Civic Center / Golden Triangle

The inspiration behind the master plan for Civic Center was the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. With the dawn of the new century approaching, cities all over the country wanted to modernize with a new unified aesthetic to their architecture, city planning, and civic landscaping. The State Capitol on the eastern border of the park came first in 1894. It was originally designed by Elijah E. Myers (though he was dismissed after a year as a cost-cutting measure). Denver’s famed architect, Frank Edbrooke, oversaw the remaining construction until it was finished in 1908. The grand Renaissance Revival structure is made from Colorado Gray granite, from Gunnison County, and the interiors are decked out in Beulah Red marble and Colorado Yule marble. The central gold-plated dome raises 272 feet from the ground and underwent a $17 million restoration completed in 2014. The Capitol Grounds were designed by landscape architect Reinhard Schuetze. Work continued on Civic Center with the completion of Denver’s first freestanding library in 1902, now the McNichols building, it was really Mayor Robert Speer who helped create the area as we know it today.

In 1902, Charles Mulford Robinson wrote a book called Modern Civic Art, or, the City Made Beautiful and by 1906 Denver’s newly elected Mayor Robert Speer had hired him to come up with a master plan for Civic Center. Speer, along with the Denver Art Commission, were responsible for envisioning a public park space surrounded by government buildings worthy of any great European city. The Denver Mint, with a design inspired by the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence, Italy, was built in 1906. Another Frank Edbrooke building, the Colorado State Museum, a neoclassical structure also clad in Colorado Yule Marble, was finished in 1913, just south of the Capitol. In 1919, construction began on the Voorhees Memorial Gateway on the north side of the park, designed by architects Fisher and Fisher. This was followed by the Greek Theater on the south side and like the Voorhees Memorial, it was made of Turkey Creek sandstone and adorned with beautiful murals by artist Allen Tupper True. The Renaissance Revival style State Office Building was built in 1921, followed by the City and County Building in 1932. The building is clad in Cotopaxi Colorado granite and Colorado travertine, with a clock tower crowned by a gold eagle donated by Speer’s widow.

In response to ending up on the “Endangered Places” list in 2007, a $9 million-dollar rehabilitation project was launched in 2009, which focused on repairing the park’s buildings, sidewalks and landscaping. In 2012, Civic Center became the first National Historic Landmark in Denver, a status beyond its National Register Listing and local historic district designation. Today, the park remains at the center of activity and is host to several annual events.

This content was prepared by local non-profit Historic Denver, Inc., with excerpts from the organization’s Historic Denver Guides series and other research. Historic Denver was founded in 1970 and provides technical assistance to owners of historic properties, conducts research, advocates for preservation, and owns and operates District 10’s own Molly Brown House Museum at 1340 Pennsylvania. For more information, or to get answers to your historic home questions, visit www.historicdenver.org.