Jul. 18, 2007 - 21:39 MDT

AUTOS AND STABLES

It started without me, the auto age. And autos had competition.

Looking at a panorama picture of Denver years and years ago, noting along the way the smoke in the air.

Standing tall in the midst is the old Arapahoe County Courthouse (Denver once was part of that county) and in the foreground is Broadway running north and south. On the downtown side are Palace Stables next door to Brinker Vreeland Automobile Company (a sign painters dream, that), a bit further north an Auto Supply house. On the uphill side of Broadway on the corner is Scholl's Drugs, next door is Overland Cars and Baker Electrics, next door is Maxwell Automobiles, Next to that is Studebaker, then another building and the magnificent Plymouth Hotel all three stories of it.

The City Auditorium stands out in the left mid section, big compared to the buildings around it.

Many signs showing are illegible to the eye though they are there.

The view down 16th Street is rather dim due to the smoke, but think I see the outline of the Tabor Grand Opera House on the left.

Makes me realize that Automobile Row had early beginnings on Broadway, about the only dealer in town on Broadway now is Rickenbaugh Cadillac - Volvo, which over the years has taken over just about an entire city block with its lots and buildings. The rest of the automotive world hereabouts has moved south on Broadway to Englewood and to outlying areas outside the city limits.

Not sure but it looks like Lincoln Street (first one east of Broadway) is rather unfinished yet but does have a building and grounds with a sign high on posts "TOURS" in an effort to be seen from Broadway, I guess. To the right of that is what looks like a four story mansion and seems to be a carriage house on that property.

There was so much of the area then that was still countryside. Wish I could go back and wander the streets of the "Downtown then," smell the stables, the cigars, pipes and the train smoke, listen to the clop, clop, clop of a horse on the blacktop streets.

I can remember as a kid when milk was delivered from a horse and wagon affair, as well as bread and pastry, a truck farmers wagon loaded with fresh vegetables plying the streets, his horse slowly clopping along until a customer approached.

I came along a bit after the stables held forth, but horses still were in the picture. I missed the big scene but was somewhat around for the AUTOS AND STABLES . . . . . . . . . . . .

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