Historic Montclair Community

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09/17/2026

What's happening in Montclair 🌳

A few updates from around the neighborhood:

🚧 Playground construction is underway. Montclair Park's playground is being fully replaced through a Denver Parks & Recreation project — new swings, slides, spinners, and play mounds are on the way, with work expected to wrap up later this year. Thanks for your patience while things are a little noisier than usual. Project details: denvergov.org/parkprojects

🗳️ Annual General Meeting — Wednesday, October 21, 7:00 pm at the Molkery. This is where we elect the board for the coming year, and we have open seats. If you've ever thought about getting more involved, this is your moment. Interested in running? Reach out soon so we can add you to the October ballot — message us here or through historicmontclair.org.

More neighbors, more hands, a stronger Montclair. We'd love to have you. What would you most like to see in the neighborhood this year?

08/21/2026

🎒What you should know…about school zones!

Back to school means slow down, Montclair!

Summer’s winding down, and by late August our sidewalks and crosswalks will be full of kids again heading to class. Montclair is home to some wonderful neighborhood schools — including Montclair School of Academics & Enrichment and Saint James Catholic Church & School — which means a little extra care behind the wheel goes a long way this time of year.

A few things to keep in mind:

🚸 Mind the school zones. When those yellow flashers are going, the limit drops to 20 mph — in effect 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, school holidays excepted. It’s easy to miss on a quiet morning, but those few extra seconds matter.

🛑 Stop for buses. When a school bus extends its stop-arm and flashes red, traffic in both directions must stop. Kids are often crossing right in front.

👀 Watch the crosswalks. More little ones will be walking and biking to school — especially around drop-off and pick-up. Put the phone down and expect the unexpected.

Let’s all do our part to keep Montclair’s youngest neighbors safe as they head back. A slower street is a safer street. 💙

08/20/2026

A note from our board member, Jennifer:

We need advertisers to keep our community events and magazine alive. Please think about placing a yearly ad in the Montclarion Magazine to help support your neighborhood. Any service or business can be added. Please reach out to me if you are interested. My information is in the paper, on HMCAI website, or you can email me.

I can send you our rates and specifications. Please we are in need of advertisers to help us fund our paper and events!

Thanks in advance,
[email protected]

08/10/2026

- A Moment in History

Ever wonder who Colfax Avenue is named after? Meet Schuyler Colfax — Speaker of the House, Vice President under Ulysses S. Grant, and a man who spent his career in Abraham Lincoln's inner circle during some of the nation's most consequential years.

Colfax was in the room when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and later recalled the President joking that his hand shook not from doubt, but from three straight hours of holiday handshaking. Colfax also sat with Lincoln through the darkest days of the Civil War, recording the President pacing the Executive Chamber after the Battle of the Wilderness, and was one of the last people Lincoln spoke with the day of his assassination.

His name likely landed on Denver's most famous street sometime between 1863 and 1873, thanks to a Denver relative eager to keep him coming back to Colorado.

For us in Montclair, Colfax isn't just history — it's our northern boundary, the edge of the neighborhood we call home. And it's changing right now: the Colfax Bus Rapid Transit project is under construction along the corridor, bringing dedicated bus lanes and new rail-style stations that will one day connect our doorstep to downtown and beyond.

A street named for a man who stood beside Lincoln — still shaping our neighborhood's edge over 150 years later.

📷 Photos via ColfaxAvenue.org

08/05/2026

What you should know…about historic districting! 🏛

See that bronze medallion? 👀 It marks one of Montclair’s historic landmarks, the Castle — located near the Molkery, another of our favorite historic sites, it is within the Montclair Designated Historic District, the heart of our neighborhood, protected by the City and County of Denver since 1975. We were the fifth district Denver ever designated, and one of the very first neighborhoods to ask for it.

Here's what that means if your home sits inside the district (see the map — roughly the blocks along Richthofen Parkway between Newport and Pontiac):

Exterior changes need a green light first 🏡

Before you pull a building permit, certain projects must be reviewed and approved by Denver's Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC), which issues a Certificate of Appropriateness. That includes:
🔹 Additions, second stories, and porches
🔹 Solar panels
🔹 Window, roof, and sidewalk replacements
🔹 Demolition and rebuilding

How it's different from an HOA 🤝

This isn't a homeowners association — there are no dues, and no one's regulating your paint colors or your lawn. It's a city program focused only on preserving the historic *exterior* character that makes Montclair, Montclair. The review keeps our streetscape recognizably the one Baron von Richthofen laid out over 130 years ago.

Good news: you don't have to navigate it alone💙

Start with a free pre-application chat with the LPC at 720-865-2709 or [email protected] — and they'll connect you with an HMCAI board member who can help walk you through it.

The same grand trees, generous lots, and distinctive homes that made Montclair exclusive in the 1880s are exactly what this designation protects today. When you pass one of those little bronze plaques, that's the city — and your neighbors — keeping a century of history standing. 🌳

07/31/2026

📚 : Montclair’s Little Free Libraries

There’s a quiet kind of magic tucked along our tree-lined streets — little wooden houses on posts, each one a tiny library holding whatever a neighbor decided to pass along. Take a book, leave a book. No card, no due date, no fuss — just the oldest idea in the world, sharing a good story, dressed up in a shingled roof.

We went hunting this week and found five of them:

📖 Newport & 12th — a weathered green cottage nearly swallowed by the garden around it.
📖 Newport, just north of 14th — our favorite, with storybook figures dancing across the side.
📖 12th & Olive — a matched pair, including a “Little Art Gallery” where you can leave a piece and take a piece. Books and art, side by side.
📖 In front of Montclair School (Newport & Richthofen) — two side by side, right where little readers can grab something for the walk home.

Now it’s your turn — where are the Little Free Libraries we missed? Drop a cross-street in the comments and help us map every one in Montclair. 👇

07/27/2026

— A Moment in History

🚒 Did you know? Our neighborhood firehouse is a work of art.

Built in 1937 as a Works Progress Administration project, Denver Fire Station 14 has been serving Montclair for nearly 90 years — and it was designed to do it in style. Architect Charles Francis Pillsbury gave it a striking Tudor look: red brick, a half-timbered gabled dormer, herringbone brickwork, and a Tudor-arched entry with "DFD No. 14" carved right into the terra cotta.

Some original details are still in daily use today — including the firefighters' pole from the dormitory down to the bay, and the terrazzo tile floor beneath the trucks.

Pillsbury clearly had range: he also worked on the State Capitol Annex and the old Denver Police Station on Champa. But we happen to think Station 14 might be his most charming project.

We're especially grateful to the crew at Station 14 — they show up for our Fourth of July celebration every single year, and Montclair wouldn't be the same without them. Thank you for all you do, both on parade day and every day. 🎆

Next time you drive by, take a second look — it's history, hiding in plain sight.

📷 Photos: Rick Luebke © (5280fire.com)

07/22/2026

What you should know…about drought restrictions!

Denver Water has declared a Stage 1 drought this year — the first since 2013 — due to historically low snowpack. Here’s what that means for us here in Montclair:

Watering days:

🏡 Even-numbered addresses: Sunday & Thursday

🏡 Odd-numbered addresses: Wednesday & Saturday

🏢 Multifamily, commercial, HOA & government properties: Tuesday & Friday

The rules:

💧 No watering between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. — even on your assigned day

💧 Don’t let water pool in gutters, streets, or alleys

💧 Fix leaking sprinklers within 10 days

💧 Skip watering if it rained

💧 Trees, shrubs, and gardens can be hand-watered or drip-irrigated any day, just not during the 10-6 blackout

Best practices for a beautiful lawn anyway:

🌱 Let cool-season grass (like Kentucky bluegrass) grow to 2.5–3.5 inches — longer grass holds moisture better

🌱 Use “cycle and soak” watering (water, pause, water again) so it actually sinks in instead of running off

🌱 A hose nozzle with a shut-off valve is required for car washing

Violations can mean real fines, so it’s worth double-checking your address’s watering days. Full details and exemptions for new landscaping are at denverwater.org/SummerWatering.

Let’s all do our part to help Montclair’s lawns — and Denver’s water supply — make it through the summer. 💙

07/17/2026

- It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood🐻🦉

History only happens because time passes — and sometimes that means saying goodbye to something old before you can welcome something new.

Many of you watched the old cottonwood in Montclair Park decline over the past few years. It wasn’t an easy call to have it come down, but the safety of our neighbors — especially the families and children who play in that park every single day — will always come first for us. Watching this neighborhood grow with young families has been one of the true joys of being on this board, and we’re committed to keeping their favorite gathering spots safe.

But here’s the good news: that tree isn’t gone, it’s transformed. Local chainsaw artist Faye Braaten of Chainsaw Mama turned the old trunk into a stunning sculpture — bears, an owl, a bobcat, and a fox all carved right into the wood that’s stood in our park for generations.

What was once a tree that watched over decades of picnics, playdates, and parades is now a piece of art that will do the same for decades more. That’s how history works — it doesn’t stop, it just finds a new shape.

Next time you’re at the park, go take a close look. You’ll find more critters hiding in the wood than you’d expect. 🐾

Sculpture credit: Faye Braaten, Chainsaw Mama (chainsawmama.com)

07/13/2026

— A Moment in History 🏛️

Take a look at this 1887 aerial drawing of Montclair — created as a “Souvenir of Arbor Day” by Baron Walter von Richthofen himself, the founder of our neighborhood.

Some of what you see here is real, like the Castle and the grand tree-lined boulevard along Colfax. But look closely and you’ll spot the Baron’s grander dreams too — including a zoological garden that never quite came to be!

139 years later, the streets he platted are still the ones we walk today.

What detail catches your eye first — the mountains, the grid of streets, or the Castle itself? Tell us in the comments 👇

📷 Image: Walter von Richthofen, 1887, via History Colorado / Colorado Encyclopedia

Address

Pontiac Street
Denver, CO
80220

Telephone

+13036416823

Website

http://www.historicmontclair.org/

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