Five Points, Denver
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007) |
Five Points is one of Denver, Colorado's oldest historic neighborhoods northeast of the downtown central business district. It is in the part of Northeast Denver where the downtown street grid meets the neighborhood street grid of the first Denver suburbs. The five points in the district name are the vertexes formed where four streets meet: 26th Avenue, 27th Street, Washington Street, and Welton Street.
Five Points came to historical prominence from the 1860s through the 1950s. The neighborhood was home to Denver's aristocracy, housing mayors, governors, and prominent business people. The Welton Street Business District, Clement neighborhood, San Rafael community, Curtis Park and Ballpark neighborhoods are located within the larger Five Points neighborhood.
Historically, Five Points had an African American majority population but recent demographic change has brought about a majority white population (57 percent), a large Latino population (23 percent), with the black population now a much diminished group in the community (15 percent).
Contents |
[edit] History
Five Points was known as the "Harlem of the West". It became a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Denver because discriminatory home sale laws in other neighborhoods forbade black people from settling in them. From the 1920s to the 1950s the community thrived with a rich mix of local business and commerce along the Welton Corridor offering the neighborhood butcher, real estate companies, drug stores, religious organizations, tailors, restaurants, barbers and many other main street services. Welton Street was also home to over fifty bars and clubs, where some of the greatest jazz musicians such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and others performed. Black performers that other hotels in Denver would not accommodate stayed at the Rossonian Hotel, built in 1912, and performed there, making it a famous music venue.
The Five Points community suffered from the late 1950s through the late 1990s because of drugs, crime, and urban flight. Many properties were abandoned, the local economy became somewhat irrelevant and the larger market found local business conditions unappealing. Attempts at redevelopment were made but there were many hindrances to reinvestment. The district became a no-man's land in need of a larger vision and a new generation of leadership.
Five Points has always been a neighborhood with a diverse economic mix of residents, evidenced by the variety of houses there. Mansions were built next to row homes. Many of the rich began moving out of Five Points in the late 19th century to live in the more popular Capitol Hill neighborhood. Five Points was also home to a large Jewish population and is still home to a former synagogue, Temple Emanuel, on the corner of 24th Street and Curtis Street. After World War II, many Japanese-Americans lived in Five Points. Agape Church on the corner of 25th Street and California Street was once a Japanese Methodist church.
[edit] Five Points today
Attempts to rebuild a strong business economy on Welton Street began in 2009 with the formation of the Five Points Business District. Resistance to development and the refusal of some long-time property owners to sell or develop their properties is a major hindrance in this effort.[citation needed] Progress is being made, with a new coffee shop, and the promise of a tenant in the long empty Rossonian Hotel.
Five Points history is recorded and exhibited at the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center and at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library. A number of African-American churches and businesses still exist in the community.
Denver's Juneteenth festival draws thousands of people every year. It starts at Manual High School and goes down to Welton Street where dozens of vendors sell merchandise and street performers perform.
In the early 1990s, Denver's first light rail system connected the downtown business district to Five Points.
In the 2010 Census, the neighborhood was 56.95% white, 15.23% African American, 1.72% Asian, and 0.81% Native American. Hispanic or Latino of any race is 22.53% of the population.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 39°45′17″N 104°58′41″W / 39.754779°N 104.978051°W
