How Denver landmarks recognize Black history
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Terri Gentry, left, explains the history of Five Points to Denver Nuggets forward Peyton Watson at the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center in 2023. Photo: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Justina Ford's brick flat on Arapahoe Street didn't just serve as a home, but as a 20th century headquarters for a pioneering medical practice in Denver's Five Points neighborhood.
Zoom in: Ford, Colorado's first licensed Black woman doctor, lived and treated people at 2335 Arapahoe St. from 1912 until she died in 1952, per the Denver Public Library.
- To save it from demolition, the house was moved to 3091 California St. in 1984. It now doubles as the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center.
State of play: The preserved home is not an official city landmark, though it remains an emblem of Black culture in a city attempting to rectify the ways historically underrepresented people are elevated.
- City planning spokesperson Ryan Huff says the city conducts research on the histories of different ethnic, racial and cultural groups and how they contributed to local history. For instance, the city's currently completing a study on the Indigenous community.
Context: Established in 1967 to encourage the preservation and improvement of historic structures and landmarks, Denver's Landmark Preservation office boasts 365 individual properties and 60 historic districts.
Yes, but: Only about 11% of the individual landmarks are connected to historically excluded or underrepresented communities, Huff tells us.
- At least 13 properties in the city's program share direct ties to Denver's Black community, including the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance studio, Fire Station No. 3 and Zion Baptist Church.
Caveat: Ford's former home resides near the Five Points Historic Cultural District, a landmark designation covering a swath of properties meant to celebrate and recognize an area once dubbed the Harlem of the West.
- "It was just an incredible space to make sure that our community was uplifted and taken care of," Terri Gentry, engagement manager for Black communities at History Colorado, tells us about Five Points in its heyday.
Between the lines: Gentry says spaces with ties to the Black community weren't consistently considered culturally significant in the past.
- History Colorado's ongoing program, called Colorado Heritage for All, is trying to change that, she tells us. The program invites the public to identify and share stories of places with significant cultural ties to communities of color, women and LGBTQ individuals.
Alison Salutz, director of education at the preservation nonprofit Historic Denver, says her organization has a similar local effort.
- It focused on lesser-known stories, including that of Julia Greeley, who was enslaved in Missouri before arriving in Denver in the 1870s and establishing herself as a philanthropist.
Flashback: Historic Denver last year placed a plaque on Greeley's former home at 2911 Walnut St. (which now houses a photography company) with details about her life — a life that's earned her a potential canonization with the Catholic Church.
- "It's the building you'd walk by, you would never know, right? You would have no idea," Salutz tells us.
What's next: Gentry will participate in a public conversation on Colorado Black history at the University of Colorado-Denver on Feb. 12.