Yesterday I wrote a blog post about the Burlington Hotel on Denver's Larimer Street, and in passing mentioned how developer Dana Crawford saved Larimer Square from urban renewal. As it happens, I walked through Larimer Square yesterday evening, and found that the street has been closed to traffic to allow restaurants to expand their outdoor dining, as seen in the photograph on the left. In the background can be seen The Market, which was a grocery store that Crawford owned between 1978 and 1983, before selling it to two brothers from New Jersey, who turned it into a deli, coffee shop, and popular local gathering spot. Sadly, they decided to close the place for good after businesses were ordered shut due to the coronavirus.
Since I have been biking up and down the length of Larimer Street a lot this summer, I decided to peruse a book I have on my shelves called Denver's Larimer Street, written by local historian Tom Noel, which is where I found the photograph on the right. It was taken around 1900 at what is now Larimer Square, and features horse-drawn wagons in front of the various shops.
Just for fun, I decided to take a photograph of that same location last night to see how much it has changed. There were no horse-drawn wagons in sight, but other than that that, the buildings look very much the same. Of course, last night the street was filled with people dining al fresco, serenaded by a D.J. playing very loud rap music for their listening pleasure. I don't think they had that problem back in 1900. Makes you nostalgic for the past, doesn't it?
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