The Arno Apartments

Also Known as Cooper Flats

—

1910

—

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2021

1. The Arno Apartments Marker

Touch for directions.

Range.

West.

America,

Mountains,

Hemisphere,

World,

Anglosphere.

Purchase.

Click or scan to see
this page online

From the National Register Nomination prepared by Barbara Norgren, 9/7/1986:
The Arno Apartment building is significant as one of the apartment buildings completed in 1910 during the apartment house boom in early 20th century Denver. In 1904 there were only forty-two apartment buildings in the city, located mainly in the Capitol Hill and North Capitol Hill neighborhoods. By 1909, there were 136 apartment buildings and the

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2021

2. The Arno Apartments Marker

The marker is mounted at eye level on the southeast corner of the building, facing East 18th Avenue.

number continued to grow as developers found Denver a good market for apartment house construction. Around fifty percent of those buildings constructed prior to 1912 have been demolished and others have been radically altered. The Arno is one of the few buildings which has survived intact.
The Arno is also significant for its eye-catching eclectic design Colonial Revival style with decorative elements executed in tan brick. The architectural design of the building and the intricate brick detailing is representative of the excellent craftsmanship available in early 20th century Denver.
The Arno had a colorful history beginning with the original owners and partners, Mary Welch, Elizabeth Monaghan and a third partner, Miss Mary Monaghan who opened a fashionable boarding house for bachelors in the Crowe House which stood on the site of the Denver Municipal Auditorium ca. 1888. The popularity of the establishment was attributed in part to the good cooking of the Monaghan ladies, who had successfully operated a small dining room in the early 1880s.
About 1894, the lady partners opened another boarding house, the Arno Hotel at 1811 Grant Street

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2021

3. The Arno Apartments (front/south entrance)

in North Capitol Hill. In 1909, they began construction of this building, the Arno Apartments, one block east of the Arno Hotel. The designer of the Arno was Leo Andrew Des Jardins, who was the first Colorado architect to qualify for a license by examination in July of 1910.
After completion of the $30,000 building in 1910, the moderately sized units were occupied mainly by middle income tenants. They were nurses, clerks, managers of businesses and insurance and real estate agents. When the building changed ownership in 1929 the name was changed to the Carmel Apartments. In the early 1970s, the name was again changed to the Cooper.
In 1922, the Arno played a small part in the mystery surrounding the sensational robbery of the Federal Reserve truck in front of the U. S. Mint in Denver on December 18, 1922. News clippings of the day indicated that the money was counted in one of the Arno's apartment units after the robbery. A more recent article in The Denver Post on May 26, 1985, stated that the robbery plot was hatched in unit number 23 at the Arno. This unit was rented on December 9, 1922, to Harold G. Burns and his alleged wife, who

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2021

4. The Arno Apartments (front/south elevation)

The marker is visible near the right edge of the front facade.

moved out in a great rush on December 17th, the day before the robbery. The criminals were never apprehended for this crime.

Excerpt:  Completed in 1910, during Denver’s early 20th century apartment house construction boom, this Colonial Revival style building was designed by Leo Andrew Des Jardins.

Excerpt:  Originally known as the Arno Apartments, the building was completed in 1910 by prominent Colorado architect Leo Andrew (L.A.) Desjardins. Desjardins grew up in Denver and studied architecture at Cornell University. He would eventually return to Colorado and teach architecture at the Denver School of Technology. Desjardins was the first architect in Colorado to become licensed through examination in the same year that the Cooper Flats building was constructed. He was a contributing organizer of the Independent Architects Association and spent the majority of his later years at his home in

Paid Advertisement

Trinidad, Colorado, until his death in 1967.
The building’s Colonial Revival style is an attractive feature to the residents who live there. Units inside Cooper Flats retain their Colonial Revival style. With 24 units in the building, Cooper Flats is true to the decade of its origin in that residents share a communal laundry facility and no modern amenities.

Excerpt:  Leo Andrew Desjardins (also spelled Des Jardins) was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, on May 12, 1885. In 1910, Desjardins became the first architect in Colorado to be licensed through examination. He scored the highest average after three days of testing and was awarded License Number One.