Discover Denver Survey

10/15/2026

Discover Denver Style Spotlight: Second Empire

Second Empire style is often associated with haunted houses, most famously the house in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. Originating in France during Napoleon III’s reign (1852–1870), it gained international popularity through World’s Fairs and early home pattern books. Its popularity peaked before Denver’s major building boom, making it uncommon here.

The style’s defining feature is the mansard roof, a boxy double-sloped roof that creates room for an additional half or full story. Despite a popular myth about avoiding taxes on an extra floor, the roof’s practical advantage was providing more usable space.
Look for: mansard roofs, dormers, roof cresting, projecting bays or towers, moulded or arched window surrounds, pediments, and decorative brackets.

Fun fact: The mansard roof takes its name from 17th-century French architect François Mansart (1598–1666). He didn’t invent it, but he helped popularize it.
Keep following along for more architecture facts from Discover Denver!

A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, the project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more about Discover Denver, get involved, or check out our recently published public map, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

10/09/2026

Discover Denver Find: Clayton Park Addition

Following World War II, Denver had a housing crisis. In response, Denver’s city council approved a resolution to explore possible housing sites, including land owned by the George W. Clayton Trust, directly south of the Clayton College, an orphanage that is now Clayton Early Learning Center. At the time, there were few pieces of land of this size available for development inside of Denver, especially close to downtown and already connected to the streetcar and bus system. In 1946, Temple Hoyne Buell platted the Clayton Park Addition.

Temple Buell was an architect and significant figure in Denver. While best known as a designer of schools and the Cherry Creek Mall, after World War II he took on large suburban projects such as Cherry Hills Village and Wellshire. The Clayton Park project preceded these.

New houses, many advertised as “New G.I. Homes,” were built quickly by Charles T. Gore of Mountain View Homes, Ben Hutchinson, and others. Most were Ranch type houses, which were simple and economical to build. Ben Hutchinson highlighted Clayton Park's location within Denver, with ads stating, "Remember it costs no more to buy a home of distinction in beautiful Clayton Park Addition - ‘Only six minutes from downtown' - than to buy a home in a suburb.”

A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, the Discover Denver project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more, get involved, or check out our recently published public map visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

09/24/2026

09/16/2026

Discover Denver Find: 2900–2902 York Street

In 1911, house painter Henry Quinn commissioned three two-story brick duplexes along the 2900 block of York Street. Quinn had grown up in Black Hawk before his family moved to Denver, where he became a house decorator and painter and began investing in residential real estate, building and owning several duplexes around the city. The three on York Street were designed by architect Glen W. Huntington, whose work included Denver landmark Fire Station No. 7 and the National Register-listed Arcanum Apartments.

Duplexes like these have long provided homes for a wide range of Denverites. At 2900–2902 York alone, for example, residents included teachers, musicians, railroad workers, salespeople, chauffeurs, a leather tanner, a maid, clerical workers, warehousemen, and an auto upholsterer. Some were families with children, others couples or single residents, and some households included boarders.

Among the earliest residents of 2900 York were sisters Wilhelmina and Martha Ann Mohr, both teachers. Wilhelmina spent 31 years in Denver schools, including many years teaching Romance languages at Manual Technical High School. The sisters shared a duplex until Martha's death in 1928, the same year Wilhelmina retired.

Later owners of 2900-2902 included Jimmie and Fred L. Wilhoite Jr., who purchased the property in 1962 and retained it for 32 years. Fred was a teacher, real estate broker, community leader, and Denver Public Schools principal at a time when few Black educators held principal positions in the district.

More than a century later, all three duplexes remain on York Street. At a time when Denver is once again considering how to create more housing in established neighborhoods, they offer a useful reminder that multifamily housing has long been part of the city's residential fabric. Their modest scale allowed six homes to fit comfortably within the surrounding neighborhood. Their history also shows how the places we preserve can help us understand how Denver has grown and made room for more people over time.

A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, the project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more about Discover Denver, get involved, or check out our recently published public map, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

09/10/2026

Discover Denver Style Spotlight: Edwardian

Architectural trends are often a reaction to the style that came before. These reactions range from outright rejection of the previous style, to borrowing from that style and changing it slightly. The latter is called a transitional style.

Often mistaken for a simple Queen Anne, these houses are a distinct transitional style called Edwardian, which was popular in Denver from about 1900 through the 1910s. As people began to tire of the gaudy, flashy Queen Anne style, Edwardian offered a more restrained alternative, combining simplified Queen Anne detailing with sophisticated Classical Revival elements.

Look for: gable-front forms, brick cladding and belt courses, returned eaves, modest decorative shingles or brackets, paired gable windows, and classical details such as columns, pediments, dentil molding, urns, or garland motifs.

Fun fact: The Edwardian style is the only style that began and ended during the Edwardian period, unlike the Victorian Era, which saw several different architectural styles within the period.

Keep following along for more architecture facts from Discover Denver!

A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, the project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more about Discover Denver, get involved, or check out our recently published public map visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

09/02/2026

Discover Denver Find: 4845 Morrison Road

This commercial building along Morrison Road in Westwood, now home to Abborrotes Gloria Market, was first a creamery. In 1940, Cream-Way Creamery placed an ad renting out the small cabin that shares the property. In the mid-1940s, the building was owned by Dorothy Altvater, a grocer who had operated stores around Denver for many years.

Starting in 1947, the building housed Nels & Eds Creamery. Edward and Nellie Kuriger, both born in Iowa, ran the shop with help from their three children. Nels and Ed lived in the back of the store. Their daughter Nellie lived in the cabin with her husband. The Kuriger family sold the property in 1955.
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The next owner was Phillip Zeitlin. He was born in Ukraine and immigrated to the U.S. where he met his wife Bertha, who had immigrated from Belarus. Phillip’s son Eugene took over ownership and management of the buildings in 1959. He died in 1965 and his wife Sylvia sold the property to Ermelindo Tanguma in 1977. Tanguma owned the building until 2016.
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The cabin appears to have been consistently rented out since it was first advertised around 1940. From the 1960s to the early 2000s, the creamery building had a series of short-term tenants, both commercial and residential. Since about 2007, Gloria Urbina has operated Abborrotes Gloria Market from 4845 Morrison Road. According to Yelp, the store “features top-notch Hispanic products, such as fresh cilantro, fluffy rice, and properly portioned tortilla flour.”
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A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, the project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more about Discover Denver, get involved, or check out our recently published public map visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

08/26/2026

Discover Denver Style Spotlight: Form vs. Style

Have you ever noticed how some buildings share the same shape, but look completely different?

You can learn the answer to that and more through Discover Denver's new series: Style Spotlight, a closer look at Denver's architecture and the details that shape it.

To start, we'll explore the difference between form and style. Form is the building's bones, like its shape, height, layout, and roofline, while style is in the details, such as materials, trim, and decorative features.

Swipe through to see three homes that all share a gable front form (where the pointed end of the roof faces the street), but couldn't look more different once you factor in style.

First up is a Queen Anne, known for its ornate trim, patterned shingles, and decorative woodwork.

Next is a Craftsman, known for exposed rafters, tapered porch columns, and natural materials.

Last is an example of the Modern Movement, a mid-century style defined by clean lines and minimal ornamentation.

Same underlying shape, three entirely different personalities. That's the heart of what Style Spotlight is all about: learning to see the bones of a building separately from its skin, and appreciating how much variety that distinction allows for across Denver's neighborhoods.

Stay tuned, this is just the first style spotlight: with plenty more ahead!

A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, the project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more about Discover Denver, get involved, or check out our recently published public map, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

08/19/2026

Discover Denver Find: 2036 Emerson Street

This high-style Queen Anne mansion has lived a few lives. Built in 1888 for George and Ada Ordway, for whom the town of Ordway, CO is named (though they never actually lived here). Then it was home to a U.S. Senator, Charles J. Hughes Jr., in the 1890s, a Denver lawyer who also taught mining law at Harvard. In 1961, however, the house became something more: one of Denver's first privately financed low-cost housing conversions, led by Abigail Stone, a trailblazing Black realtor, to house families displaced by urban renewal in Whittier.

Still standing. Still apartments. Still telling stories. 🏠

A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, this project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more about Discover Denver and how you can get involved, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

08/12/2026

Discover Denver: Putting History to Work in Your Neighborhood 🏘️ 🗺️📍

Okay, so you’ve checked out the Discover Denver Survey Public Map: https://historicdenver.org/discover-denver/map/

It’s interesting… but how can you use this information? 🤔

We can think of a few different ways.

➡️ Swipe through to see how you can connect with your neighborhood’s history!

A partnership between Historic Denver and the City and County of Denver, this project is funded primarily by the State Historical Fund. To learn more about Discover Denver and how you can get involved, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

08/06/2026

Did you know?

Your neighborhood’s historic main street likely grew right where the streetcar lines ran. 🚃

In Denver, neighborhoods like Sunnyside, Highland, Cole, Whittier, Five Points, and more built their commercial hubs around streetcar stops. The Poplar Loop in the Montclair neighborhood is a great example.

Learn quirky, crazy, and interesting facts about your neighborhood through the Discover Denver map!

https://geospatialdenver.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/attachmentviewer/index.html?appid=2295f292faff47f28eb32543f6fd2352

➡️ Swipe through to see how to use it!