South Side-Baker Historic District

About this property

Baker is a neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, United States. Baker is an area of 955 acres (3.86 km2), approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Denver Civic Center, generally defined by these boundaries: on the north by West 6th Avenue, on the east by Broadway, on the south by West Mississippi Avenue, and on the west by the South Platte River. A historic district of 150 acres (0.61 km2) (approximately 30 blocks) lies in the northeast corner of the neighborhood with irregular borders that range from within a half block of Alameda Ave. and Broadway on the south and east to as far as Fox St. on the west and W. 5th Ave. on the north. The historic district designation was granted in 2000 as Baker Historic District as part of the Historic Preservation effort of the City of Denver. Criteria for designation included historical figures who lived in the neighborhood and many popular architectural styles, with several buildings designed by prominent architects within a period of significance of 1873 to 1937. With small exceptions, the same area designated as a local historic district had been entered into the National Register of Historic Places as South Side–Baker Historic District in 1985. South Side is a name used in the 1880s for a larger area from Cherry Creek to Yale Ave., mostly east of Broadway. In addition to the historic district, three individually-designated Denver Historic Landmark buildings are within Baker's boundaries: the Coyle/Chase House at 532 W. 4th Ave., home of playwright Mary Chase, the 1st and Broadway Building at 101-115 N. Broadway, and Fire Station No. 11 at 40 W. 2nd Ave. "John Smith and his Mexicans" settled for a while in the summer of 1857 at the outlet of a seasonal stream into the South Platte River, extracting enough placer gold to make this location profitable. The location became known as the Mexican Diggings. Since it preceded the 1858 settlement at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, about four miles downstream, it is thought to be the first non-native settlement of what is now Denver. The location has been established at approximately where W. Virginia Ave. would reach the east side of the S. Platte River. James Beckwourth, a noted mountain man and former slave, settled in 1859 near the Mexican Diggings. Also that year, William and Elizabeth Byers homesteaded a nearby a portion of the riverfront. These were the first long-term non-native settlers in what became Baker. The first subdivision in Baker was platted along Santa Fe Dr. south of W. Sixth Ave. in 1872, and residential development took off in the 1880s. The part of the neighborhood north of Alameda Ave. was annexed into the city of Denver in 1883. Baker south of Alameda was within South Denver, incorporated in 1886 and then annexed to Denver in 1894.

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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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