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Starring My Town
salutes
the “Mile High City”….
Denver, Colorado
Denver is the capital of Colorado and lies nestled along the Rocky Mountain range that stretches 3300 miles from the Artic Ocean in northwestern Alaska to the northern tip of New Mexico. It is the largest mountain chain in North America and the Continental Divide rides along its crest most of the way. Denver is exactly 1 mile above sea level (5,281 ft.) and exactly marks the point where the Mountain Time Zone begins (105 degrees west of Greenwich). Here are the mountains of Denver….
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It was first founded by General William Larimer of Kansas in November, 1858 when he staked his claim with cottonwood logs along the hill overlooking the juncture of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek.
 Governor James W. Denver |
 Confluence of South Platte and Cherry Creek |
Larimer named the site Denver City in honor of Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver and sold parcels of land to passing pioneers heading west for the gold rush. But his dreams of building a city were almost dashed when the miners and merchants traded the parcels for grubstakes or gambled them away. Denver was just a glimmer until Colorado became a territory in 1861.Another boom came in 1870 with the arrival of the railroad and, in August, 1876 when Colorado was admitted to the Union, it took Denver along as its capital. Much of old Denver still remains in the heart of the city today.
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 The Croke-Patterson mansion built by Thomas B. Croke who visited only once before selling it to the Pattersons. It is now an office building. |
 The Capitol Hill mansion, built in 1891 of lovely ruby sandstone, is now a bed and breakfast. |
 The home of the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown of Titanic fame. Built in 1889, it is now a museum. |
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Scenes from old Denver…
 Sixteenth Street 1875 |
 Lawrence Street 1890 |
 Denver skyline 1898 |
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 16th Street 1906 |
 Post Office 1910 |
Denver as it looks today….
 Downtown Denver |
 Wells Fargo (sometimes referred to as the Cash Register Building) and the Republic Plaza. |
 Denver City-County Building |
 16th Street Mall |
 Union Station |
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 The Capitol Building. Its gold-plated dome represents the state's gold rush history. |
 The Denver Art Museum |
 The Denver Performing Arts Center |
 Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception |
…. and two theaters inside and out!
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The Mayan |
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The Oriental |
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Denver is “dry with only 14 inches of precipitation a year…sunny 300 days annually but subject to dramatic temperature changes.” That must explain the Blizzard of 2006!
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Over 363 films and television shows were filmed on location in or near the city. Three of the earliest were “Masked Procession”, “Cripple Creek Float” and “Decorated Carriages” made on location by Thomas Edison in 1898. A few of the others you may remember were….
 "Dangerous Love" 1920 |
 "The Razor's Edge" with Tyrone Power (1946) |
 Jimmy Stewart did two movies in Denver. Here he is at the premiere of "Strategic Air Command" with wife Gloria in 1955. The other film was "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954). |
 "Every Which Way But Loose" (1978) with Clint Eastwood and Clyde |
 "The Philadelphia Experiment" (1984) with Michael Pare |
 "Dumb and Dumber" (1994) with Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels
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 "About Schmidt" (2002) with Jack Nicholson here with Dermot Mulroney and Hope Davis. |
 "The Lucky Ones" (2008) with Tim Robbins, Michael Pena and Rachel McAdams |
 The "Perry Mason" television movie series, with Raymond Burr, from 1985 to 1993. |
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My granddaughter, Danielle Kort Watters took these pictures in Denver while on a business trip last year. She wished that she could have stayed longer.
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