Jul. 18, 2004 - 20:38 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

The Old

As Heather and I wend our way around the Denver area, I see many reminders of things as they once were when I was quite young and a young adult.

I think viaducts were built over the train tracks west of Union Station to avoid traffic tie ups while cars were being switched back and forth on the tracks and also to avoid trains crunching cars. For most of us the viaduct crossing town that was the most important was the Sixteenth Steet Viaduct. Cars crossed back and forth over the viaduct, beside street cars on the tracks on the span. It ran alongside of the Union Station, a busy spot then. I would ride the street car over the viaduct to go to the amusement parks on the west side, and I would also ride a different street car over the viaduct that would take me within walking distance of my cousin's home.

Now the 16th Street Viaduct is no more. The 14th Street Viaduct now carries the traffic for that side.

Heather and I came over it the other day, and as we passed by the Pepsi Center I pointed out the area that the old D&RGW - Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific freight house once was. I spent the war years there working out of it and inside of it, both. An old fashioned brick building with a wooden building attached where freight was handled. The office was lit by dangling cord and light bulbs, the office furniture would have been at home in the 1880's, but it had its history. Now it is empty space holding parked cars.

When I was a kid the Platte River Valley was mostly occupied with railroad tracks with the Union Station on the east of the tracks. A very busy area it was. In my younger days all postal mail from out of town or going out of town came through the Terminal Post Office which was a building attached to Union Station. A building attached to the other end of the Union Station was occupied by American Express which handled much business by rail. The area just east of the Depot had blocks of buildings, warehouses and commercial buildings. Each street had rails on each side where empty freight cars would be switched out and full ones switched in during the night. Much loading and unloading went on there.

Now, besides the Pepsi Center Six Flags amusement park runs to the river bank. It was the new place for Elitch Gardens, but was sold out to Six Flags. It covers a large area now, but is so different from old Elitch's which was at 38th Avenue and Tennyson when I was a kid.

So many of the commercial buildings and warehouses have been turned into offices or residences, or bulldozed and new buildings put up. No real land marks there any more execept the Union Station, which they are fighting about now. One faction wants to make it a light rail terminal and the other side has something entirely different in mind.

A bit further north is the 23rd Street Viaduct which swerves a bit left to dodge the Colorado Rockies ball park. The little Public Service steam station that once was there which supplied steam heat to the buildings down town is no longer there. Guess they are still getting steam from Public Service, oh pardon me, from Xcel Energy. Modern spelling is a hoot. Qwest is our local phone company. No telling what names will be applied to new stuff as it comes along or old stuff as it changes hands.

In the residential areas old houses, especially estates have been bulldozed and real estate developments have taken over. Many houses have been altered also by being capped with "Pop Tops." Yet there is still much of old Denver to be found here and there. The house I was raised in and the house Heather was raised in are still there. But the elementary school she attended is long gone, Swansea it was named, just a bit north of where I-70 runs now. My elementary school is no longer a school. I hear it is for senior living now. My junior high is long gone, torn down and new buildings built at the other end of the property. Heather and I, when in the area will go on Pearl Street following where the street car tracks of yore ran, looking at familiar old houses and small businesses that are still there.

One thing that does thrill me is that many old buildings and large houses especially on Capitol Hill have been turned into offices, but restored to their original condition and period. Bet they will still be standing when a lot of this new stuff falls apart.

Back then "downtown" was east of the Depot up to Broadway (which runs in front of the State Capitol). Downtown held the theaters and fancy eating houses, had skid row along Larimer StreetThe rest was filled with department stores, most of which had been there since sometime in the 1880's, office buildings galore, movie theaters, banks and hotels along with the rest. Whatever one wanted it could be found down town. Automobile row went from about 14th Street south to Englewood along Broadway. Most of the rest of things were down town.

These are some of the fond memories of an old man who has seen the "new" covering up or pushing out The Old . . . . . . . . . .

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