Daniels and Fisher Tower
National Register of Historic Places

Daniels and Fisher Tower

Denver, Denver County, Colorado
Listed
December 2, 1969
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
69000040

About this property

The Daniels & Fisher Tower is a distinctive historic landmark located in Denver, Colorado. Built as part of the Daniels & Fisher department store in 1910, it was the tallest building between the Mississippi River and the state of California at the time of construction, at a height of 325 feet (99 m). The building was designed by the architect Frederick Sterner and modeled after The Campanile (St. Mark's Bell Tower) at the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy. The 20-floor clock tower has clock faces on all four sides. A 5,500 pound bell was installed in the top two floors of the tower on March 30, 1911, with the inscription "Presented to the Daniels & Fisher Realty company by William Cooke Daniels and Cicely Cook Daniels, 1911". The bell was manufactured by the McShane Bell company in Baltimore and was six feet in height and 5.5 feet in width. The clapper for the bell weighed 150 pounds and was connected to an electric motor, which rang the bell each hour. On June 22, 1918, Jack Williams, known as "the human fly", climbed the tower from the base to the top of the flag pole in 38 minutes. In 1929, a student nurse named Doris Heller fell from the twentieth story of the tower and landed on the seventeenth floor balcony, suffering a fractured spine and broken feet. After the accident happened, the injured woman was not found until 48 hours after it occurred. May Company purchased Daniels & Fisher in 1958, and the store vacated the tower. When the store was demolished (ca. 1971), the tower was saved and renovated into residential and office space in 1981. The tower is located within Denver's Skyline Park and the basement level has been home to the Clocktower Cabaret entertainment venue since 2006. The tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 3, 1969. On August 22, 1983, the tower was climbed by Gary Neptune to raise attention and funds for Mile High United Way's 1983 fund-raising campaign.

Location

1101 16th St.
Denver, Denver County, Colorado
39.74827, -104.99575

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Joslin Dry Goods Company Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Baur Confectionery Company
Industrial
0.1 mi
Foster, A. C., Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Colorado National Bank Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Railway Exchange Addition and Railway Exchange New Building
Industrial
0.2 mi

Questions about this property

When was Daniels and Fisher Tower listed on the National Register?

Daniels and Fisher Tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 2, 1969.

What type of historic resource is Daniels and Fisher Tower?

Daniels and Fisher Tower is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Daniels and Fisher Tower?

The period of significance for Daniels and Fisher Tower is recorded as the industrial era, specifically around 1911.

Can I research the history near Daniels and Fisher Tower?

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