University in Denver in Denver County, Colorado — The American Mountains (Southwest)

S. R. DeBoer

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 23, 2024

1. S. R. DeBoer Marker

Inscription.
Saco Rienk DeBoer (1883-1974) was one of Denver's most influential landscape architects and early city planners. Called “Colorado's practical dreamer”, he left a legacy of beautiful parks and landscaped homes, innovative street tree plantings, and visionary ideas about Denver's urban form.

For fifty years S.R. DeBoer worked to transform Denver into a place of lush beauty in the arid west. “Few things appeal to me as do big trees,” he once wrote.

DeBoer's imaginative designs come to life every spring when the crab apple trees and forsythia burst into color along Speer Boulevard and other parkways, or you smell the pines in Washington Park's “Evergreen Hill”. He was an unwavering advocate for parks and parkways and warned, as early as the 1920's, that growing automobile traffic threatened the quiet experience in parks.

Erected by Denver Parks & Recreation.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Architecture • Horticulture & Forestry • Parks & Recreational Areas.

Location. 39° 40.244′ N, 104° 57.719′ W. Marker is in Denver, Colorado,

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in Denver County. It is in University. It can be reached from the intersection of East Harvard Avenue and South York Street, on the right when traveling east. The marker is on the East Harvard Gulch Trail in DeBoer Park. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 2505 South York Street, Denver CO 80210, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the Front Range.

It is also in the American Mountain West.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Rocky Mountains,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Louisiana Purchase.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 5 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Chamberlin Observatory (approx. 0.6 miles away); Overland Park (approx. 2.1 miles away); 1956 Hungarian Uprising (approx. 3.4 miles away); Zang Mansion (approx. 4 miles away); Grant-Humphreys Mansion (approx. 4.1 miles away); Governor's Residence (approx. 4.2 miles away); Colorado Volunteers (approx. 4.3 miles away); Crawford Hill Mansion (approx. 4.4 miles away). Touch for a list and map

Marker detail: S. R. DeBoer image. Click for full size.

Denver Public Library Western History Collection

2. Marker detail: S. R. DeBoer

of all markers in Denver.

Also see . . . Saco Rienk de Boer (Wikipedia).

Excerpt: Saco Rienk DeBoer was a Dutch landscape architect and city planner. He was born on September 7, 1883, in Ureterp, Opsterland, Friesland, Netherlands. He studied engineering and passed the Junior Engineer (surveyor) exam. He went on to study landscape architecture at The Royal Imperial School of Horticulture in Germany. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and returned home to Ureterp where he opened an office. His symptoms worsened in the summer of 1908; on the basis of doctor and family advice he emigrated to the United States in October 1908 to be treated at the Dutch operated Bethesda Sanatarium in Maxwell, NM. In 1909 when Bethesda Sanitarium moved to Denver, he moved with it, planning the landscaping for the new building.
He became the official Landscape Architect of Denver from 1910 to 1931. He also designed the planned community of Boulder City, Nevada. In 1919, he joined with another Dutchman, M. Walter Pesman, to form a partnership. Together their projects were many, among them the landscaping of both sides of Speer Boulevard
Denver Public Library Western History Collection

3. Marker detail: DeBoer and parks staff moving a drooping elm.
in Denver, and two early and innovative Colorado subdivisions, Bonnie Brae in Denver and The Glens in Lakewood, both of which feature winding streets and multiple small “pocket parks.”

As a landscape architect, S R DeBoer designed dozens of city parks and hundreds of private gardens. As a city planner, he co-authored Denver's first zoning code, helped devise many of its roadways, and led in the development of mountain parks. He was partially responsible for such signature sites as Denver Botanic Gardens and Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Over his lifetime, DeBoer was recognized in many ways: as a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects; as a member of the Colorado State Planning Board, the American Institute of Planners, and the Netherlands Institute for City Planning and Housing. He received an Award of Merit from the Colorado Forestry and Horticulture Association, life membership in the Colorado Society of Engineers, and honorary membership in both the American Institute of Architects and American Society of Planning Officials. He was honored with a Distinguished Service Award from the American Institute of City Planning in
L.C. McClure (1910-1920), Denver Public Library Western History Collection

4. Marker detail: Speer Boulevard looking west.
1960, an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Colorado Nurserymen's Association in 1961, a Distinguished Service Award from Americans by Choice in 1966.

S R DeBoer Park, located in Denver's University neighborhood, is named in his honor.

(Submitted on September 19, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 23, 2024

5. S. R. DeBoer Marker

Looking north from the East Harvard Gulch Trail in DeBoer Park. LaSalle Place, which borders DeBoer Park on the north, is in the background.

Credits. This page was last revised on September 19, 2026. It was originally submitted on September 19, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 7 times since then. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on September 19, 2026, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.