Robert W. Speer

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Robert Walter Speer (1855–14 May 1918) was elected the mayor of Denver, Colorado three times. He served two four-year terms in office from 1904 to 1912. He died from pneumonia in 1918 while halfway through a third term in office that had started in 1916.

In 1855, Speer was born in Mount Union, Pennsylvania. He married Kate Thrush, his childhood sweetheart, in 1882.^[1]

As an adherent of the City Beautiful movement, Speer initiated several projects that added new landmarks, updated existing facilities, or improved the city's landscape including:

City Auditorium, site of the 1908 Democratic National Convention
The Civic Center
Denver Mountain Parks
The Denver Zoo expansion from 1906 to 1918.
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
The paving and graveling of many of the city's remaining dirt streets
An urban forestry program that eventually distributed 110,000 free shade trees to city residents^[2]^[3]

Speer was the first mayor of Denver to die while serving in office. Speer Boulevard in Denver is named in his honor.^[4]

[edit] Notes

^ Johnson, Denver's Mayor Speer, pp. 5-6.
^ Forestry statistics are from Noel, Mile High City, p. 100.
^ Other items in the list of projects are from "Some Things Denver Owes to Speer," Rocky Mountain News, 15 May 1918, p. 3.
^ Goodstein, Denver Streets, p. 33.

[edit] References

Goodstein, Phil (1995). Denver Streets: Names, Numbers, Locations, Logic, 2nd Revised Edition, Denver, CO: New Social Publications. ISBN 0-9622169-3-3.
Johnson, Charles A. (1969). Denver's Mayor Speer. Denver, CO: Green Mountain Press.
Noel, Thomas Jacob (1997). Mile High City: An Illustrated History of Denver. Denver, CO: A. B. Hirschfeld Press. ISBN 1-886483-10-8.
"Robert W. Speer, Mayor of Denver, Is Dead: Cathedral Bells Toll as Flags are Placed at Half Mast in Memory", Rocky Mountain News, Wednesday, 15 May 1918, pp. 1, 3.
Eaton, Raymond A.. "Speer was Man of Great Vision; Had Many Ideas for Better City", Rocky Mountain News, Wednesday, 15 May 1918, p. 3.
"Speer Always Worked For a City Beautiful; Plans Had Just Begun", Rocky Mountain News, Wednesday, 15 May 1918, p. 3.
"Some Things Denver Owes to Speer", Rocky Mountain News, Wednesday, 15 May 1918, p. 3.

[edit] External links

Robert W. Speer at Find A Grave

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