Sept. 10, 2007 - 12:07 MDT

LONG STREET

Which here in Denver is an avenue.

In the old days Colfax Avenue was part of route US 40 which went from out of state on the east to and through the mountains to the west and went as far as Salt Lake, Utah, I think.

The part I am most familiar with is the part around the State Capitol.

When I was a kid Colfax crossed Broadway and bent around Civic Center, past the Main Public Library, past the City and County buiding and disappeared from my young sight thereupon.

Colfax Avenue then was pretty upscale. Pennsylvania (just east of the Capitol and The Cathedral Of The Immaculate Conception) was the site of the posh PenCol Drug Store which had all sorts of pricy stuff. A short walk south on Pennsylvania was where our family doctor had his domicile and office. Dr. Weiss by name and a gentle person he was. He gave me years of desensitivation shots for hay fever as well as taking care of all our ills. A little further south was Parks School of Business.

As long as Colfax was part of route US 40 there were many inns of one kind or another, some of which still exist today, some still in good condition.

A little further east on Colfax Avenue was Mammoth Gardens (Now the Fillmore Auditorium - a rock venue with 3600 seating) originally a car factory but by the time I wandered the Avenue it was Mammoth Gardens Roller Rink. A huge Building it is yet and the hardwood floor of the rink was smooth and well kept. I was there on my own a few times as being a sidewalk skater, those wooden wheels on skates and the flexibility of them entranced me. Later after I met Heather and she began to teach me how to take advantage of their flexibility we were there very often.

A bit east of there was the Ogden Theater, a movie house I went to frequently with a Rockybilt Hambuger place across the street from there - they featured burgers with a special sauce, small ones (now called I think "sliders") where I would buy two or more burgers to eat on the trolley on the way home.

Along Colfax Avenue were some apartment buildings, some pretty posh and some nice ones as well.

Just east of York Street was East High School, a beautiful building with an Esplanade just west of it going from Colfax to 17th Avenue prividing an entry to city Park. I attended East High and found the building much more attractive than the teachers therein. Of course there were some good ones, but not enough to offset the mediocre or worse ones.

Then back near York Street was the Alladin Theater, a classic movie house of oriental design I went there as often as it could be afforded, I was in another world there, one I liked to the utmost.

Further East along the Avenue was the Bluebird Theater another nice movie house that I occasionally went to.

When I was 16 we moved to East Denver, three blocks south of Colfax on Niagara Street and I could ride the trolley to East High or walk it, usually rode it to school and walked it home, saving a few pennies for treats.

Somewhere near Quebec street the No. 14 trolley looped and headed back to town, the GIs from Lowry Field would ride the 14 to and from town. To go further east a bus went to Fitzsimmons Army Hospital

As the years passed and I-70 became the throughway bypassing Colfax Avenue, route 40 being picked up west off I-70, Colfax began to decline rapidly. I was sad to see it go that way, but c'est la guerre, life does its thing. Pearl Street near the Capitol became a hangout for druggies, Pencol Drug moved out near Cherry Creek, Sid King's Crazy Horse Bar did it's strip club thing. Hookers moved back and forth on Colfax, Denver to Aurora, wherever the heat was the least. Colfax became a place for a decent person not to be.

There were many pensioners living in low rent residences, apartments and such who were mugged for their Social Security checks, it wasn't really safe for them to go to the Safeway Supermarket near Capitol Hill. There were quite a few "Head Shops" along that stretch too. Colfax didn't become a skid row like Larimer Street once was, efforts to upgrade the street seem to be helping things along now. But I guess it won't go back to the street where the elite meet to eat as it once was.

Demographics have changed the geographic map for sure.

The Avenue is still there and will be I guess, as long as Denver is a city, but its makeup will wax and wane as history dictates.

But to me and my memories, reaching from Kansas to the mountains is my beloved LONG STREET . . . . . . . . . . .

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