Manual High School, established in Whittier in 1894, became a central public facility for the neighborhoods, and a beloved institution for many residents long after they had departed once familiar streets.ĭenver’s continued growth altered the fortunes of the city’s neighborhoods, and with it the communities of Five Points and Whittier. Temple Emanuel, established in 1873, constructed its synagogue at Curtis and 24th Street in 1882, before removing to 16th and Pearl in 1899. Zion Baptist Church, originally established in 1865 and Colorado’s oldest African American congregation, first met for worship in a log structure located at the intersection of 20th and Arapahoe streets. The rapid development of Five Points and Whittier soon saw the establishment of the institutions that gave shape to each neighborhood’s character and community, including churches and synagogues, schools, hotels, restaurants, and drugstores, and other amenities and meeting places. In contrast to the mixed use for land in Five Points, Whittier was almost entirely residential from its inception, with its most significant commercial or business enterprises found in two-story brick corner stores and shops. Whittier became home to Denver’s second public park, Fuller Park, with a donation by its namesake, Horace Fuller, in 1879. Curtis Park became Denver’s first public park when a slightly less than two-and-a-half acre parcel, named for Samuel Curtis, was established in 1868. In time, the neighborhood would be home to such businesses as Kuner Pickle, Crescent Flour Mills, Colorado Iron Works, and the Denver Fire Clay Company, and these and other enterprises enjoyed ready access to the South Platte River and the Denver’s rail yard. In its earliest incarnation, Five Points was a mix of residential structures – some grand and stylish, others more modest – and business and industrial concerns. By August 1879, the Rocky Mountain News had started describing active building and development as Denver extended north and east along the South Platte River. As the historian William Allen West observes, the symbolism was unmistakable: with urban railroads and streetcars, Denver was not only of a sufficient size to warrant a transportation system, but also of a permanence to warrant the requisite investment. Transportation to these new neighborhoods was facilitated with the construction of urban railroads, and the city’s first street railroad, the Denver Horse Railroad Company, connected Five Points with downtown Denver in 1871. Similarly, Whittier’s major subdivisions were all platted from the late 1860s through the 1870s, a process begun in 1868 with Case’s Addition. In the late 1860s, Denver was enlarged with the addition of some 1600 acres and eight new subdivisions, three later within the bounds of Five Points (i.e., Case and Ebert’s Curtis and Clark’s and Shaffenburg’s ).
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