Getting Down To Brass Tacks

Years ago, back when Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo) was not yet a hipster hangout, my friend Stuart and I used to sometimes have dinner at a place on Blake Street called The Firehouse. We would usually sit in front of the window, and across the street was a costume shop called American Costume. It had pretty fascinating drawings on the facade, which inspired me to take the photograph on the left back in 1994. Eventually, The Firehouse went out of business, replaced by the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, which is still located there. As for the costume shop, I assume that once LoDo became Denver's hot spot, it was priced out of the neighborhood, just as the Tattered Cover Bookstore in LoDo was eventually priced out years later.

Today, the building has been renovated, and was recently occupied by a restaurant called Brass Tacks, which is now closed. I suspect that is because of the pandemic. Before that, it was the home of the Blake Street Vault, a restaurant famous for it's 19th century architecture, it's secret main floor vault, and also for the fact that it was haunted by Lydia, a saloon girl who died in the building back in the 1860s. Stuart read an article about the place in the Denver Post, and suggested we give it a try, but sadly, we never did. Currently, the building stands empty. Since all the LoDo hipsters love to dress up in costume for Halloween, the Zombie Crawl, ComiConn, St. Patrick's Day, Oktoberfest, or just for the hell of it, perhaps the building should become a costume store once again. Talk about going full circle. The photograph on the right, by the way, shows what the place looks like today.

Back when Stuart and I were having burgers and beers at The Firehouse, I never gave much thought to the history of the building, but recently learned that it, along with several of it's neighbors, were built in 1863, after a fire burned down the wooden commercial buildings put up when Denver was founded, five years earlier. Back then, it was a saloon and boarding house, and after a bit of research on the internet, I found a photograph of the building, seen on the left, taken in 1866. There is a covered wagon parked in front of it, and back then there was a balcony attached to the front. However, if you look at the second floor, you can recognize those same distinctive windows. I just hope somebody rents the place before next Halloween, so it can be added back to the downtown ghost tour. I myself would sign up for that tour immediately. Perhaps I'd even dress up in costume.