Auraria was the first settlement of the European miners who came to the area to make easy money.
"The town was founded by William Greeneberry Russell and party of fellow settlers from Georgia on November 1, 1858, three weeks before William Larimer platted the future "Denver City" across Cherry Creek. The town was named for the gold mining settlement of Auraria, Georgia. Auraria declined at Denver's expense when Russell and many of his party returned to Georgia at the outbreak of the American Civil War in order to fight for the Confederacy. Auraria officially ceased to exist on April 6, 1860 when it was incorporated into Denver, and was referred to as West Denver.
In April 1859 Auraria was the site of a small convention of settlers with the intention of creating a local government out of Arapaho County, the western portion of the Kansas Territory. The settlers chose the name "Jefferson" in honor of Thomas Jefferson. On August 1, 37 district representatives met to draft a constitution for the provisional "State of Jefferson", which was subsequently rejected in a popular referendum on September 24. The original authors determined to hold another convention on October 3, and drafted a provisional constitution for the Territory of Jefferson. The territory was never recognized by the U.S. government, and it ceased to exist even unofficially when the Colorado Territory was organized by the Act of Congress in 1861. By that time, Auraria had been eclipsed by Denver, which had been designated as the county seat of Arapaho County and was subsequently chosen as the territorial capital." (from (
visit link) )
The plaque reads:
[obverse]
THE AURARIA TOWNSITE
AND NINTH STREET HISTORIC PARK
The Auraria Higher Education Center is located on the site of Denver's oldest continuously occupied settlement. In 1858, William Green Russell and his brothers found gold nearby and established the pioneer town of Auraria, which merged with Denver in 1860.
Auraria continued to flourish between 1872 and 1906 when the houses preserved on the Ninth Street Historic Park were constructed. The oldest restored residential block in Denver, Ninth Street incorporates a variety of architectural styles ranging from carpenter Gothic to brick bungalow.
The city's ethnic diversity also has been reflected by the Auraria neighborhood. Arapahoe Indians once camped here, and the community subsequently Germans, Scots-Irish, Irish, Jewish, Hispanic and other residents. Ninth Street Park and other historic campus buildings remain as a reminder that Auraria was the place where Denver began.
[reverse]
The Auraria Higher Education Center owes a special thanks to Historic Denver, Inc., a private, non-profit organization which raised nearly one million dollars to restore the Ninth Street houses, slated for demolition when the campus was built. Over 900 individuals, corporations and foundations participated in this historic preservation project.
Landscaping of the three-acre park was provided through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a cooperative project of the Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation and the National Park Service.
Ninth Street Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a historic district by the Denver Landmark Preservation District.
The Auraria Foundation
August, 1990
The above plaque does skate over a few issues. When Auraria was being built, many of these homes were still occupied by original families, poor families, who lost everything when the city condemned the property. The residents were given 'fair market value', but could not find homes in as safe an area to which to move. It was an ugly splotch on the Auraria development, of which I was a student at the time.
You may download an MP3 which tells the story of the Ninth Street Park at (
visit link) .