Cheesman Park, Denver
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Cheesman Park is a city park and neighborhood located in Denver, Colorado.
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[edit] Geography
Cheesman Park is located near central Denver. The park has inexact borders, but is located in center of the neighborhood between Humboldt and Race streets with part of its eastern border Denver Botanic Gardens and its southern border 8th Avenue. The neighborhood's borders are:
- North-Colfax Avenue
- South-8th Avenue
- East-York Street
- West-Downing Street
[edit] History
In the late nineteenth century, the land that is now Cheesman Park was Prospect Hill Cemetery, which also included the land that is now the Denver Botanical Garden and Congress Park further east. The long-disused cemetery was converted to a park in 1907 after city planners felt it would provide an amenity to new residents as land development moved east of the central city. The park was originally named for the US Congress who gave permission to change the cemetery to a park and was renamed Cheesman Park in honor of Denver pioneer Walter Cheesman whose family donated the neoclassical pavilion on the eastern side of the park in his honor shortly after his death. [1]
Denver's landscape architect, German-born Reinhard Schuetze did the initial designs for the park with its meandering carriage-ways that join in a figure-8, the pavilion and reflecting pool and the verdant central meadows outlined in groves of trees. Schuetze died in 1910 before the park was completed, but his predecessor S.R. DeBoer finished the park with much of Schuetze's plan intact. [2]
The Cheesman Park neighborhood is one of the oldest in Denver, with city plats dating to as far back as 1868 and was annexed by the Denver in 1883, though development was slow at first. By 1915, with the completion of the park, the neighborhood was mostly developed with large mansions for some of the city's wealthiest people. Since the 1930s however, the neighborhood has become more dense with a plethora of apartment buildings. [3]
[edit] Neighborhood today
Cheesman Park's population is estimated at 8,439 (2006), with one of the highest population densities of any neighborhood in Denver. The neighborhood is a predominantly white, and middle-class with 79% of the population identifying as white and an average household income of $53,000. Most people in the neighborhood live in the many apartments within the neighborhood, which are a mix of new buildings and conversions of older mansions. Only about a quarter of the neighborhood's residents live in owner-occupied units and the average house price is $558,945 more than double the city average [4]. Cheesman Park has a fairly urban character with its density and closeness to the central part of the city. The neighborhood's crime rates are close to the city's averages [5]. It contains several areas of commercial activity particularly north of park between 13th and Colfax avenues and is also home to the 23-acre Denver Botanical Gardens.
[edit] References
- ^ [1]. City of Denver. Retrieved on January 13, 2007
- ^ [2]. City of Denver. Retrieved on January 13, 2007
- ^ [3]. Piton Foundation. Retrieved on January 13, 2007
- ^ [4]. Piton Foundation. Retrieved on January 13, 2007
- ^ [5]. Piton Foundation. Retrieved on January 13, 2007
