A Walking Tour of the Ninth Street Historic Park

              A Brief History of Ninth
Street Historic Park
Ninth Street Historic Park, the oldest
restored residential block in the Denver community, is located at the heart of the downtown
Denver Auraria Campus. Auraria is a unique
campus, with three public higher education institutions sharing facilities and services on a single
campus: Community College of Denver, The
Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the
University of Colorado at Denver. Together, the
institutions serve nearly 33,000 students, the largest student population in Colorado.
Auraria is situated on the western banks of
historic Cherry Creek, where the Russell brothers
from Georgia staked out a townsite in October
1858. Inflated news of a small strike by the Russells
initiated the 1859 gold rush to the Rockies. They
named their new town Auraria, meaning "gold
region," for their native state's gold mining community. The tiny settlement prospered and, on a
moonlit night in 1860, a formal ceremony took
place on the bridge at 15th and Larimer which
linked Auraria with another early pioneer town,
Denver.
Throughout the decades, Auraria
remained a vital community, with flourishing
businesses and homes, an important part of
Denver's growth and development. Although
original residents were primarily German and
Irish, the neighborhood was settled after the turn
A WALKING TOUR OF
Ninth
Street
Historic
EKrk
of the century by Jewish and Hispanic families,
among others. The historic landmarks located on
or near the campus stand as reminders of each
group's contribution to the community.
By 1969, when voters approved a $6 million bond issue for construction of the Auraria
Campus, Auraria had become a primarily industrial neighborhood particularly hard hit by the
Platte River flood of 1965. The Denver Urban
Renewal Authority acquired and cleared the 127
acres necessary for construction of the Campus,
which included the double-sided block of Ninth
Street. Historic Denver, Inc. went to the State to
request a stay of execution for the 14 structures.
The State agreed, binding Historic Denver to a
strict contract requiring
the preservation group
to secure all necessary
funds before the close
of 1975. The organization successfully raised
the $900,000 needed to
authoritatively restore
the exteriors, with a
simple refurbishment of
the interiors. Ninth
Street was saved, and
became an integral part
of the Campus when it
opened in 1977.
The Ninth Street Houses
The fourteen structures on Ninth Street
Historic Park represent middle class housing of
the late 19th century. The two earliest houses
were built in 1872, while the grocery store on the
corner (now the Mercantile Restaurant) and the
two bungalows were constructed soon after the
turn of the century. Five, and maybe six of the
houses are territorial, built before Colorado
became a state in 1876. Only two cottages are
frame construction, for in 1874 Denver passed an
ordinance requiring the use of brick to guard
against the punishing fires that ravaged many
early communities.
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