What:  RMGA Auraria Campus FAM

When:  March 25, 2015

Where to Meet:  Be at the Golda Meir House (1146 – 9th Street near St. Cajetan’s) between 8:30-9:00a.m. and check in with Ed Weising.  If you are running late and cannot make it at 9:00a.m. contact Ed Weising at 720-891-3078 and he will tell you where to join us.  Our FAM will end at about 3:45p.m. at St. Cajetan’s.  Bring your itinerary with you (extras will be available at the beginning of the FAM).  Please silence your cell phone at the beginning of the FAM!​

Auraria Campus 

FAM – March 25, 2015

Auraria Campus

Ed Weising / Larry Ralston

The group met on the front porch of the duplex at 1146 9th Street where Golda Meir once lived with her older sister and brother-in-law.  Our student guides – Chris Campbell and Chelsea Hester - who are taking Museum Studies at Metro State, were very knowledgeable about Golda and the house.  They pointed out several details that we had not previously encountered – such as the pass through door between the kitchens (it looks like an old milk box) where the two families could borrow items without having to go outside.  This house has been moved a three times – it was originally at Santa Fe and Sheridan in Little Israel, as well as having two fires.  Urban renewal had slated it for demolition before being moved to its present location.   It is currently used as a meeting center for the Auraria Higher Education Commission (AHEC).   In 1997 the house was opened as a Museum at the current location.

In the basement is the Golda Meir Political Center – which is non-partisan and educational.  This “house” has three rooms – living room, bedroom, kitchen with a bathroom between the “bedroom” and the kitchen.  All three slept in the one bedroom.  The bath has a quite modern toilet along with the claw-foot tub and old sink.  Typical of the times – the window is over the tub.

Golda Mabovitch was born in Kiev, Russia on May 3, 1898.  She immigrated with her family to the USA when she was 8 years old and settled in Minneapolis.  At 14 she ran away from home because her mother had arranged a marriage for her.  Golda wanted to be a teacher and, at the time, teachers could not be married.  Her older sister Sheyna lived in Denver and housed Golda for a while.  Golda’s sister had TB and had come here, as many Eastern Europeans did, to recover from TB and associated lung diseases.  Golda attended high school here and worked for her sister after school.  She also developed her political knowledge here.  Golda’s ideas for social Zionism and labor Zionism were developed here.

Golda met her husband, Morris Meyerson, in Denver.  She returned to Minneapolis to complete high school (she was the valedictorian of her class).  She and Morris went to live in Israel in 1921 on a kibbutz.  In 1924 they moved to Jerusalem. In 1928 Golda was elected secretary of the Working Women’s Council and spent two years in the US as their emissary in the U.S.

In 1948, Golda was a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.  From 1949 – 1956 she was Minister of Labour in Israel.  In 1956 she became Foreign Minister under David Ben Gurion.  From 1969-1974 Golda was Prime Minister of Israel.  She died in 1978.

Our Metro educational contact is the Professor for Museum Studies.

The group then went across the campus to one of the University of Colorado Denver (UCD) buildings where Jeff and Lyle (both Business School students) gave us a very comprehensive tour of the buildings and the programs offered by UCD.  The UCD Business School is considered one of the five best in the world.

The Auraria campus covers about 70 acres of land.  UCD is mostly on the north and east sides of campus and some buildings are across Cherry Creek and Speer Blvd.  Different parts of the campus are specific to each school.  Basic enrollment statistics on the Auraria campus include: UCD – 18,270 (14,369 total downtown (9,987 are undergraduates)) and 3,901 at the Anschutz Medical Center (466 are undergrads).  This includes online and evening students.  Only 5% of the students at UCD are from out of state.  Metro State University has 21,179 students total and the Community College of Denver has 9,557 students; making a total of 49,006 students who use this campus.  As a comparison: UC Boulder has nearly 32,000 students and Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins has 26,775 students.  Because there are no dormitories or football stadium at Auraria, the perception is that there are far few students here.  There are athletic fields actually being built along the light rail track near Colfax.  UCD is all downtown though some buildings are across Cherry Creek.  Parking around the campus ranges from $2-$6/day.  Some campus parking lots require student ID, others are available to all.  The most remote lots are the cheapest and are open to everyone.  Tuition costs include an RTD pass.  UCD does offer seniors the opportunity to attend classes, participation is free though you also get no grade or credits toward a degree.

UCD, Metro and CCD all use the same campus though generally classes for each school are separate.  In other words, if you are a UCD student, you would not be taking classes at Metro or CCD at the same time.  Students often do the required classes for the first two years at CCD and then transfer their credits to a four-year institution.

Jeff showed us the School of Innovation and Design which is new.  We went into the King Center – named for Kenneth King – which is an art and music school.  It has three halls: a recital hall, a concert hall that seats 500 and a theater.  Students get discounted tickets to the events held here.

The Student Commons Building was opened in 2014.  This facility cost $65.8 million to build and has lots of technology (i.e., if a lecture hall is too crowded, the same lecture can be televised to other classrooms in the building to handle the overflow).  This building also houses the Math Department and offices.  We went to the Lynx Center.  The Lynx is the mascot of UCD and his name is Milo (for the location of UCD – Mile High Lower Downtown).  Jeff gave us each a 15-page self-guided tour brochure that goes into much more detail about each of UCD’s buildings.

There are four lecture halls in this building – each seating about 300 people.  There will be a professor and as many as six teaching assistants for these large lectures/classes.

Lyle pointed out the Tivoli Student Union.  There a plans underway to restart a brewing program at the Tivoli which would be part of the Marketing degree.  Also, there is a hotel on campus – SpringHill Suites by Marriott and managed by Sage (Oxford Hotel/Crawford Hotel) on Auraria Parkway – hospitality students have classes in the addition behind the hotel and can see how a hotel is really run.  Hotels often have three “owners” – building owners, management and flag owners (i.e., Marriott).  Sage Hospitality’s corporate offices are in the old Fontius shoe store location on 16th at Welton.

Part of the group went across Speer to the Business School.  There is an office for Trio (help for low-income students).  Tutoring is generally free and you can be tutored in up to two classes for a certain period of time.   This building is about four years old.  Next was the Science Building.  Donald Lipski was the artist who created the “Test Tube Butterfly” sculpture hanging in the lobby.  He also created “The Yearling” sculpture outside the Denver Public Library (the small horse on the big red chair).  This building has a lecture hall that seats 190.  Our next stop was the North Building – the lobby furniture is new.  The school of Engineering is here and there is a lecture hall that seats 200.

Jeff also pointed out the security EMERGENCY red kiosks that are all across campus – about 100 feet apart – all you have to do is press the button and wait – generally in less than two minutes, the campus security will be there to help.

While we were at lunch – the Metro State program “One World, One Water” was a topic of discussion – good reading.

After lunch we met at the Tivoli.  In 1901, the Tivoli produced about 150,000 barrels of beer/year.  Production continued at this pace until the 1950s.  The brewery was closed in the 1960s.  It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.  The students bought the building in 1991 and it is being paid for on a sliding scale – the 1991 students paid a small amount included in their tuition each year.  That amount escalates yearly so that current students pay a much larger fee than the 1991 students paid – definitely creative salesmanship.  The Tivoli now has seven floors.

Ed gave us each a map of early Auraria showing the street layout and Denver across the bridge.  In 1858 there were 125 log cabins in the area.  Warren’s Ferry was the only way to get across the Platte River.  The cost to cross the river was $1 and people lined up to get their wagons and goods across the river.  It is estimated that Warren made as much as $200/day – a lot of money even now.  The ferry only lasted six months and in 1864 the bridge across the river was completed.  The Washington House hotel was about a block from the river and many people stayed there in order to get an early start on crossing the river.  The 1864 flood changed the course of the river and the current location of Confluence Park is several blocks from its original location.

In this area was Indian Row – a row of cabins.  Jim Beckwourth who had been a slave married into the Crow tribe.  Beckwourth was a mountain guide who found a pass to California.  In 1858, a Georgia native, William Green Russell, discovered gold near Denver.  He moved up into the mountains in 1859 and discovered placer gold.  Russellville (between Black Hawk and Central City) is named for him.  In 1861 Russell tried to take his gold and leave Colorado to join the Confederacy – he tried to go south through New Mexico but was stopped.  He promised he wouldn’t try to leave so they released him – he then went through Kansas and Nebraska to get his gold out.  About one-third of miners were from the South, the other two-thirds were Northerners.

Looking towards the campus, Ed pointed out the location of Dick Wootton’s Saloon on 11th Street.  Wotton had a toll road on Raton Pass.  Dick was a great trapper and guide as well as being a good trader who brought many items to Denver.  The town of Wootton (south of Trinidad) is named for him.   On the second floor of the saloon was William Byers’ Rocky Mountain News.  Byers had an outside staircase to get to his office.  The saloon sometimes was rowdy and shots were fired.  The newspaper men upstairs often slept in the office and so laid down metal sheets to protect themselves from stray bullets.

Aunt Clara Brown was another early pioneer.  She came to Denver, looked for a job and found one at City Bakery where the owner was a Methodist missionary.  She was also a Christian and helped start a church in Henry Brown’s cabin on Larimer.  The church moved to 14th and Lawrence in 1862 and is the oldest congregation in Denver at its present location - the United Methodist Church on Broadway at Tremont.  (Henry Brown built and owned the Brown Palace Hotel). 

There was also the Temperance Hotel, quickly renamed Tremont House, along 13th Street (now Speer Blvd.).  When Speer Viaduct was being constructed, the street was lowered and walls of the Tremont were found under the parking lot.  Toilet pits and other artifacts were also found.

Owen Goldrick was the first teacher in this area.  He had 15 students who he collected in his wagon.  He also developed the first Sunday School in the area and later was the first Superintendent of Schools in Arapahoe County (which then encompassed Denver City and current Arapahoe County).

Charles Blake (Blake Street) came with William Larimer in November 1858 and he brought goods to sell and set up tents for his first store.  He located at 15th and Blake and then on Blake Street across the creek.  He opened a canvas over poles tent hotel which cost $.25/night.  Blankets were an additional $.25/night.  There was a water barrel in the middle of the tent with two ropes hanging down – a community cup and a community toothbrush.  There was a band that played here that was protected from the rowdy gunslingers by a metal shield.

Larimer Street had the first bridge.  Denver became the official name of the city in April 1860 with a handshake mid-bridge between Denver and Auraria.

Ed showed us a photo of a log cabin hotel – the El Dorado Hotel – owned by Count and Countess Murat (relatives of Napoleon) – built of cottonwood logs.  Horace Greeley stayed there – generally he stayed on Indian Row but he treated himself to the El Dorado.  The Count and Countess made him pay – they knew he had money so – a shave (usually $.25) cost Greeley $1.00. His laundry cost $3.00!  Greeley was plagued by various small accidents here in the West.  He fell into a creek in Golden and was fished out by a fisherman.  He fell off his horse.  Greeley went to Central City where he toured a gold mine which had been “salted” to impress him.  Greeley wrote home to his newspaper about the gold and then credited himself with starting the gold rush.

The first US flag in Colorado was supposedly made by Countess Murat.

We went to Emanuel Church – the oldest church building in Denver still standing.  The land was owned by Lewis Tappan, a dedicated Christian.  The first Sunday School was located here.  Tappan sold the land to Bishop Spaulding and the church was built in 1876 as an Episcopalian chapel.  Cornish and Scottish workers attended here.  In 1903 Emanuel became a Jewish synagogue – Shearith Israel Synagogue.  To start a synagogue, ten men were needed.  Many Jews moved here for lung and tuberculosis problems.  Emanuel remained a synagogue until 1958 after most of the congregants had moved away from downtown and out to the suburbs.  The building was sold to an artist – Wolfgang Pogzeba – a German painter and photographer who painted Western scenes.  In 1973 the building became part of the Auraria campus.

A priest protested the planned destruction of St. Cajetan’s but St. Louis’ (Italian) was demolished.  St. Cajetan’s was built in 1926 – money was given by J.K. Mullen who had a flour mill at the site of the current Pepsi Center.  He offered to help build the church if the local Spanish population could raise $5,000 toward the construction.  They were unable to raise the $5,000 but he built it anyway.  There used to be a fossil museum downstairs.  The church is built in Mission architectural style.  St. Cajetan was an Italian saint.  Mullen’s house was located at Curtis and 9th, near the current location of Golda Meir’s house.  Mullen also owned several lots.  He was Irish, came from upstate New York.  In 1885 he bought the Milling and Elevator Company.  Mullen ended up controlling flour mills in seven states (businessmen in those days tried to corner the market on whatever they were selling).  He also owned the Flour Mill (the lofts where Dana Crawford lives at 20th and Little Raven).  Mullen High School is named for him.  Ed provided a page of information on Mullen which will give a lot more detail about his life.

The third church was St. Elizabeth’s (German).  It is the only one still used as a church.

Auraria:

  • In the 1860s and 1870s was a mixed-use neighborhood.  There were businesses, factories, warehouses, and working class people - lots–of tough men. 

  • 1870 – 1890 – it was a working class neighborhood.  There were lots of Germans here as well as people from Central and Eastern Europe.

  • 1890s – There was a decline in population in this neighborhood.  The trolleys now went to the suburbs

  • 1920 – 1965 - this was a Hispanic neighborhood. 

  • 1965 – The flood devastated a lot of this neighborhood.  The government then relocated people – moved a lot them to the Lincoln Park area – the move was already on to have all three campuses at this one location.

  • 1969 – This area became the campus

  • 1972 – The state approved Historic Denver’s restoration of the 9th Street block.  Historic Denver had three years to raise the money to restore this are.  They raised $900,000 to restore this block.  These homes have been repurposed into offices and restaurants.  The Victorian era lasted from 1835-1901 (Queen Victoria’s reign). 

Some of the houses on the block include:

• 1050 9th Street - 1873 – the Davis house – Italianate – this house has lovely iron               railings

• On this block are three with Mansard rooflines – hip roof on all four sides.  This style is generally Second Empire (1855-1885) (the time of Napoleon III).
  

• The Cottage style house is smaller – usually less than 1,000 square feet – and has dormer windows
  

• The Vernacular uses local materials and is practical – they take materials available and make it work.
  

• Stephen Knight’s house – he was the second president of the Colorado Flour and Milling Company.  His house is Italianate – Second Empire.  Mr. Knight gave one of the two bronze statue in Civic Center Park.  The other was given by Mr. Mullen – they are the  “Broncho Buster” and “On the Warpath”. 
  

• 1056 9th Street – the Dolan House – 1901 – this is a Classic Cottage.  Dolan was also in flour milling – Hungarian Flour.  This house is also reputed to have been built with indoor plumbing.
  

• 1050 9th – Cole’s house – 1875 – Vernacular style
  

• 1024 9th – Roop house – 1875 – Italianate – Mr. Roop was a cattleman
  

• 1020 9th – Smedley House – 1872 – oldest house on the block – Vernacular flatboard.   This house was once the Casa Mayan Restaurant – serving Mexican food.
  

• On the other side of the street: 1015 – the Knight house – 1885 – Second Empire.   Mr. Knight was also involved in the flour mills. 
  

The Brick Ordinance requiring all buildings to be of brick or stone was enacted around 1874. 

Retail groups in old sections of town show where the trolley lines went (Pearl Street, etc.).  Five Points was a major trolley stop and the designation “Five Points” was used rather than name each street.  Other parts of town do have five streets coming together but this one is     still “Five Points”.

Seventh Street goes between Auraria Parkway and Colfax.  There is loading/parking space for motor coaches off 7th on Lawrence Court.  The classroom buildings have restrooms.

----Nancy Brueggeman

 

Suggested reading:

Leon Uris – “Exodus” – story of the migration to Israel in 1948

Leon Uris – “The Haj” – about coexistence in Israel between Jews and Palestinians

“The Big Drink” – about water conservation throughout the world

 

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