 1858. By 1860, though, Auraria’s population had outpaced Denver’s and the settlement seemed to be winning the fight for preeminence. Powerful interests promoted Denver, however, and led by William Byers, the editor of the Rocky Mountain News, and influential entrepreneurs like William Larimer, Jr., in the spring of 1860 residents of both settlements voted to merge. On a wooden bridge connecting the two towns, officials signed a document officially surrendering Auraria’s independence to Denver on April 6, 1860. As a neighborhood Auraria continued to support a diverse urban community, the Queen City’s oldest and most significant courtier.
Ninth Street Historic Park
In 1970 most city planners assumed that Auraria was an eyesore ripe for redevelopment. Discerning eyes realized that much could be lost, though. About one-third of the neighborhood’s buildings still dated from before the turn of the twentieth century. Even though fires, floods, and general urban decay had taken their toll, the neighborhood – with its eclectic mix of Victorian “villas,” double-houses, and cottages – offered some of the city’s finest examples of nineteenth-century architecture. Luckily, Historic Denver Incorporated, founded in 1970, rescued a small sample of Auraria’s historic buildings at the eleventh hour, and along with the Denver Landmark Preservation Committee restored thirteen cottages and one store to create the Ninth Street Historic Park. Today it is home to various campus offices – a working slice of Auraria’s architectural heritage and a fine example of successful historic preservation.
Captions for images found on this panel:
Photograph: Victorian House
Prior to redevelopment the Auraria neighborhood boasted some of the most impressive examples of Victorian homes in Denver. The mansard roof, covered porch, and widow’s walk of this nineteenth century home were typical design elements of the era. Several fine examples of Victorian-era buildings have been preserved in the Ninth Street Historic Park.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.
Photograph: Woman feeding chickens
Though Auraria was not among Denver’s wealthiest neighborhoods, at the turn of the twentieth century it nevertheless provided homes and livelihoods to thousands of residents, like this employee of the Adolf Roederer Bakery & Confectionery.
Colorado Historical Society
Photograph: Ariel view of Auraria
By the middle of the twentieth century Auraria had undergone a significant transformation: what had once been a charming Victorian neighborhood had become the home to increasing numbers of light industrial, wholesale, and retail businesses.
Colorado Historical Society
Photograph: Men in front of wooden building
The Rocky Mountain News set up headquarters in this Auraria building in 1859.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
Photograph: View of industrial area of Auraria
By the 1960s, Auraria’s fortunes had declined significantly, making it an ideal site for the massive redevelopment required to build the Auraria Higher Education Center.
Colorado Historical Society
Drawing: Auraria
In 1859 Auraria was little more than a collection of teepees, tents, and rough wooden structures along the banks of Cherry Creek.
Colorado Historical Society.
PANEL 2: HIGHER EDUCATION
Auraria Higher Education Center
Coloradans have always been proud of their schools. Pioneers pointed to newly constructed schoolhouses as markers of civilized life against the ubiquitous saloons that so frequently dominated the frontier landscape. And as the state matured schools, colleges, and universities took their places as pillars of cultural, economic, and political life. By the middle of the twentieth century Coloradans had established a fine state university and some sixteen two- and four-year colleges across the state. In the years of steady growth after World War II the pace of urbanization quickened, however, and threatened to inundate the state’s colleges with students. Most public colleges were outside the metro area, and Denver, whose population was growing by leaps and bounds only had a satellite campus of the University of Colorado. Educators began to realize that a new metro campus would have to be built.
In 1962 a legislative subcommittee led by future-governor Roy Romer recommended that the state establish a low-cost four-year institution in downtown Denver, Metropolitan State College. In spite of some resistance to this elegantly simple solution, in 1965 Metro’s first class was enrolled. Space, however, was still a problem, and planners fixed on an even grander scheme to solve the educational needs of the state’s rapidly growing student population. The proposal involved a downtown campus that would be home to Metro State College, the Community College of Denver, and the University of Colorado’s Denver campus. The new campus would support a diverse, non-traditional student body offering day and night classes throughout the year. The proposal gained support rapidly, and in January 1977 the new education center opened. Since its opening the Auraria Education Center has exceeded all expectations – serving one-fifth of Colorado’s college students.
Captions for images on this panel:
Photograph: Methodist Church
The First Spanish Methodist Community Church played a significant role in the changing character of Auraria in the early 1900s, drawing a Spanish-speaking congregation to the neighborhood.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.
Photograph: Tivoli
The Tivoli Student Union has been a prominent feature of Auraria since it was built in 1866. Originally the site of the Colorado Brewery, the building also served as an opera house. Named after Copenhagen’s Tivoli gardens in 1901, the brewery survived prohibition until 1969 when a combination of labor troubles and natural disaster closed its doors. In 1991 students elected to turn the building into a student union and retail center.
Colorado Historical Society.
Photograph: Emmanuel Gallery
The Romanesque and Gothic Emmanuel Gallery served an Episcopal congregation when it was built in 1876. In 1903 Shearith Israel built the church and transformed it into a synagogue. Today the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is an art gallery for the three schools on the Auraria Campus.
Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Collection."
(
visit link)