Tag: denver history

‘Remember the 44’: Sunset memorial to honor United Flight 629 tragedy nearly 70 years later
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WELD COUNTY, Colo. – Sixty-nine years ago Friday, an act of terrorism in the Colorado skies left a painful mark that is still felt today in Weld County.

Denver7 has brought many stories of the tragic bombing of United Flight 629 because so many Coloradans have yet to learn what happened that cold November night in 1955.

There has never been a memorial or marker built to honor the victims, their families and the community of first responders and citizen heroes who responded to the beet fields where 44 people were killed.

FBI

This year, which marks 69 Novembers since that horrific night – and approaching next year’s 70th year since the tragedy, there’s a multi-pronged effort to build permanent memorials and further share the stories of the community and pay tribute to the victims of one of Colorado’s darkest days.

Denver7’s coverage of United Flight 629 changed the way courtrooms are covered in Colorado. We continue to share the stories from that dark day many have forgotten.

It was just after 7 p.m. on November 1, 1955.

United Airlines Flight 629 was a 4-engine DC 6 passenger aircraft – loaded with crew, passengers, cargo and fuel for the hop from Denver to Portland, Oregon, quickly departed Stapleton Airport to the northwest.

A few minutes later,Stapleton tower controllers noticed a bright flash in the sky and witnesses near Longmont heard and saw the huge explosion in the night sky.There was little anyone could do as the wreckage rained down onto the Weld County beet fields.

As the recovery efforts continued, the investigation quickly zeroed in on the DC 6’s cargo hold.

Denver7

An artifact from United Flight 629 on display at History Colorado

The Denver Police Museum eventually had possession of a piece of Flight 629’s mangled fuselage which is now on display at History Colorado.

“This is some pretty heavy gauge metal, and it’s just bent and torn to pieces,” said Jason Hanson, chief creative officer at History Colorado. “The force of the explosion, I think really comes through when you look at this.”

Evidence from the crumpled plane fragments helped unfurl John Gilbert Graham’s heinous actions before a Colorado courtroom the year following Flight 629’s demise.

Denver7

An artifact from United Flight 629 on display at History Colorado

He planted a homemade bomb in his own mother’s suitcase. When that timed bomb detonated above Longmont it killed Daisie King, Graham’s mother, and the 43 other passengers.

“There was a distinct smell of dynamite, so they knew something was wrong right from the get go,” said Michael Hesse, president of the Denver Police Museum. “And when they called Mr. Hoover from the FBI, he instructed them to immediately take all of the luggage and lay it out and pair the luggage with the victims.”

Hesse said despite the fact that the DC 6 exploded in mid air, most of the luggage was somewhat intact.

“Except for one bag – just common sense. The solid police work that went into that, that one bag obviously led them down a path and ultimately allowed them to solve this,” added Hesse.

Denver7

The 44 victims of the Flight 629 tragedy.

As the 70th approaches next November, Hesse is one of the community members working to build a permanent memorial to honor Flight 629.

“There wasn’t an awareness that this happened. It was largely forgotten,” said Hesse. “I have tried over the last several years to find out exactly why that’s the case. And I think part of it – is this happened in 1955 – just 10 years after the end of World War Two, after the Korean War I think that the public was a little more familiar with death.”

Hesse said the plan is to build a memorial outside the entrance of Flyteco Tower, the site of the old Stapleton Airport control tower.

“This is where the plane took off en route to Portland on November 1, 1955 and so having it here – as patrons come in – will hopefully serve as an educational opportunity,” said Hesse. “

Denver7

Michael Hesse, president of Denver Police Museum talks about a future permanent memorial outside FlyteCo Tower, the site of the old Stapleton control tower.

The memorial will be in the shape of an airplane fuselage, and it will be pointed northwest, which is the direction that the plane took off from the airport.”

The memorial will include names of the passengers and crew and will also honor the first responders.

“There will be the logos of the various agencies that responded. The FBI, the Denver Police Department, the Denver District Attorney, Weld and Larimer County Sheriff, volunteer firemen, and it’ll be the citizens too, we’re going to acknowledge that.”

The goal is to dedicate the memorial on November 1, 2025. They hope to get there by inviting the public to purchase Flight 629 challenge coins to help fund the memorial.

A mission to build a memorial honoring the bombing of Flight 629 in Colorado

“This challenge coin that we’ve designed to honor the victims will also create greater awareness and also donations so that we can pay for the memorial in front of the tower here,” said Hesse.

The challenge coins will be available for purchase on the Denver Police Museum’s website.

“They were all human beings. There were countless birthdays and anniversaries and things like that that were missed,” said Hesse.” It was this completely senseless tragedy. It breaks your heart, but we want to make sure the families know that their loved ones are not forgotten.”

History Colorado is also doing its part to raise awareness. A special exhibit is planned near the 70th commemoration next November.

“There will be an exhibition here that will help people engage with that story. I think we’re going to put it in a really high traffic area, so our hope is that people who aren’t familiar with the story, will be caught by it, and want to learn more,” said Hanson. “Our hope, always, is that people see our exhibitions and want to learn more when they leave, that we inspire and spark some curiosity and so that they will go and learn more on their own.”

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Becky Tesone with the Flight 629 Memorial Committee is helping lead the effort to build the permament memorial in Weld County, the site of the 1955 plane bombing.

And as more and more Coloradans learn about the tragedy, Becky Tesone – vice president of the Flight 629 Memorial Committee hopes they will be moved to open their hearts to help finally build a permanent memorial in Weld County as the 70th commemoration approaches.

“They have never had a monument, and they have never had their names read or candles lit for them,” said Tesone. “And so we want to do that, to break open what’s going to happen a year from November 1, which is the 70th anniversary of bringing the families back in.”

The vision for a future, permanent memorial in Weld County – where the plane went down – is still in the works, but the details are starting to come together.

FBI

The reconstruction of pieces of Flight 629’s fuselage at the old Stapleton Airport.

“What we picture it to be, will be four sides. One side will have the names on it, two sides will have pictures of places that were all connected,” Tesone said, “Greeley was connected with the armory where the bodies went. Stapleton is where they took off from, and where they went back and reassembled the plane. So that’s a key place, that’s where FlyteCo currently is.”

She said the hope is to have four benches along the memorial for people to reflect with a covering to protect visitors and the memorial from Colorado’s seasons.

“And we’re going to have a two-by-four foot plane made out of bronze on top of it. And that’s going to be the beauty of it,” said Tesone. “This was a huge tragedy that changed the laws of the airport for checking our baggage and put in new safety regulations. And then the piece about Channel 7 at the time being the first ones into the courtroom.”

The bombing of United Airlines 629 and a journey to forgiveness

The future memorial will be a place for the families of the victims and those who responded to reflect, gather and heal. And in these divisive times, the Flight 629 Memorial Committee hopes the memorial will serve as a place to lift up the service and sacrifice of first responders, emergency crews and ordinary neighbors whose courage and tenacity are examples of how people can come together.

“We need $30,000 and the goal was by the 31st of this month. I’m sure that Landmark Monument will let us stretch it a little bit, but they need to order what we are going to put on there,” said Tesone. “And we need a total of $150,000 that we could see in the near future just to lay the cement.”

The Flight 629 Memorial Committee – which has registered as a nonprofit – has set up a GoFundMe to raise funds.

“I know there’s people out there that can write a check for the whole thing. I know there’s people out there that can give us $5, $10 and all of it matters,” said Tesone. “All of it matters because what they put their money into is what they are a part of in their heart. And this is something that the heart needs healing for these people.”

Denver7

This Friday will mark 69 years since the United Flight 629 explosion. The public is invited to attend a first-ever commemoration which will include a candle lighting, reading of victim’s names and a time to reflect.

‘Remember the 44’ is at 6 p.m. at Carbon Valley Lutheran Church at 10916 Cimarron Street in Firestone.

Denver7 will keep you updated on the progress of the memorial and you can connect to the group’s efforts through the Flight 629 Memorial Facebook page.
- You can watch this video report in the player below.
‘Remember the 44’: Sunset memorial to honor United Flight 629 tragedy on Friday

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October 31, 2024
Saying goodbye to 123 Speer: Denver7 is moving to Five Points

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DENVER — Denver7 is in the final days of operating out of the 123 Speer Boulevard location before moving broadcasts to our new state-of-the-art facility at 2323 Delgany.

While we are excited to experience the upgrades at the new building, we wanted to reflect on Denver7’s history at its Speer location.

Bill Saul is a member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Colorado and worked for KLZ radio in the 1960s. KLZ was the first radio station in Denver, which went on the air in the 1920s.

“To make it to Denver radio when I was 21 was something,” Saul said, thinking back on how he felt when he was first hired.

Celebrating 70 years of Denver7

How Denver7 can trace its roots to KLZ, Denver’s very first radio station

11:18 PM, Oct 08, 2023

In 1953, KLZ added television into the mix, which would eventually become KMGH.

Saul remembers moving into the building we now know as Denver7 in 1969. Before that, he worked in the original building where Denver7’s parking lot is located.

“It gave us a much bigger studio; it was a much nicer studio,” Saul said about moving into the larger space. “When we were in the old building, the pink building, we were in a closet, literally.”

Denver7 gave Saul one last tour of the building at 123 Speer before we move to 2323 Delgany.

“A piece of history. Definitely, absolutely,” said Saul while sitting inside the control room.

Celebrating 70 years of Denver7

Photo slideshow: Denver7’s news building through the years

4:28 PM, Oct 05, 2023

However, what’s made the space so special over the last several decades are the people who have shared their stories with Denver7 and the individuals who work to ensure those stories continue to be shared.

We’re not going anywhere and are ready to cover Colorado’s future from our new space in Five Points.

In May 2021, Denver City Council rejected an application to make 123 Speer a landmark. That application for historic designation was not filed on behalf of Denver7 and went against our wishes, as our former General Manager Dean Littleton stated at the time.

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Potential historic designation endangers Denver7’s future

Dean Littleton, Denver7 General Manager

4:07 PM, Apr 21, 2021

The Follow Up

What do you want Denver7 to follow up on? Is there a story, topic or issue you want us to revisit? Let us know with the contact form below.

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July 7, 2024
Royal Palace Motel’s sign has been saved as the building nears demolition

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Jonny Barber waited literal years to get his hands on the Royal Palace Motel’s sign.

He’d been on the case since the building’s owner filed initial paperwork to demolish it in 2021. He kept on his quest after it sold earlier this year.

His wish finally came true a few weeks ago. The motel’s new owners let him park a truck nearby and haul the gaudy crown and King Arthur-styled lettering off their property at Colfax Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

Barber, the founder of the Colfax Museum, known once as the “Velvet Elvis,” was thrilled.

“Apparently, at one time, the motel sign used to revolve, which would have been super cool. And then you add the disco ball,” he said, beaming. “At one time, that whole corner of Colfax would have had disco stars revolving around the whole motel.”

The shuttered Royal Palace Motel at 1565 Colorado Boulevard. May 15, 2021.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Denver Community Planning and Development spokesperson Amanda Weston told us the city’s Landmark Preservation board approved a plan to demolish the structure on May 9. She added that the Laramar development group, the motel’s new owner, still needs to complete some paperwork to move forward.

Nobody from Laramar agreed to speak with us about their timeline or vision for the site. Formal plans filed with the city describe a six-story, mixed-use building with 153 residential units.

The signs are now in Barber’s collection of misfit neon.

The Royal Palace’s artifacts joined others from the Denver Diner, Aristocrat Motor Motel and Famous Chef restaurant — all Colfax landmarks that no longer exist — in a safe place that he’s keeping secret.

Someday, Barber hopes these relics of Colfax’s past will be available for all to see. Preserving and presenting that history has been his calling for decades after he fell in love with the wicked drag as a kid.

“The first time I set foot on Colfax was in the ’80s. I was just visiting here. I grew up in Salt Lake. I’m a young Mormon kid, and I’m driving down Colfax with my mom, and I’m just like, ‘What is going on?’ It was a war zone down there. It was literally in front of the Bluebird Theater. It wasn’t like, gee, I wonder if there’s hookers. It was like, take your pick,” Barber remembered fondly. “I just love Colfax and I want to see it saved.”

Jonny Barber gazes upon the Royal Palace Motel’s disco ball, which once revolved over Colfax Avenue. May 22, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Barber set up colfaxavenue.org in 2004, a celebration of his favorite street that became the seed of a project he called the Colfax Museum.

It was more of a ragtag collection than an actual museum for a long while. In 2017, Barber was finally able to set up his historical ephemera in a physical space in the Ed Moore flower shop at Colfax and Kearney Street.

It showed off photos and stories of the odd creatures and happenings along the corridor, like a portrait of the thieving Hub Cap Annie and a decorative plate adorned with Schuyler Colfax’s face.

He later moved the display west into Lakewood before a 2019 flood ruined his setup and a lot of his archive. Barber said that loss, plus the pandemic, helped him find his place in this preservation work. Running a nonprofit, with boards, governance and money, wasn’t it.

“I’m more the Indiana Jones figure in this. I had to know myself,” he told us. “I like finding stuff, recovering, the adventure of it. And then, ‘It belongs in a museum.’ And then you hand it off to Grady or whatever, and then he’s like, ‘Hey, we’ll make sure this gets housed and cataloged.’”

The old Denver Diner sign is now in Jonny Barber’s collection of Colfax Avenue neon. May 22, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Barber’s now searching for that special someone who will help him find forever homes for all the stuff he’s saved.

He said he gets DMs and texts all the time from people who’ve spotted signs and arrows in parking lots and hope he might rescue them from a dumpster. He’s still dedicated to the saving part of all this.

Barber said he’s been on the lookout for someone who might help display the collection in perpetuity.

“I want to do something more where the signs are put in some kind of public trust, or there’s some kind of entity that’s established that will be the benefactor and look out for them and have some kind of ownership, but more as a steward,” he told us. “Let’s find the ultimate home that’s really going to work.”

It could be something like Las Vegas’ Neon Museum, he said, though he knows Vegas has way more signage to salvage.

He said he’d ultimately prefer that the signs stay where they are, though he knows that’s not a possibility.

“Unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in, and development is driving so much of all these changes,” he said.

Colfax Avenue signs that Jonny Barber has saved for posterity. May 22, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Development aside, most of these signs are in rough shape, even if they look OK from the street.

“A lot of the signs look like they’re in really good shape, when they’re up on a pole from a distance. Then you get close and you tear that thing apart,” he said. “Literally, some of the signs I’ve recovered have had four feet of petrified pigeon crap in them and body parts. I even found, one sign we recovered, there was a guy living in the sign. He had turned the sign into his own little small apartment.”

Barber said he knows it’ll cost a lot to rehab the collection, and more to fix them in some public place. But he’s holding out hope that someone comes around to help. For him, there’s no worthier cause.

“If we’re talking about that era of Colfax, it’s over. It’s dead, it’s done. It’s never to return,” he told us. “I’m trying to save what’s left of it.”

For now, you can see part of the Royal Palace sign at the CounterPath community space in Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood, whenever they’re open or just through the fence.

The old Royal Palace Motel sign is now in storage at the CounterPath community center in East Colfax. May 22, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Correction: This article initially stated that the Driftwood Motel, whose old sign is in Barber’s collection, no longer exists. It still does.

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June 5, 2024
City Park Day celebrates the ‘People’s Park’

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If you ask Georgia Garnsey where her favorite place is in Denver, with no hesitation, she’d say City Park.

Of course, she’s not alone. City Park isn’t dubbed the “People’s Park” for no reason.

On Friday, May 31, you can join Garnsey and the neighborhood in honoring the 142-year-old treasure. City Park Day will celebrate the park and the community with a free evening event featuring music, a sweet treat and some Victorian-era fair.

“City Park is a wonder,” Garnsey said. “Every year I learn more and more about the park and it continues to open its wonders to me.”

But why is the park so important in the fabric of Denver’s history?

It all started in 1882, Garnsey said.

(By the way, her City Park fan credentials: She’s lived a few blocks from the park for over 50 years and is the president of the neighborhood group, City Park Friends and Neighbors.).

Nearly 25 years after Denver was founded, and as immigrants began to settle in the dry, dusted desert area permanently, city leaders said some beautification was needed.

Georgia Garnsey, part of the In The Weeds adopt-a-flowerbed crew, eradicates unwanted species from Ida’s Rock Garden in City Park. May 24, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

“These people who had founded a city that was just sort of a way station for prospectors had fallen in love with their city and decided it was gonna be the Paris of the West and that it had to have a park,” Garnsey said.

City leaders were also inspired by the ideas of Frederick Law Olmsted, a landscape architect and designer of New York’s Central Park, who believed that parks and greenspaces were a democratic right for all Americans. Parks should be free, accessible to all and used as a space for connection.

So, Denver’s first park, Curtis Park, was built in 1868, establishing Denver’s parkway system.

City Park Lake, October 29, 2021.
Kyle Harris/Denverite

But leaders wanted something bigger

Richard Sopris, Denver’s 15th mayor and its first parks commissioner, and other civic leaders tossed around the idea of creating two large parks on the east and west sides of Denver connected by a “connected by a grand tree-lined boulevard,” according to History Colorado.

As originally planned, that boulevard would’ve been Colfax Avenue and the parks would’ve been City Park in the east and Sloan’s Lake in the west.

But when City Council approved the purchase of the 320-acre plot that would become City Park in 1882, they also nixed the development of the westside park.

The In The Weeds adopt-a-flowerbed crew eradicates unwanted species from Ida’s Rock Garden in City Park. May 24, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Henry Meryweather and Walter Graves designed after Central Park, with “looping carriageways and walking lanes, a lake, and a preference for picturesque vistas across meadows or water,” according to History Colorado.

“They wanted it to be pastoral, meadow-like for people to feel they were lost in the country,” Garnsey said. “City Park was the first park that the city invested in and decided that they had to have this … The whole city got behind developing this park. Schoolchildren would [eventually] take the trolleys at 17th and York and plant trees on Arbor Day. There were terrible weeds, so Sopris hired a sheep herder to come and let his sheep eat the weeds. It was quite a project and they loved it”

From there, City Park has only improved

Reinhard Schuetze, the city’s first landscape architect, was especially a help.

Ferril Lake — along with the promenade, pavilion and bandstand — was built in the late 1890s.

The prismatic electric fountain, one of the country’s first electric fountains, was installed nearby to flow in tune with the local bands.

Schuetze also designed the Esplanade, creating a pathway from the city to the park.

Cultural institutions also arrived. The Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (previously the Colorado Museum of Natural History) and the Denver Botanic Gardens were built in 1896, 1908 and 1953, respectively.

Armenian poppies in Ida’s City Park Rock Garden.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Leslie Chomic eradicates unwanted species from the Rock Garden.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

In recent years, the park has received a new playground and expansions to all the cultural institutions. (Still no basketball courts, though.)

“I love the diversity. I love that you meet people from all walks of life and you really meet them because people stop and talk,” Garnsey said. “I love how big it is. People have complained about that, that they get lost in the park. But I love that it’s a big meadow with different groves and different sections and different flower beds and nooks and crannies that you discover.”

Hence, City Park Day

Garnsey said the nearby neighborhood groups are reviving a tradition started by former Councilmember Carla Madison. She used to host ice cream socials and was founder of the City Park Festival of the Arts.

City Park Day is Friday, May 31, from 5-8 p.m. at the Pavilion. Free ice cream will be served by Sweet Cooie’s and live music by the Denver Municipal Band.

Sunset over Ferril Lake in City Park. Sept. 25, 2020.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Face painters will be on-site for the kids, as well as exhibits from the museum and the zoo. And a ton of neighborhood groups will host informational tables for folks interested in learning more about the nearby communities, Garnsey said.

But the real fun will be with the Victorian Society of Colorado. A few of their participants will be roaming around in full Victorian-era garb, and they’ll want you to join in on the fun.

“It’ll be the height of Victorian fashion,” Garnsey said.

Canada geese float on Ferril Lake at City Park before dawn, July 1, 2019. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

More than just history

While the park’s history is important, Garnsey said the day is more about celebrating the park itself and what it means, or could mean, to Denverites.

City Park is a community waiting to be explored and joined, from the weddings to quinceaneras, the random eagle sightings to the musicians who show up to play,

City Park Friends hosts tours of the park, Garnsey said, as well as volunteering opportunities to keep the park amazing, such as the adopt-a-flowerbed.

But really, just head to the park and take in the views. Those are free, and made for just that.

“It’s the Crown Jewel, truly,” Garnsey said. “We see something different every time we’re in City Park. We’re always entertained. But the democratic value of parks is what’s most important to me. That it’s free and everyone is welcome there to be who they are and to experience it the way they want to.”

The In The Weeds adopt-a-flowerbed crew in Ida’s City Park Rock Garden. May 24, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

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May 29, 2024
This isn’t the first time there’s been an antiwar camp at Auraria
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Rokhiya Ngom sorts through items in the medical supply tent on the Auraria campus on April 29, 2024.

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
As students from the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State of Denver and Community College of Denver work through their final week of classes before graduation, dozens are still in tents on the Auraria campus’s Tivoli Quad.

It’s been nearly two weeks since protestors set up camp to protest the Israeli government’s war in Gaza. More than 40 people — half of them students — have been arrested and released since then, not including 14 protesters cited Tuesday for trespassing.

Wind, snow and hail storms have battered the huddled polyester huts. Protests at universities in other states have turned violent, drawing condemnation from political leaders on both ends of the ideological spectrum.

Still, the group in Denver says it’s here to stay. The campers’ current demands include statements from the universities denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza and divestment from any companies doing business in the country.

For some activists, the current antiwar camp is reminiscent of a scene that unfolded nearly two decades ago.

What the camp and protests looked like in 2003

In March 2003, a group of Auraria students set up what was described as a “tent city” around the campus’s flagpole, an act of protest highlighted by Metropolitan State University of Denver on its history page.

Archival material in the Denver Public Library’s Western History Collection describes an eight-tent camp occupied by over a dozen protesters who handed out anti-war literature and promised to stay put until the Iraq War ended.

“We support our troops. Many are our age. We feel bad they have to be there,” then-22-year-old philosophy student Theresa Willis told The Denver Post. “But I see this war as a failure by the U.S. government at being diplomatic and a world player and instead going against the United Nations.”

Martin Chase, who was enrolled in a simultaneous undergraduate and masters program at CU Denver and MSU Denver in 2003, said the camp manifested spontaneously. He didn’t believe the Bush administration’s claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
- Interview: The editor-in-chief at MSU Denver’s student newspaper on the opportunity and challenge of covering antiwar protests
“I was working a job, I was working a night shift at a restaurant, and I was going to school during the day. And so where was there time to protest?” Chase told Denverite. “We just started doing it all of our free time, and so we had to have tents, and so we just sort of stayed there and put up signs and in between classes came down and yelled for however long we had.”

The 2003 camp was preceded by months of antiwar demonstrations across Denver. In January, 19 protesters were arrested downtown after marching from Auraria to a Halliburton facility, where they blocked entrances to protest the use of fossil fuels in weapons.

In March 2003, a group of about 3,000 people — mostly women — marched from Auraria to Civic Center Park to protest the war’s impact on children.

In addition to protesting the Iraq War, students also erected signs protesting Israeli violence against Palestinians and Chinese violence in Tibet.

But unlike today’s antiwar camp, the 2003 protesters obtained a permit from the campus to set up their encampment.

“The administration was great,” Chase said. “We used the showers. The campus security would come walk by every now and then and chat with us. Our teachers were curious. They each had their own stance on the war. It wasn’t a united front of teachers in that regard, but they weren’t yelling at us about being on campus or anything.”

Chase doesn’t recall how the camp ended. He left it before it reached its conclusion because he was starting to fail his classes. Reporting at the time said the encampment was torn down after about three weeks to make room for a campus event, according to the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News.

About a year later, Auraria officials enacted an anti-camping policy, banning the use of overnight tents on campus grounds.

When asked about the camping ban, Auraria Higher Education Center CEO Colleen Walker said she wasn’t sure why the policy was enacted in the first place. She did not address whether the timing may have been related to the Iraq War protests.

“We’ve enforced the camping ban for 20 years, and it is to keep the campus environment safe and secure,” she said.
- Auraria CEO: ‘The campus is committed to staying open,’ and police are ‘a last resort’
But longtime local activist Z Williams, who says they participated in Auraria’s 2003 Iraq War protests, said the timing of the camping ban’s introduction wasn’t a coincidence.

“This is very specifically an anti-protest policy,” Williams said, adding that students now are much more organized than their predecessors. “I’m very confident that these student leaders will continue to find ways to apply pressure to the campuses and to keep this movement growing.”

Chase no longer lives in Denver, but he’s read headlines about student protests across the country. He said students today face more hostility and violence than his generation.

“I was protesting 20 years ago and engaging with the campus and it felt healthy, and now it just feels so dysfunctional and there’s some sort of authoritarian bent to what’s going on,” he said.

What’s next for students camping today?

Auraria officials said its three campuses are united in a commitment to students’ free speech, but have also maintained that students are continually in violation of the anti-camping policy.

Lucia Feast, a student organizer in the current camp, said they weren’t aware of the history when they erected the encampment. However, the longer they’ve been entrenched on the quad, the more they’ve learned about their predecessors.

“We talked to people who have gone through these things, done these forms of protests before, we’re really wanting to learn as much as we can and grow from them as possible,” Feast said.

Feast and other student protesters said they’re hoping to keep the camp going longer than their 2003 predecessors. She knows the camp will soon face significant challenges, though, as summer break and a familiar wave of campus events approach.
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May 9, 2024
Finally, a look inside the giant El Jebel Shriner mosque on Sherman Street
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You might recognize the Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine by the Islamic-influenced spires that stretch above its structure on Sherman Street, just a few blocks north of the Capitol.

But, for decades, it was the building’s interior that was known throughout Denver.

The “mosque” was completed on Nov. 1, 1907, by local Shriners — the social club whose members wear fezes and are thought of today for their children’s hospitals.

A grand ballroom on the second floor of the Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine at 1770 Sherman St. in North Capitol Hill. May 7, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

It changed hands over the years, then finally closed in 2012, leaving the memory of its ornate insides to languish and fade.

But fear not, historically minded reader, you may have a chance to step inside and see it for yourself.

The building has just undergone renovation, and it’s reopening for the first time for a decade.

Non Plus Ultra, a company that throws events in historic spaces like this, have taken up residence in the shrine’s ornate halls. They’ve activated it once so far, for a boxing match in April, and say they’re now open for bookings.

“For us, it’s ideal. It has so much character,” Lindsay Probasco, the company’s head of sales told us. “You bring event planners in and it’s heaven, because they have to do minimal decor. They don’t need pipe and drape. They don’t really need to bring a lot.”

Probasco said a “Harry Potter”-themed party, or maybe something like the “Bridgerton” ball they put on in 2022, would fit nicely in the arcane space.

A spacious auditorium on the fourth floor of the Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine at 1770 Sherman St. in North Capitol Hill. May 7, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

The shrine was originally a place to get down.

According to an application to list the structure in the National Register of Historic Places, Denver’s Shriners first organized in 1887, meeting in an upper room in the city’s fire station.

“The Denver order assumed the name ‘El Jebel,’ Arabic for ‘The Mountain,’ on the suggestion of charter member Mortimer J. Lawrence,” it reads. “In 1902, a committee was appointed to investigate the feasibility of purchasing a site and building a Shrine mosque.”

Interior view of the El Jebel Temple auditorium. Circa 1907.
Denver Public Library/Western History Collection/Z-2142

The Rocky Mountain News reported the building’s cornerstone was ceremoniously placed on June 9, 1906, delayed a few weeks to ensure national Shriner leadership could attend. The organization put on a parade and a banquet to celebrate the occasion.

“It will be one of the finest fraternity structures in the country when finished,” the report read.

The shrine was added to the National Historic Register in 1997. According to the application, the building cost $190,000 to construct, $15,000 of which went to buy the land.

The Rocky Mountain News. Dec. 2, 1927.
Colorado Historic Newspapers

News reports from the era tell of grand parties and celebrity visits there.

One Rocky Mountain News account from April 1912 describes “continuous vaudville on one floor,” dancing, bazaars and “aviation fizzes” — apparently, a house drink — “on every side.”

“Beautifully gowned women mingled with the members of the patrol, whose red and white fezes gave a touch of color to the scene,” the story reads. “Although the affair was buy semi-formal, many stunning costumes were seen.”

A ballroom on the first floor of the Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine at 1770 Sherman St. in North Capitol Hill. May 7, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

They apparently also frowned on some of “the new popular dances.”

“Hang onto the rope and nix the Grizzly Bear, Turkey Trot or Texas Tommy, except by special permit,” the Rocky reported seeing in the event’s program.

This was part of Shriner culture back then, the National Historic Register application suggests.

“The Shriners built their mosques to facilitate ‘masculine jollity.’ One could argue that Shriners were just as interested in having a good time as they were in emanating good taste,” it reads.

A ballroom on the first floor of the Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine at 1770 Sherman St. in North Capitol Hill. May 7, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

A fire sent the Shriners northward, but the wild architecture cemented their legacy on the block.

The authors of El Jebel’s historic status application leaned heavily on its interior for their argument; usually, it’s the exteriors that get all the attention.

It was designed by brothers Viggio and Harold Baerresen, described in the application as a huge shift from their usual work.

“The El Jebel mosque represents a major departure for the Baerresens. No models existed in Denver for the type of structure they envisioned. They employed a wide variety of stylistic types ranging well beyond anything found in Denver or generally accepted in other American cities,” it reads. “Whether they traveled to the Middle East or arrived at their design through reviewing secondary sources, Baerresen Brothers set the standard for exotic revival and eclecticism in Denver.”
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The application cites words from one Richard Brettell, who penned an analysis of Denver’s early architecture and named the shrine “the Baerresen’s greatest eclectic achievement.”

Brettell also seemed wryly amused with its many styles, calling it a “marvelously tasteless temple,” though maybe in a good way.

“The Baerresens attempted almost archaeological reconstructions of what they imagined to be
the great exotic styles of the past and present,” he wrote. “Represented are Egyptian, Alhambra,
craftsman, Flemish, gothic, Japanese, French Salon, and Empire styles. Each room is
separate from the others, and each great style of the past stands in isolated splendor.”
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The historic application says the space served the Shriners well for almost 20 years before an opportunity to upgrade presented itself.

“A serious fire in March, 1924, proved fortuitous for the chapter,” the document says. “El Jebel had outgrown its home and members were interested in building on a new site.”

They’d sell the property “as is” to a group of Masons, their organizational cousins, for “a considerable cash payment.”

A Rocky Mountain News story about the El Jebel Shriners’ second home in northwest Denver. Published Sept. 15, 1928
Colorado Historic Newspapers

The Shriners would take their burgeoning ranks to Inspiration Point, in Denver’s northwest corner, where they built a new shrine at 50th Avenue and Vrain Street — then celebrate the laying of yet another cornerstone. That shrine, another odd bit of architecture in Denver, still stands, though it’s now a condo building.

But those early Shriners seem to have valued the idea of building something beautiful for the future, no matter who might own it next. Above a doorway in one of the Sherman Street building’s first-floor parlors, stained glass reads “the workers die, but the works live on.”

“The workers die, but the works live on,” inscribed above a doorway in the Mosque of the El Jebel Shrine at 1770 Sherman St. in North Capitol Hill. May 7, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
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Kevin Beaty

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May 9, 2024