the Capitol Hill neighborhood of the

City and County of Denver Denver ( ) is a consolidated city and county, the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Western United States, in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains east of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States, is bordered by Broadway, Downing Street,

Colfax Avenue Colfax Avenue is the main street that runs east–west through the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the loca ...

, and Seventh Avenue, which carry large volumes of traffic around the neighborhood. It is technically located in East Denver which begins immediately east of Broadway, the neighborhood's western boundary. Many consider the

Cheesman Park Cheesman Park is an urban park and neighborhood located in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States. Geography Cheesman Park is located in central Denver, southeast of downtown. The Park has inexact borders, as it is framed on thr ...

neighborhood to be a part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, but as defined by the city, Cheesman Park is a separate neighborhood. Denver also recognizes a statistical neighborhood called North Capitol Hill, also known as Uptown by some residents.

is the border between these two neighborhoods.

History

The neighborhood was originally the home of Denver's elite who constructed elaborate mansions. As the economy of Denver slumped after the Silver Crash of 1893, construction in Capitol Hill concentrated on apartments. Three buildings still in existence are examples of the architecture of this time: The Colonnade, Alta Court (currently an office building), and the Hamilton. This cultural and demographic shift, from single-family mansions toward boarding houses and rental property for the transient middle class, marked a shift toward the present multi-family dominance of the neighborhood. Capitol Hill remained a solid middle-class neighborhood until after World War II, when middle-class families left Capitol Hill. The demographics of people left behind were transients and renters. Another watershed in the history of Capitol hill was the completion of Interstate 70. No longer did incoming tourists drive down East Colfax Avenue on their way into downtown. The tourist dollar was effectively wiped out as a revenue source for East Colfax after this decade. So began another downward spiral. With no tourists to spend money along East Colfax the businesses suffered, as did the demand to go to Capitol Hill. The affordability, urban character and eclectic architecture made the area appealing to young bohemians, artists, musicians (

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

and

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...

were former neighborhood residents) which has led to a gradual gentrification that reached its height during the 2000s. The rents in the neighborhood have increased significantly over the past decade, and many of the cheap apartments in the area have been converted into more expensive condominiums. Nonetheless, the neighborhood has an older housing stock which lacks off-street parking, contributing to a relative affordability compared to other central neighborhoods. Currently many portions of East Colfax Avenue are undergoing redevelopment to make them denser and more pedestrian-friendly. Despite these redevelopment efforts, a brief stroll along Colfax Avenue through the Capitol Hill neighborhood will provide a glimpse of its history. In 2012 the state history museum of Colorado, the

History Colorado Center The History Colorado Center is a museum in Denver, Colorado, USA dedicated to the history of the state of Colorado. Construction on the $111 million building started on 19 August 2009. The museum opened on 28 April 2012 at 1200 Broadway, one blo ...

, was opened next to the new Colorado State Judiciary building.

Geography

The neighborhood is located just southeast of Denver's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

(CBD) in a well-established residential neighborhood, with commercial centers located along major traffic routes (such as Colfax Avenue and Broadway) and interior arterials (such as East 13th and 14th Avenues). The neighborhood is directly east of the

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...

neighborhood and the

Colorado State Capitol The Colorado State Capitol Building, located at 200 East Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colorado, United States, is the home of the Colorado General Assembly and the offices of the Governor of Colorado, Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, and the Co ...

. Over 95% of this neighborhood is developed. The average year of construction for buildings is 1920, with some of the oldest single-family homes in the city. The characteristics of Capitol Hill are closely related to other east Denver neighborhoods, which include the hospital district and the North Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Public transportation Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...

and city support services are readily available. Neighborhood Boundaries: *North – Colfax Avenue *South – Seventh Avenue *East – Downing Street *West – Broadway

Characteristics

Capitol Hill is Denver's most densely populated neighborhood. It was once the home of Denver's elite and origination of Foursquare architecture in Denver. Today it consists of historic mansions, apartments and condo buildings. Because of the concentration of multi-family uses and the urban character of the neighborhood, parking is at a premium. The area is strongly influenced by the

, which is within its boundaries, and Downtown Denver which is adjacent to the northwest boundary of the neighborhood. Commercial uses are typically located on major arterials such as

, East 8th Avenue, East 14th Avenue, East 13th Avenue, Lincoln Street and Broadway. A considerable number of mansion properties have been converted to office uses over the past several years due to zoning exemptions offered to historic structures which are zoned for residential uses. Office development in the neighborhood is primarily concentrated in the northwest portion of the neighborhood with small professional offices located throughout the neighborhood.

Arts and culture

The Capitol Hill neighborhood is influenced by its proximity to the Colorado State Capitol,

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

and its northern boundary, East Colfax Avenue. Capitol Hill is one of the most cosmopolitan neighborhoods in Denver, well known as a haven for artists and

bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a f ...

. There are numerous restaurants, clubs, bars, stores, concert venues, and other cultural amenities in the community. East 13th Avenue is the center of Denver's

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

community with various stores that cater to punks and hipsters. Colfax Avenue has a reputation for a wild nightlife with multiple concert venues (The Fillmore Auditorium, The Ogden Theater, The Bluebird Theater, 1Up Colfax), and numerous late-night bars, coffeeshops, restaurants, and stores on the street. During the day, lobbyists and politicians from the Colorado State Capitol can be seen making deals in the restaurants and bars of the neighborhood. The neighborhood also has a reputation for being a very

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

and

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

friendly area of Denver. Capitol Hill is next to two major Denver parks, Civic Center Park and

. Both of these are meeting centers for the community; they host many festivals, including the Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods-sponsored People's Fair in early June. Capitol Hill has had a long bohemian reputation with the Colburn Hotel on Grant Street being a onetime residence of

and

Attractions

* Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness * Molly Brown House – now a museum *

Quizno Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and Richard Schad ...

's subs – the first location of the chain *

Wax Trax! Records Wax Trax! Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago. It began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado, opened by life partners Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, who sold the store in 1978 and moved to Chicago. In November of that y ...

– record store opened in 1978 which spawned

in Chicago. Located at 13th and Washington *

The Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...

* Colorado Governor's Mansion

Crime

The crime rate in 2014 in the Capitol Hill neighborhood was 8.63 incidents per 1,000 residents, above average for Denver.

Gallery

File:GovsPark.jpg, Grant and 7th, near Gov's Park in Capitol Hill File:13th&Pearl.jpg, 13th and Pearl, in the heart of Capitol Hill File:Wax Trax.JPG, Wax Trax, 13th and Washington File:Colorado State Capitol.jpg, The east side of the Colorado State Capitol in Capitol Hill

References

External links

City and County of Denver

City and County of Denver: Neighborhoods mapState of Colorado

History Colorado
{{authority control Gay villages in the United States Neighborhoods in Denver Entertainment districts in the United States Restaurant districts and streets in the United States