Denver’s Victory Gardens

Posted on April 22, 2009 by admin

— by Barbara Masoner

In 1943, Eleanor Roosevelt took the bold initiative to plant a vegetable garden on the White House’s South Lawn. She called it a Victory Garden. Due to severe food shortages in Europe, Eleanor knew home gardens were imperative to feeding millions of American troops overseas and preventing shortages at home. During World War II over 20 million Americans answered Eleanor’s call to action, producing approximately 40% of our country’s produce. School groups and scout groups cleaned up vacant lots and planted community gardens. Factory workers transformed empty lots adjacent to their work places into vegetable gardens that were tended during work breaks. Americans were involved because they wanted to support the troops while saving some money at home.

The City of Denver quickly responded by establishing a Victory Garden Office. On March 28, 1943, just months after Eleanor Roosevelt’s call to action, Mayor Stapleton dedicated Denver’s first Victory Garden. Stapleton said, “The City of Denver believes this is the most important community project that we have ever undertaken.” The community garden was located at East Eighth and Elizabeth, now Congress Park. Denver Urban Gardens continues this tradition by providing technical support to community groups, institutions and individuals throughout Denver.

Victory Garden, WWII Promotional Poster

Victory Garden, WWII Promotional Poster

Denver’s slogan was a “Victory Garden on Every Lot.” Denverites did their part by planting 41,500 gardens that first season and by 1944 over 50,000 Victory Gardens were spread across the City. Denver’s Victory Gardens were valued that first growing season at $578,125. To help Denverites start up a backyard plot, the City of Denver devised a “Model Victory Garden.” A list of vegetables that did best in our climate was provided as well as soil preparation and planting instructions. Colorado State College (now CSU) provided the “technical advice necessary to insure success.” CSU Extension Offices continue to provide valuable information on gardening in our unique climate.

A new Victory Garden movement is sweeping the country and our state. Michael Pollan, a journalist for the New York Times and Professor at UC Berkeley, is leading the charge. His article, Dear Mr. Next President… Food, Food, Food, discusses how vegetable gardens are eloquent solutions to: public health, the local economy, global warming, and education. In response to this article and at many groups’ bequests, Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden on the White House’s South Lawn in March.

Colorado communities are a part of this energetic movement. Leading the effort is Grow Local Colorado. Grow Local is a new project being developed by community leaders, gardeners, locavores, farmers and businesses to help more people grow more food locally. Partners in this effort include representatives from Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Public Library, Denver Urban Gardens and representatives from the City and County of Denver. Their website is a resource hub for information, expertise and partnership in establishing your own food garden in your home, business, or public space. Grow Local’s goal is to establish 2009 gardens in the Metro Denver area by May 30, 2009. Their site also connects people wanting to grow food with unused space, resources and expertise.

Be a part of this exciting movement. Start a new vegetable garden or help a neighbor with theirs. In a few months you’ll reap the benefits of your labor.

B50 Note: Barbara Masoner is happy that earth day is here and the snow is gone so she can get busy in her own garden. For more local gardening information, she encourages you to visit Grow Local Colorado. If you are interested in the history of urban gardening in the United States, visit Sprouts in the Sidewalk.

Posted in environment, history | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rock-A-Billy Willie Lewis

Posted on April 20, 2009 by admin

— by Tom Lundin

Willie Lewis and Mary Lou (from Westword, 1990, photo by Gary Isaacs)

Willie Lewis and Mary Lou (from Westword, 1990, photo by Gary Isaacs)

Willie Lewis is a bonafide Denver hero. I am very serious when I say that there should be a statue of this man in a Denver park somewhere, holding a scratchy ’50s-era 45 RPM record in his hand. Willie Lewis is an acclaimed rockabilly singer/songwriter/performer, president of Denver’s Rock-A-Billy Records and a world-class record collector. If you have ever met him, you would say that he has the unaffected personality of a wild west icon, like maybe Buffalo Bill. But most of all Willie Lewis is a hard boiled survivor.

Rock-A-Billy Records R-101!

Rock-A-Billy Records R-101!

He has survived a horrible childhood blood disease (a disease that had killed all male victims prior to Lewis surviving his own procedure). He survived a rough childhood that took him in and out of orphanages, in and out of trouble and eventually landing him in Buena Vista Correctional. He survived an attack on his house and home by a PCP-crazed maniac who jumped through his window and attacked his family (forcing him to be the first in Denver to exercise the famous local “Make-My-Day” law. Yes, this is true!) And most of all, Willie Lewis has survived numerous heart attacks that have led to him having a pacemaker, a defribilator and so many stents that I cannot count them.

What keeps this man alive? He is simply: Too Ornery To Die.

Truthfully though, there are two other factors keeping him going, the love of his life Mary Lou and his respectful dedication to the music he loves… rockabilly. And Lewis knows rockabilly. I guarantee you, no one else knows rockabilly better. Willie Lewis could be recognized as the living breathing embodiment of rockabilly personified.

If you are a Denver resident and you are thinking “I have never heard of Willie Lewis”, this has a lot to do with the fact that he has never cared about commercial pop success. He knows his audience and his audience knows him. In Europe, his records from the ’80s and ’90s sell for as much money as collectable original rockabilly records from the ’50s. One rockabilly band even moved to Denver from Portugal to learn from this man.

Way back in the late 1970s, after having collected every rockabilly, doo-wop, country and blues 45 many times over, Lewis thought it was about time to try to record his own 45. He released the famous R-101 45 “The Rockin Blues” on his own Rock-A-Billy Records, distributed by Denver’s Wax Trax store. As a matter of fact, for at least a decade, the only way you could get your hands on a Rock-A-Billy Record was through Wax Trax! Travelers from countries like Japan, Germany and Finland would always stop at Wax Trax and “load up” on rare Rock-A-Billy Records’ releases.

Since that first release, Rock-A-Billy Records has put out over thirty 45 RPM records (on colored vinyl, a Rock-A-Billy Records trademark), a handful of 10″ EPs, a couple of 12″ LPs, 4 or 5 CDs, and even one 10″ 78 RPM record (!) by High Noon.

Walking the Streets of Denver: Spuddnicks release on Bopland Records[audio:WalkingTheStreetsofDenver.mp3 |titles=Walking The Streets of Denver |artists= Delmer Spudd & The Spuddnicks]

Walking the Streets of Denver: Spuddnicks release on Bopland Records

Not only is Lewis himself represented under names like Willie & The String-Poppers, Billy & The Bop-Cats, King Cat & The Pharoahs, The Bop-A-Whiles and Delmer Spudd & The Spuddnicks (who did an incredible show at The Oxford Hotel for the 1996 Best of Westword Showcase), but he has also released records by High Noon (from Texas), Go Cat Go (from Maryland), Ronnie Dawson (famous for his ’50s record “Rockin’ Bones”), Carl Sonny Leyland (boogie woogie pianist from England), Kidd Pharaoh (from Denver), The Road House Rockers, The Hal Peters Trio (from Finland), The Original Stablemen (from Germany), ’50s rockabilly singer Don Rader, The Barnshakers (from Finland), Little Roy & The Ramblers (from Denver), and 1995 Westword cover-story band the Tennessee Boys (from Portugal). He recently put out a great new CD by Denver band Jimmy Lee Rollins and the Rocks (starring Jim Holdridge).

Aside from releases on own Rock-A-Billy Records, Willie Lewis has also released recordings on Lewmann Records, Waterhole Records, Bop-Land Records (out of Germany) and Goofin’ Records (out of Finland). There was even a large book put out in Germany with the lengthy title “The Story of a Hep Cat: Life and Music of Willie Lewis and His Rock-A-Billy Record Company” by Sven Bergmann in 2003. Lewis has recently come out of retirement and started issuing new Rock-A-Billy Records colored-vinyl 45s and has a new LP “Don’t Shoot Me Baby” on France’s Hog Maw Records that sounds ace!

BuckFifty is about Denver history and here we have this amazing Denver artist who has flown under the radar for many years and is a true Denver legend. So help me here, who do I talk to about this statue? I just saw the esteemed Mayor Hickenlooper introduce X at the Bluebird on Tuesday, maybe he would be sympathetic if he knew that Denver is home to one of the truest rockabilly recording artists of all time and would realize that future generations will be hunting down the story of this amazing man.

Recent release on Rock-A-Billy Records

Recent release on Rock-A-Billy Records

B50 Note: For more on Willie Lewis and Rock-A-Billy Records visit their website or their myspace page. Tom Lundin is an illustrator, photographer, and chronicler of mid-century modern architecture in Denver. Find out more at his website, modmidmod.com.

Posted in music | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

The Rockmount Building: 100 Years Young

Posted on April 16, 2009 by admin

—by Steve Weil

The Rockmount Building celebrates its 100th birthday this year, but the history of the site goes to 1859. As my family has been working at this building for 3 generations it feels like part of the family. I began researching the building several years ago after I discovered it was designed by Fisher & Fisher who designed some of Denver’s finest buildings. I have a huge archive on the building as well as our business Rockmount which is notable for making the first western shirts with snaps and Papa Jack who was the oldest CEO. On display in our store is a triptych panel of photos of the building and the street over the years.

We have the original abstract of the building, which dates to 1859. It has signatures of many of Denver’s founding fathers: Amos Steck, David Moffat, Frederick Ebert and others who tie in to the city’s history prominently.

Amos Steck was the first mayor and for whom the Elemementary School is named. David Moffat and others brought the railroad spur from Cheyenne to Denver without which we would be Cheyenne and they would be Denver. Frederick Ebert platted LoDo and the roads to the Central City mines. He and his wife gave the land for the first school. Today Ebert Elementary is named for him.

Of note is that Wazee was part of China town, though most people think its border was Blake. The Rockmount abstract shows Chinese owners in the 1880s. Many of their businesses were off the alleys.

The Wolff Building, circa 1909. Designed by Fisher & Fisher. Photo Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society.

The Wolff Building, circa 1909. Designed by Fisher & Fisher. Photo Courtesy of the Colorado Historical Society.

History of the Rockmount Building:

Built in 1909, this building has been Rockmount’s home for 3 generations since 1946. First our warehouse, we later moved our offices here in 1980. After nearly 50 years of wholesale only we opened the retail store and museum in 2002. We undertook a historic renovation to preserve the building in 2004, returning the first floor much to its original state.

This “Prairie” style building was designed by Fisher & Fisher, perhaps Denver’s Finest architects. Where as many earlier nearby buildings are soft brick this is a costly construction with fully fired brick throughout and heave timbering far exceeding structural requirements. Warehouses were once architectural gems reflecting the commercial lifebood of a growing community on the frontier. This was a time when warehouse architecture expressed the great pride of other citadels such as civic, chuch, and corporate edifices.

The Rockmount building reflects Louis Sullivan’s Modern Commercial design, the emerging Prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Beaux Arts movement, which Arthur Fisher studied in New York. This building is a complete departure from the more derivative Victorian classical motif style, characterizing much of the neighborhood.

1909 – 1927 Wolff Mfg Co. (wholesale plumbing showroom & warehouse)
1928 – 1938 Colo Wholesale Drug Co., later Mckesson-Colo Wholesale Drug Co., Mckesson & Robbins Wholesale Drugs
1940 – 1946 U.S. Government Work Projects Administration Warehouse
1946 – 1980 Joy Mfg. Co. Mining Machinery, Schloss & Shubart Machinery & Engineering
1946 – Present Rockmount Ranch Wear Mfg. Co.
2002 – Rockmount opens Retail Store & Museum
2004 – Exterior, 1st floor historic renovation, basement garage added

McKesson Drug Co., September 1, 1938

McKesson Drug Co., September 1, 1938


Inside the Rockmount Showroom

Inside the Rockmount Showroom


B50 Note: Steve Weil is the president of Rockmount Ranch Wear. The company was founded by his grandfather, Jack A. “Papa Jack” Weil, who is considered the father of Western Wear. Steve’s father, Jack B. Weil, joined the company in 1956, and Steve joined in 1981. Today, Rockmount is sold widely around the world.

The Rockmount Building will be open on Saturday and Sunday, April 18th and 19th, as part of Doors Open Denver 2009, a program of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. For more information, maps, and a list of participating sites (there are lots of them!) visit the Doors Open Denver website.

Posted in history, places | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

3 Years

Posted on April 14, 2009 by admin
Eric and Jasper - painting by Sharon Feder (2008)

Eric and Jasper - painting by Sharon Feder (2008)

All wondering how Denver and I have settled in report is outstanding. I watch their city, Race and 13th street anyway, these 5 (FIVE!) windows. Two original dormers in my old, old apartment light to place up. I watch the snow swirl, musing. I tend to loath snow. Sharon pines for it. It been splendid winter for anybody on two wheels.

Yes, Denver fits nicely. Thanksgiving 2005 was another story, fixed with dread, hoping my son’s cancer would just go away, or get creamed by Children’s Hospital’s medical armada, where Jasper tooks lungs, and the head. New words, like glioma, ice-cold, nastier that oath. The guy at Sanora coffee, over on Colfax and Lafayette, would not take our money that day, Patty and I, wandering while he slept, bunkered down in ICU.

I have no real memories of Denver before this. Later, after little shoah, I hand make my peace with Denver, which wasn’t all the easy. It was very damn pissed at everything. I can’t remember at what. Everything.

Maybe Denver’s now-warm blanket of love, the love I’ve received since, is Denver’s gift to me. Maybe it felt it owed me something. Everywhere I turned Denver took me in. Everywhere. You know I’d give it back, walk through the very gates of hell, could it have turned out differently. But … here I am.

Downing street in time became my corridor, on the way to everywhere. As I passed, Children’s loomed, quiet, steely. I’d glare at it, or avert my eyes, keep looking straight ahead. I did not want to give it satisfaction. It was golgotha, somehow alive, and I shared space with this thing and could not wrap my mind around it existence. It gave me chills. It closed windows and screamed and screamed and cursed it, my face screwed up in wrath and fear, wishing to GOD it had all played out different way, nightmare from which I could not wake.

One fine day, Children’s was torn down. That mixed me up bad. Its dismemberment seemed to take forever. The demolition was jarring, its insides sat raw and open, rooms and hallways, where so many had passed in pain and anguish, now being torn to hell by giant machines. And I was torn between perverse glee, and wrenching sorrow; I wanted it GONE but good, yet I wept as it fell, sorry this place that cradled my son was finally dying too. The destruction took forever. It was a sore, and as sore, and even as hoses flattened the dust and rakes smoothed what remained the empty space was still maw, and I was angry at that, too. Angry was angry it gone. Later on, I ran into one of the nurses that had cared for Jasper. She said was not alone, and these destruction of Children’s had sown confusion, torn big holes in hearts citywide.

By the Sharon, and her family, had taken me in. Three years later, I float through Denver as if I’d always been here. I have my places, my routine. My barista sees me coming, shots are grinding before I walk through door. I thread 14th street traffic like river, the slowpokes lurk, feinting and dodging potholes by memory. A memory!

That Denver should have welcomed me at all was unexpected. Starting life over at 50 in a strange city could easily be the kiss of death; every corner is proof enough. But Denver parted its wings, and softened my blow. Qwest picked me up. I ran into Sharon at Starz, almost 25 years after Aspen, where where we both children, and were so many things. Now we are more.

Sharon and Denver scooped me up, my crystal-delicate emotions, my leathery psychic hide. I am very much “Ink*”; She coaxes me out my armor, untying my knots. Her boys scream “E”! and reach for my yo-yo, or whatever gadget I’m messing with that day.

Children’s Hospital’s old carcass, I’ll never quite adjust to. I THINK the ghosts have all gone home. The old buildings that remain, I’ve given them a pass. Places come and places go, it’s the flow of history, and I’m not alone, it’s all part of the dance, and my small waltz connects me to Denver’s grand ball. My memories are new, and raw, and I wander, Lakewood to Aurora, Littleton to Globeville, I’m seared, and Sharon and the boys reminds me why I should heal. I share fires at Ironton with new friends, and sit among its gardens, and sometimes I shake off all my shell. I imagine my ghosts are OK, and Denver’s my home.

Eric Lecht
April 14, 2009 (3 years)

*Ink is movie, and Ink is title character. Their story involves father trying to save his child, his daughter take by Ink across the dreamtime. In end, I could not save Jasper. Their movie is extraordinary, steep in archetype and allegory. And destined the cult status movie speaks to redemption, forgiveness, and healing. To filmed, in Denver. Go see it. More about Ink on IMDB.

Posted in Stories | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tivoli-Union Brewery: Abandoned, Explored, Restored

Posted on April 12, 2009 by admin

— by Hugh Graham

During the winter of 1978-1979, as a senior in high school, some friends and I would head downtown on Friday nights for the midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Odgen Theater. Coming down from the Evergreen and not knowing much about the city, we needed some way to amuse ourselves until 11 or so when we would line up on Colfax for the show. We weren’t much interested in 3.2 bars, and didn’t know where else to go, so we used our imagination and willingness to bend the law a bit to explore parts of the city that were much less crowded then than now.

Looking back on it, the late 1970s were a good time to be an urban explorer in Denver; urban renewal left lots of buildings empty and available. One of the biggest targets for exploring was the Tivoli Brewery. It was huge, dark, and very, very spooky. Although we only snuck in there a couple of times, it left a considerable impression on me; we’d park a few blocks away, squeeze through the fence and into the building (not a difficult thing to do), and then spend as much time as we could wandering through the cavernous spaces.

I remember the iron work, the incredible (and confusing) machinery, thousands on thousands of denver beer bottles, the massive copper vats. One very cold night we spied a plastic glove extending up from an icy vat (it was a glove, wasn’t it?), a vaguely disembodied hand, which led to some extra hoots and hollers in the echoey darkness. There was the turn halle, with its raised stage at one end, perfect for improvisational performances. But more than anything I remember the feeling of being dropped into a place frozen in time — as if the work had simply stopped one day, and everyone dropped what they were doing and walked out the door — we were space travelers on a long abandoned ship.

I didn’t know anything about the history of the Tivoli in those days, and as it turns out it was several years before a plan emerged for what to do with it (a plan that ended up changing more than a few times before the current incarnation as the Auraria Student Union and home to the Denver Film Society). Of course, now I realize that even as we were exploring our “alien landscape”, there were lots people working to secure a renovation plan while others documented and researched the history of this unique feature of the Denver landscape.

The following is a transcript of the “Historic American Engineering Record” conducted by the National Park Service in 1983; the text was transmitted by Dan Clement, and the photos are by William Edmund Barrett. This document was retrieved from “Built in America“, a project of the Library of Congress documenting American buildings and landscapes from 1933 to the present.

——

Tivoli-Union Brewery (Milwaukee Brewing Company)
Date: Circa 1890
Location: 1320-1348 Tenth St. Denver Colorado
Designed By: Unknown
Owned by: Originally: Milwaukee Brewing Company
1901: Merger forms Tivoli-Union Brewing Co,
1965: Carl and Joseph Occhiato
Presently: Associates for the Redevelopment of Tivoli
Significance: The Tivoli Brewing Company is one of the last gravity fed breweries in the United States.
Transmitted by: Dan Clement, 1983

The history of the Tivoli Brewing Company spans more than 100 years and encompasses the development of three different breweries. James Good crossed the prarie in 1859 with the first wagonload of hops for Denver’s initial brewery, the Rocky Mountain Brewing Company. In that same year Good became associated with the brewery’s owner, Mr. Charles Endlich.

Good, known to have been a master brewer in Europe, ran the brewery during the 1860’s. At that time, the brewery was located on the western shore of Cherry Creek in Aurarla, a rival community adjoining Denver. Sometime during the middle of the decade Endlich died and Good became sole owner of the facility. In 1870, he changed the name of the brewery to the Tivoli Brewing Company (named after the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen).

In 1879 another brewery in Aurarla started production. The Milwaukee Brewing Company located at 10th and Larimie was known not only for its beer but also for the construction in 1882 of Vorkwaert’s Turn Hall. The hall was used to stage club shows and operas and proved to be quite popular with the people of Auraria. In 1890 the company constructed a new four story brick structure with tower and basement. This structure survives today as the most visually distinctive building within the complex. A shallow three story connector between the turn hall and the new building was also constructed in 1890, most likely while the new tower building was still under construction.

By 1901, the Tivoli Brewing Company had merged with the Union Brewing Company, owned by William Burghardt (a friend of James Good) and it occupied the site of the Milwaukee Brewing Co. on 10th street. About this time it is believed that the buildings to the south and east of the tower building were constructed.

The Tivoli-Union Brewing Co. continued to operate (barring prohibition) under the ownership of Burghardt, Good and Good’s heirs until 1964. With the death of Mrs. LoRaine Good Kent Vichy (a daughter-in-law of James Good) the ownership of the brewery remained in litigation until the complex was sold to Carl and Joseph Occhiato in 1965. Four years later the brewery ceased operation. After being considered as a possible student center for the new three college Auraria Campus, the brewery is today undergoing renovation for a different purpose. The existing buildings are to be united under a skylight-greenhouse creating a mixture of shops and exhibit spaces that will serve commercial interests within the local economy.

People wishing to learn more about Denver’s early business history are referred to the following:

Letham J. Historical and Descriptive Review of Denver, Her Leading Business Houses and Enterprising Men, Denver 1893.

Smiley, Jerome C. History of Denver, The Times-Sun Publishing Co. Denver, 1901.

Brettell, Richard R. Historic Denver The Architects and The Architecture 1858-1893.

PHOTOGRAPHS
I cannot read the gallery's xml file: /home/12842/domains/buckfifty.org/html/images/tivoli/gallery.xml
Please check that the gallery's files have been created on the admin pages!

Wm. Edmund Barrett, Photographer January 1970

  1. CO-1-1 Side view of brewery complex, smokestack looking toward Larimer Street.
  2. CO-1-2 Side view of brewery complex as seen from 10th and Larimer.
  3. CO-1-3 Ninth Street view of brewery showing rear of 1890 tower building and HI-EN Brau stone building, one of the oldest structures remaining.
  4. CO-1-4 Tower and upper front facade of tower building.
  5. CO-1-5 Side view of tower and upper facade.
  6. CO-1-6 Tivoli Beer wall sign, smokestack and adjacent building to tower: WEST DENVER TURN HALLE 1882.
  7. CO-1-7 Tower Building interior. First view of plant behind offices Equipment and double iron steps to 2nd floor. Beer parties were also held here.
  8. CO-1-8 Tower building. Large copper brewing kettle on second floor.
  9. CO-1-9 Tower building. Hot water tap floor shown. Mixing vat at center level. Juices mix and flow and left lower level. Copper kettles are down below view level. Looking toward front of building.
  10. CO-1-10 Copper taps below mixer and above copper kettles.
  11. CO-1-11 Mixing Vat.
  12. CO-1-12 From here grain goes to the top of the tower from rail cars down below. From here grain flows by gravity through different processes ending up as beer in the basement.
  13. CO-1-13 Top of tower. Grain proceeds from here through gravity fashion.
  14. CO-1-14 “Grinder: Seek Brs. Ltd. Dresden. Chas. Zeller Co. New York.” Second machine in grain procession from top of building. This is the floor beneath the top of the tower that the grain drops through.
  15. CO-1-15 Grinder
  16. CO-1-16 Hot water vat and detail…showing roof structure and rear
    of tower building.
  17. CO-1-17 Same floor.as hot water vats looking towards the front of the building. These have to do with grain from upper floor judging from ceiling to floor progression. Note nice iron work.
  18. CO-1-18 Inner back wall of 1890 building above hot water vats.
  19. CO-1-19 Taber pump in C02 plant.
  20. CO-1-20 Vilter Mfg. Company steam engine.
  21. CO-1-21 Same steam engine from other side.
  22. CO-1-22 Repair Shop. Note Schnitzelbanks in center front.
  23. CO-1-23 Beer Cooler. Copper tubing very obsolete.
  24. CO-1-24 Lab Room. Balance scales and other gear.
Posted in neighborhoods, places | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments