Park Hill

About this property

Park Hill is a neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, U.S. Located in the northeastern quadrant of the city, it is bordered by Colorado Boulevard on the west, East Colfax Avenue on the south, Quebec Street on the east, and East 52nd Avenue on the north. The entire Park Hill neighborhood is located in the area known as East Denver. It is further divided by the City and County of Denver into three administrative neighborhoods, South Park Hill, North Park Hill, and Northeast Park Hill. Park Hill's modern boundaries include the historic Denver developments of Park Hill, Hartman's Addition, Colfax Heights, Downington, Strayer's Park Place, Bellemont, Park Hill Annex, Oakland, Wareington, San Rafael, Linwood, Colfax Addition, and East Swansea. Casper R. Hartman was the first speculator to purchase land in what is now Park Hill. After building a freighting business between Denver and St. Joseph Missouri, Hartman built a livery stable in West Denver, and in 1871 purchased the roughly 140 acre area bounded by Colorado/McKinley Ave. to the west, Montview Blvd. to the north, Dahlia/Caribou St. to the east, and Colfax Ave. to the south. This area forms the modern southwest corner of Park Hill. Hartman platted the land in squares as opposed to rectangles, which created a group of streets with slight variation from other sections of the neighborhood. The streets of Ash, Birch, and Dexter, do not cut through Hartman's Addition, and Batavia Pl. was added as an accommodation between 16th and 17th. The name "Park Hill" originated with the land platted by Baron Alois Gillaume Eugene von Winkler in 1887. Von Winkler purchased a thirty-two block site directly north of Hartman's Addition, just east of City Park, for $20,000. Inspired by fellow German Denver developer Baron Walter von Richthofen, von Winkler sought to create a picturesque suburban haven. Perhaps contrary to this goal, the baron constructed a racetrack in Park Hill, which was eventually overshadowed by a larger one at City Park. Von Winkler also utilized the early Park Hill land to raise horses and dogs and to host the city dog pound. In June 1898, Baron von Winkler committed suicide using strychnine and a gun. Von Winckler's land was purchased by an eastern investment group, the "Park Hill Syndicate," for $60,500. Led by David B. Gamble, Earl Cranston, Gene Hamilton, and Robert T. Miller, the syndicate sold lots for $150 to $300 and defined strict rules for developing the neighborhood, requiring houses to be set back forty feet from the street to allow for spacious tree lawns and sidewalks and requiring houses to be built costing no less than $3,000 at a time when houses in Denver were usually built for $1,000. In 1903, Denver annexed the previously unincorporated suburb of Park Hill.

Location

Categories

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.

More in Denver County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Denver County.

More historic places in Colorado

Browse all historic places in Colorado.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Colorado history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.