Cheesman Park

The area is bounded by East Colfax Avenue to the north, York Street to the east, Downing Street to the west and East 8th Avenue to the south. The area primarily began as a collection of cemeteries: City Cemetery, Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery and Hebrew Cemetery. As Denver grew out from the city center, what was once a quiet place on the prairie had become prime real estate. Some of Denver’s finest architects and architectural firms, such as Lang and Pugh, Jacques Benedict, Burnham and Merril Hoyt, Gove and Walsh, and Fisher and Fisher all left their marks on the built environment of the area.

The architectural styles in this neighborhood are varied, as well. There are sharp contrasts between the intricately decorated Queen Annes erected prior to the Silver Crash of 1893 and the more understated designs that came afterwards. One of the most common types of home is the foursquare, or “Denver Square” which is prevalent and recognized for its consistent simplicity.

There is also an eclectic mix of Revival styles, such as Beaux Arts, Classical, Colonial, Georgian, Mediterranean, French Eclectic, Italianate, Mission, Neoclassical, Renaissance, and Tudor. After the Great Depression, many of the large homes began being used as boarding houses, or were divided into apartments, creating more housing options. There were also a lot of demolitions in the decades that followed.
Though the neighborhood has changed over the years, several notable historic structures remain. One of the most iconic is the Cheesman Park Memorial Pavilion. Built during Mayor Robert Speer’s City Beautiful initiative, wealthy citizens, like Alice Cheesman and her daughter Gladys, donated funds to erect public memorials to improve the aesthetics of the city. In honor of Alice’s late husband, Walter Scott Cheesman, the pavilion was built in 1909 at a cost of $100,000 using Colorado Yule marble. Another prominent landmark is the Boettcher Memorial Conservatory at the Denver Botanic Gardens, which was built in 1966. Its international award-winning design consisted of faceted plexiglass and was designed by architects Victor Hornbein and Edward White with a $600,000 grant from the Boettcher Foundation.
Of all the grand homes that line Cheesman Park, the Stoiber-Reed-Humphries Mansion, at 1022 Humboldt Street, especially epitomizes the grandeur of the gilded age. It was built in the Renaissance Revival style in 1907 for Edward and Lena Stoiber. Edward died from typhoid before the house was finished and Lena’s second husband, Hugh Rood, died on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. In the years that followed other notable Denver citizens owned the property, like real estate, mining and oil magnate Verner Reed and his wife Mary, followed by mining executive Albert Humphries and his wife Ruth. Dora Moore Elementary (first named the Corona School) at the edge of the neighborhood, dates to 1889 and was designed by Robert Roeschlaub, Colorado’s first licensed architect, with an addition by Burnham Hoyt. The First Unitarian Society at 14th & Lafayette was the first Denver landmark designated for its association with the LGBTQ movement.
The Cheesman Park Neighborhood is also home to Morgan’s Subdivision Historic District, Humboldt Island Historic District, and the Wyman Historic District.
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.