DENVER CIVIC CENTER Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
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NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 DENVER CIVIC CENTER Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 1. NAME OF PROPERTY Historic Name: Denver Civic Center Other Name/Site Number: 5DV161 2. LOCATION Street & Number: Approximately Grant to Cherokee Streets and 14th to Colfax Avenues Not for publication: N/A City/Town: Denver Vicinity: N/A State: CO County: Denver Code: 031 Zip Code: 80204 3. CLASSIFICATION Ownership of Property Category of Property Private: Building(s): ____ Public-Local: X District: X Public-State: X Site: ____ Public-Federal: Structure: ____ Object: ____ Number of Resources within Property Contributing Noncontributing 5 0 buildings 1 0 sites 2 0 structures 10 9 objects 18 9 Total Number of Contributing Resources Previously Listed in the National Register: 15 Name of Related Multiple Property Listing: N/A NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 PROPERTY NAME Page 2 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 4. STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this ____ nomination ____ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property ____ meets ____ does not meet the National Register Criteria. Signature of Certifying Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau In my opinion, the property ____ meets ____ does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of Commenting or Other Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau 5. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that this property is: ___ Entered in the National Register ___ Determined eligible for the National Register ___ Determined not eligible for the National Register ___ Removed from the National Register ___ Other (explain): Signature of Keeper Date of Action NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 DENVER CIVIC CENTER Page 3 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 6. FUNCTION OR USE Historic: Politics and Government Sub: civic center Landscape Sub: park Entertainment and Recreation Sub: outdoor recreation Transportation Sub: pedestrian-related Current: Politics and Government Sub: civic center Landscape Sub: park Entertainment and Recreation Sub: outdoor recreation Transportation Sub: pedestrian-related 7. DESCRIPTION ARCHITECTURAL CLASSIFICATION: Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals/Beaux Arts/Beaux Arts Classicism MATERIALS: Foundation: Stone/granite Walls: Stone/granite; Stone/marble; Stone/sandstone Roof: Metal; Terra Cotta Other: Metal/bronze; Stone/granite NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 DENVER CIVIC CENTER Page 4 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form INTRODUCTION Located immediately south of Denver’s central business district, the Denver Civic Center National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a nationally significant public landscape and collection of public buildings and monuments highly evocative of the nation’s City Beautiful movement. As it exists today, the thirty-three-acre civic center took form in several stages beginning in 1890 and ending in 1935. Despite its lengthy evolution, the center reflects a continuum of progressive thought about civic betterment, regional character, and public architecture, while stylistically adhering to overriding principles of formal order, symmetrical balance, and neoclassical expression. Today, the Denver Civic Center represents one of the most complete and intact examples of early-twentieth- century civic center design nationwide. It ranks highly among the handful of City Beautiful civic centers nationwide that, inspired by the 1900 Macmillan Plan for the nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., actually reached a stage of completion. Other notable examples exist in San Francisco and Cleveland. The Denver example possesses a remarkable degree of artistic quality and historic integrity in its overall synthesis of design, interpretation of neoclassical elements of design, and representation of American ideals and heritage. The construction of the Colorado State Capitol on one of the city’s highest points between 1890 and 1908 served as the catalyst for the development of a larger, urban park to celebrate the role of Colorado in settling the American West and provide a dignified setting for the highly important functions of state and local government. Along the major east-west axis leading away from the statehouse, the public landscape gradually expanded westward through the development of a sequence of parks, each with its own special function and character, while integrated into a single, balanced and unified plan. Other stately buildings and monuments were built opposite the statehouse and at the edge of the parkland. Beaux-Arts principles of spatial organization and a rich vocabulary of neoclassical features unified the ensemble of built features. Stone construction throughout showcased Colorado’s rich deposits of granite, sandstone, and marble, further imparting a sense of permanence and solidity to the whole. The development of the massive Denver City and County Building and its grounds in the 1930s formed the western terminus of the landscape, bringing closure physically and figuratively to a design process that had taken more than four decades and involved some of the nation’s most accomplished planners, architects, landscape architects, and artists. The Denver Civic Center is nationally significant in the areas of community planning and development, landscape architecture, architecture, and art. Under the theme, Transforming the Environment, the historic district meets NHL Criterion 1 for its association with the City Beautiful movement, the origins of city planning in America, and early twentieth-century efforts to define and celebrate the principles of democracy and the vital role of local and state government in American history and life. Under the theme, Expressing Cultural Values, it meets NHL Criterion 4 for its embodiment of Beaux-Arts inspired architecture and landscape architecture, its exemplary physical representation of City Beautiful ideals, and its demonstration of a collaborative design process that, introduced at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, characterized the creation of public works in the United States in the twentieth century. The period of national significance extends from 1890, to include the date the cornerstone was laid and construction began on the Colorado State Capitol, and extends to 1935 to recognize the completion of the Denver City and County Building grounds in 1935. In response to the City Beautiful movement and the emergence of city planning as an essential function of local government, enumerable plans for civic centers were developed for American cities in the early twentieth century. Most of these remained plans on paper only, never receiving public support and funding. Denver’s experience was the exception. Mayor Robert Walter Speer, nationally recognized for his progressive leadership, persistently promoted the concept, garnering support from the various commissions that controlled the city government as well as the voting public. The design was shaped by a succession of nationally renowned NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 DENVER CIVIC CENTER Page 5 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form designers, including Charles Mulford Robinson, Frederick MacMonnies, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and finally Edward H. Bennett, whose ingenious 1917 plan brought synthesis to a number of earlier proposals, resolved the functional and aesthetic problems that had hindered previous plans, and gave material form to the civic center that exists today. The Denver Civic Center reflects an extraordinary integration of civic arts–a hallmark of the City Beautiful movement. Some of the nation’s most distinguished early twentieth-century architects, landscape architects, and artists contributed to its design. Individual buildings and structures within the district reflect the inspiration of Elijah E. Myers, renowned for his design of state capitols, and respected Denver architects and architectural firms, including Frank E. Edbrooke, Fisher and Fisher, Marean and Norton, William N. Bowman, and the Allied Architects Association. City landscape architects, Reinhard Schuetze and Saco De Boer, influenced site layout and plantings. Nationally recognized artists of the period produced works of art blending classical forms with popular regional themes; these individuals included muralist Allen Tupper True and sculptors Frederick MacMonnies, Alexander Phimister Proctor, Preston Powers, and Robert Garrison. The Colorado State Capitol, an exceptional example of Renaissance Revival, today continues to dominate the east end of the civic center and from its west front provides an open vista toward the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.