Discover Denver Survey

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Discover Denver Survey

Discover Denver is a citywide survey of buildings in Denver, Colorado. www.DiscoverDenver.co Historic Denver, Inc.

Our mission is threefold: to identify the places that matter to Denver’s history (Know It), to share the value of these historic properties in order to promote public pride and awareness (Love It), and to encourage neighborhood rehabilitation and reinvestment (One Building at a Time). Discover Denver is a building and neighborhood survey meant to identify historic and architecturally significant s

tructures citywide. This collaborative effort is led by Historic Denver, Inc., in partnership with the City and County of Denver and History Colorado. The survey will gather information using public records, neighborhood canvassing, academic research, and suggestions from the public, and will put all of this data into an online database so that anyone can learn about Denver’s past — building by building. Discover Denver is important because it will identify the places that matter to Denver’s history. Through this survey we can share the value of these historic properties — to promote public pride and awareness, to encourage neighborhood rehabilitation and reinvestment, and to inform city planning initiatives. leads this collaborative project in partnership with the City and County of Denver and with support from History Colorado and the Colorado State Historic Fund.

05/27/2026

Discover Denver Find: 3811 East 26th Avenue

As Discover Denver moves through the city surveying and researching neighborhoods, we often encounter the same fascinating Denver people time and again. Back in 2016, we told the story of Antonia Brico, a renowned orchestra conductor and resident of Bella Vita Towers in Virginia Village. Now we've found a Skyland neighborhood connection to her in one of the houses overlooking City Park Golf Course along East 26th Avenue Parkway.

Brico was born in the Netherlands in 1902 and moved to the United States with her family at the age of six. She studied conducting in Berlin, and made her Berlin Philharmonic debut in 1930. In 1935, she started the New York-based Women's Symphony Orchestra, later known as the Brico Symphony Orchestra. Brico moved to Denver around 1940 where she taught and became a guest conductor. In 1948, she founded the Denver Businessman's Orchestra, now the Denver Philharmonic, which she continued to lead into the 1980s. Brico was the subject of the Oscar-nominated 1974 film "Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman," produced by one of her former students, folk singer Judy Collins.

The house in Skyland was built in 1930 by builder and designer Albert C. Stice for Albert and Flora Ketcham. For decades starting in 1952, it was the home of accomplished cellist Yolanda Hager, a friend and student of Antonia Brico's. Hager played cello in Brico's orchestra. Her successful music career also included supporting visiting artists, such as Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra. Brico also helped teach Yolanda Hager's six children how to play musical instruments.

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 and how you can get involved, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

05/20/2026

Discover Denver Find: 960 South Lowell Boulevard

One of the oldest houses in Westwood is the farmhouse on South Lowell Boulevard near West Kentucky Avenue. In over one hundred twenty years, it has been home to just three families. The Anderson family lived in the farmhouse from about 1900 to 1945. In the book “Farmlands, Forts and Country Life” by Sharon Catlett, there is a chapter about the creation of nearby Garden Home School (demolished) around 1904, which states, "Pupils met for a short time in the living room of Mrs. Alfred Anderson, on South Lowell Boulevard."

Alfred and Sigrid P. Nelson Anderson both immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden. They married at Augustana Lutheran Church and had three children — Louise, Alfred Leonard and Harvey. The Andersons were farmers and owned a large piece of land as well as water rights in nearby irrigation ditches. Alfred Anderson served five terms on the Garden Home school board. Described in his obituary as a “widely-known Arapahoe county rancher,” he died in 1934. Sigrid continued to live in the house until about 1945.

The second family to live in the house were the Balenseifens. Ryno Lee and Joyce Balenseifen moved to Westwood from Cheyenne Wells, a town in eastern Colorado. Lee worked for the water department and Joyce was a beauty operator. Their children — Dale, Glen and Janice — regularly placed in horse shows with their Palominos named “Rick Decker,” “Dicky,” and “Dream Boy.” The Balenseifens sold the house in 1951.

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 and how you can get involved, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

05/13/2026

Discover Denver Find: 351 South Lowell Boulevard

When Smore’s Creamery at 351 South Lowell Boulevard opened in the late 1940s, Westwood was transitioning from an agricultural community to a neighborhood full of newly built houses. The operators of the shop, Louis and Ulysses Smore, lived nearby in Garden Home, one of the oldest parts of Westwood. Their little grocery and creamery store served the local community until about 1970.

The building is located just off Morrison Road, which was popular with automobile tourists going to and from the mountains. Savvy auto service providers began locating their businesses on Morrison Road, which attracted competitors, until there was an auto mechanic operating on almost every block. In the early 1970s, a service bay entrance was added to the Smore’s Creamery building and it became Universal Motors.
After being used as the workshop of a metalworker in the 1980s and a graphics business in the 1990s, the building currently houses an automotive tinting business.

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 and how you can get involved, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

04/29/2026

Discover Denver: The Many Lives of 2368 15th Street

From pharmaceuticals to carousel animals, the building at 2368 15th Street in the Highland neighborhood has been home to many commercial ventures in its 142 years of existence.

The commercial building at 2368 15th Street was likely built in 1884, two years after brothers Edward and Emil Lackner purchased the land. Emil eventually moved to Chicago, but Edward stayed and continued to own and rent out 2368 15th Street. Over the next several years, the building hosted several businesses including a druggist, a dry goods merchant, and a laundry.

One notable early owner was John Conlon, a well-known Alderman referred to in newspapers as “Tramway John Conlon”, who used the upper floor as a real estate office while running the adjacent saloon at 2376 15th Street (now My Brother’s Bar). Conlon appears to have rented the main floor of 2368 15th Street to George H. Harrison, who opened the Cozy Bar.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the building housed a paint shop, restaurants, and a sheet metal shop operated by Wilbert L. Swick. In 1946, Swick purchased the building and continued to run the sheet metal shop. Swick’s wife, Grace, continued to own the building after his death in 1963, but it is unclear what, if any, businesses operated there in the 1960s and 1970s.

After a few short-term owners, the building found new life in 1982 as the Phoenix Gallery under Earl Duncan, who specialized in rare antiques and carousel animals. Since 2017, it has housed Pedestrian Shops, continuing the legacy of its long commercial history in the neighborhood.

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 and how you can get involved, visit www.DiscoverDenver.co.

04/21/2026

Discover Denver Find:

This mini-castle in the Whittier neighborhood, near 25th and High Street, features rock-faced stone, a square tower, and crenellation. It was built in 1893 by Flora Hegwer and her husband Ferdinand “Henry” Hegwer. Henry was working as a stone mason at the time, but he is better known for helping connect Denver to the world via stagecoach routes.

Henry Hegwer was born on the frontier in 1842, an area that would later be the Kansas Territory. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War and then started a stagecoach business. One of the lines he established along the Overland Express route was Camp Collins, which became Fort Collins.

The next residents were Carrie Dodson Brown and her husband, Edwin Brown, who was known as “the millionaire hobo.” Brown spent several years traveling throughout the United States to study the conditions facing unhoused people by living as if he were unhoused. He then used his knowledge and political connections (his uncle was Lieutenant Zebulon Pike) to advocate for housing solutions. In 1913, he published “Broke: The Man Without the Dime,” which received national attention, (see images from that book below). It was reported that Brown did much of his writing from the house on High Street.

A partnership between Historic Denver, Inc. and the City and County of Denver, Discover Denver is a citywide building survey focused on identifying the buildings that are historically, architecturally or culturally significant. Visit www.discoverdenver.co for more information and find out how you can get involved!

04/01/2026

Discover Denver Find: 2800 N. Madison Street

The Walnut Hill Shopping Center has stood at the corner of East 28th Avenue and Madison Street since 1952. Containing several retail units, the center has long been home to small businesses providing services to the surrounding community. Long-time businesses in the center included King's Cut-Rate Liquors and Bank Cleaners.

Perhaps the best known Walnut Hill business was Frank's Food Mart, operated by Shizuo "Frank" Yamada. The Yamada family, including Frank, his wife Shizuko, and their three children, moved to Denver around 1944 after their incarceration during World War II at the Tule Lake and later Topaz, American concentration camps. Before the war, the Yamadas ran a grocery store in Penryn, California. After the war they came to Denver largely due to Colorado Governor Ralph Carr, who publicly welcomed Japanese Americans to resettle in the state. You can learn more about the Yamada family and their wartime experience in an article written by Frank and Shizuko's daughter, Doris, at Swept Away - Topaz Stories .

When the Yamadas first came to Denver, they opened a grocery at 28th Avenue & Downing Street in the Five Points neighborhood. They opened Frank's Food Mart in the Walnut Hill Shopping Center in 1952. The “AG” sign above the entrance signifies that they were members of Associated Grocers, a cooperative food wholesale association made up of and owned by independent grocery retailers. Frank and son William operated the neighborhood grocery for many years, with William taking over the store around 1970.

In its 60-plus year history, Frank’s Food Mart had several subsequent owners and closed in 2017. After nearly a decade of vacancy, the building will soon reopen as The Corner On Madison, a neighborhood grocery, liquor store, and café run by local residents, Max Bramer and Emily Quinlan.

A partnership between Historic Denver, Inc. and the City and County of Denver, Discover Denver is a citywide building survey focused on identifying the buildings that are historically, architecturally or culturally significant. Visit www.discoverdenver.co for more information and find out how you can get involved!

02/25/2026

Upcoming Highland Discovery Day This Weekend!

In 1879, this was the view from Highland to Denver. The 15th Street bridge (on the right side of the photo) was built in 1860 and became a horsecar line in 1873. What a different view it is almost 150 years later!

Find out about early history in the Highland neighborhood and more at Discover Denver’s upcoming Discovery Day. The event is free and will be held at MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater at 2644 West 32nd Avenue on Saturday, February 28 from 10 AM to 2 PM.

Stop by to learn about our discoveries in the neighborhood and share your knowledge. We invite you to bring old photographs, documents, and memories of Northwest Denver to contribute to the project.

This event is made possible with the help of Highland United Neighbors, Inc. (HUNI) and American Family Insurance.

A partnership between Historic Denver, Inc. and the City and County of Denver, Discover Denver is a citywide building survey focused on identifying the buildings that are historically, architecturally or culturally significant.

Visit www.discoverdenver.co for more information and find out how you can get involved!

02/11/2026

Upcoming Highland Discovery Day

Please join us for our upcoming Discovery Day in the Highland neighborhood [Highland United Neighbors, Inc. (HUNI)]! The event is free and will be held at MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater at 2644 West 32nd Avenue on Saturday, February 28 from 10 AM to 2 PM.

At this open house event, you can learn about surprising discoveries made by the Discover Denver citywide building survey and share your own knowledge as well. We invite you to bring old photographs, documents, and memories of Northwest Denver (or other parts of the city!) to contribute to the project.

A partnership between Historic Denver, Inc. and the City and County of Denver, Discover Denver is a citywide building survey focused on identifying the buildings that are historically, architecturally or culturally significant. Visit www.discoverdenver.co for more information and find out how you can get involved!

01/27/2026

Discover Denver Find: 2559 16th Street

For decades on the corner of 16th and Boulder Streets, the Olinger family provided Denverites with a place to live and, when the time came, a place to rest after death. The Olinger Mortuary buildings on the east side of the intersection were repurposed into popular restaurants, such as Linger (Olinger minus the “O”).

On the west side of the intersection is Northgate Apartments (the gateway to North Denver), built by George Olinger in 1922. He operated Olinger Mortuary and also invested in real estate. George Olinger developed Crown Hill Cemetery (1907) and residential areas, including Bonnie Brae (1920s) and Olinger Gardens in Wheat Ridge. He was also known as the founder of the Highlander Boys, a youth organization.

A newspaper image of Northgate Apartments in 1922 shows Crown Hill Florists in the corner unit, conveniently located for those making funeral arrangements. The storefront along 16th Avenue soon housed a medical office. Over the years, the building has been home to many people, as well as a grocery store, barber shop, appliance store, and a bridal and jewelry shop.

A partnership between Historic Denver, Inc. and the City and County of Denver, Discover Denver is a citywide building survey focused on identifying buildings that are historically, architecturally, or culturally significant. Visit www.discoverdenver.co for more information and find out how you can get involved!

01/13/2026

Discover Denver Find: 3657 Fillmore Street

Our Discover Denver volunteers often get recommendations on what buildings to research—and also where to eat! A neighbor shared with us that Lucero’s Mexican Food, at 3657 Fillmore Street, has been a popular restaurant for decades.

The building has a long history of feeding people in the Clayton neighborhood. It was a grocery store in the early 1900s. In the 1960s, the Lucero family operated Lucero’s Corner Market. By the early 1990s, Fred and Irene “Dede” Lucero, along with members of their family, had opened the restaurant, which is known for serving delicious Mexican food. We also suspect the family are fans of the Denver Broncos (who isn’t?), as the building features large Broncos murals on the side.

A partnership between Historic Denver, Inc., and the City and County of Denver, Discover Denver is a citywide building survey focused on identifying buildings that are historically, architecturally, or culturally significant. Visit www.discoverdenver.co for more information and to find out how you can get involved!

Address

1420 Ogden Street, # 202
Denver, CO
80218

Telephone

+13035345288

Website

http://www.discoverdenver.co/

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