Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Historic Denver Brands

A summer of research has turned up some interesting advertisements from Denver's past. Taking a bit of a diversion from my normal building related posts, here are some ads from a Broadway Theater program dated January 22, 1906.



The beautiful Broadway Theater used to be located at 1756 Broadway across from the Brown Palace Hotel. It was demolished in 1955. This showplace featured numerous acts over the years.

While we lament the awful destruction of the Broadway, we can live it again (sort of) by looking at these fun ads:



This ad came out before the Daniels and Fisher Company had built its signature clock tower and flagship department store at 16th and Arapahoe. Daniels and Fisher used to be located nearby at 16th and Curtis.




The University of Denver started out its life as the Colorado Seminary in 1864. It was founded by our second territorial governor, John Evans. Dr. Evans' house stood across the street from DU until 1910 when it was demolished to make way for the Denver Tramway headquarters (today's Hotel Teatro).





The Oxford is one of two downtown hotels still in public use from Denver's early years. The other is the Brown Palace. The other 48 or so privatly run hotels have mostly been demolished over the years although a few of the buildings remain standing even though their uses have changed.





If you have been to Dixon's Downtown Grill at 1610 16th Street, you may have noticed the Solitaire name in the windows. This grocery brand was sold and produced by the Morey Mercantile Company which used both the Henry Lee building where Dixon's is now located as well as the adjacent Tattered Cover Bookstore, built originally for the Morey Mercantile Company.



Ah, Baur's. This Denver institution of candy and ice cream started in 1872 and nearly lasted one century before caving into urban renewal downtown. With much of its 20th century business related to the theater crowd located on Curtis Street, the continual closure and removal of these theaters after WWII led to Baur's demise. It relocated to the Cherry Creek Shopping Center around 1955 and was closed down completely by 1970. Today however, the name and sign live on in the same building at 1512 Curtis with Baur's Ristorante.




Deep Rock still delivers water and is still located in the Five Points neighborhood after all this time. Of course, it helps that the underground aquifer the company uses is still serving outstanding water for over a century!

Enjoy this look into Denver's past through these fun ads. More to come in the future.

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