2015 November Historic Denver

Historic Denver - Emerson School

WHAT: RMGA ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING - Historic Denver - Emerson School

WHEN: November 9, 2015, 6:30--7:00 – networking and sign-in, 7:00 -8:00 – background and presentation about Historic Denver and Emerson School followed by a self-guided tour of the building. This is a great old building and it has been renovated into a house, among others, and now serves several non-profit entities involved with historic preservation and education groups occupy the building.

WHERE: 1420 Ogden Street, Denver, CO 80218 - lower level conference room. Enter through back door (parking lot).

PROGRAM: Shannon Schaefer of Historic Denver will give us a presentation covering the beginnings of Historic Denver, some of its major activities and involvement in saving many historic buildings as well as ways for RMGA to be involved

PARKING: There are many parking spots on site and many parking meters on the street.

Guide Line Review

Historic Denver - Emerson School

Emerson School was built in 1885, and is on the National Register of Historic Buildings. Designed by Robert Roeschlaub, who moved to Denver in 1873 and was the only trained architect in Denver at that time. Emerson School is one of the more than 50 schools Roeschlaub designed and the oldest still standing. It was used as a school until 1979. Roeschlaub served as the architect of the East Denver School District from 1876-1879. He also designed schools in Golden and Colorado Springs.

The building has a Gothic entryway with exposed roof brackets (Italianate). The foundation is of rusticated rhyolite which is a local stone – Castle Rock and the Manitou Springs area. The floorplan is a pinwheel, the rooms all branch off from the center hall. The halls, closets, and cloakrooms were segregated – one set for boys, one for girls. The basement held a four-room apartment for the janitor as well as a small gymnasium.   The neighborhood was mixed: there were wealthy families as well as working class families. The area has been transitional most of its life. At one time, water flowed freely from Waterton Canyon into the City, which made this neighborhood a prime area to cultivate and develop.

In 1911, the state-wide program called the “Senate” of Emerson School was a classroom model to teach United States History and civil government in the 8th grade. In 1917, the Cottage School was added on the Colfax side to house kindergarten and 1st grade students.

In the 1980s the building was converted to offices and called the Frank McGlone Center. It held offices for social services and there was a non-profit medical office in the building. The building has a sundial in front – to remind students of the importance of being on time, teach them how to tell time and how to use a sundial. Dora Moore School also has a sundial in front of the school.

In 2007, the building was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation by Capitol Hill Senior Resources, Inc. Rehabilitation of the building began in 2010 and was completed in 2012. This was a $3.2 million project – paid for by State historical funds and other sources. The building is now “green” – the leaks in the windows were closed, daylight use improved, geothermal heating, and cooling installed. B-Cycle has a stop in front of the building and the pedestrian walkways were improved.

The building houses several non-profits, including Historic Denver, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Colorado Preservation, Inc., Historic Corps (a group that does the hands-on restoration work), Downtown Colorado, Inc., Colorado CASA (Court Appointed Children’s Advocate), and the Colorado Water Trust.

Historic Denver was formed to save the Molly Brown House (now a museum) and is the only building that Historic Denver owns. Historic Denver was founded by locals and is a private non-profit. They are a resource on rehabilitation and preservation work for the community. They helped save the small homes on 9th Street which are on the Auraria campus.   They host workshops and in 2008 they launched Denver’s Story Trek which focuses on oral histories.

Historic Denver also has several guidebooks available for sale at the Molly Brown House Museum (MBHM) in the Gift Shop in the Coach House. These small architectural walking guidebooks are very popular and focus on neighborhoods or on specific topics. In 2012, they began working on a city-wide survey of every building. In 2014, Historic Denver also started walking tours (Lower Downtown (LoDo) and Capitol Hill).

Shannon showed us a photo of the Dunning-Benedict Mansion at 12th and Pennsylvania (a William Lang-designed house, who also designed MBHM). The Historic Denver walking tour program in place is a five-week training period and then after certification the trained tour guides give walking tours of the area they were trained on. The training involves classroom training as well as on the street training. The tours are each about a mile long and the LoDo tour begins and ends at Union Station. The Capitol Hill tour begins and ends at MBHM. Each tour lasts about 90 minutes. The tours are limited to 15 people/docent. The next tour to be implemented will run from Larimer Square to 16th Street Mall to the D&F Tower. The tours in 2016 will run from May 2-October 31, 2016.   You can book online or buy your tickets at MBHM. The meeting was very well attended.