Larimer Street

The Granite Building.

The Kettle Building, at 1422 Larimer Street, was built in 1873 by George Kettle, a local butcher. The building has no side walls of its own, wedging a front and back between the adjacent buildings. Kettle, who later went into real estate, left his building in a few years and it was at various times an employment office, a Rocky Mountain Curiosities Shop, and a newspaper office. By 1890, the Denver Steam Dye Works had moved into the building to stay a good many years. The building has a simulated cut stone facade and a fancy molded cornice. The Larimer Square Historic District, covering the 1400 block of Larimer Street, was the birthplace of Denver City in 1858, with false-fronted stores, hotels and saloons catering to prospectors and pioneers. The original wood buildings were destroyed during the fires of 1863, but the surviving second generation two and three-story late Victorian brick buildings date from the late 19th century. In the mid 1870's, it was the main street of the city, and the site of Denver's first post office, bank, theater, and streetcar line. By the 1930s, urban decay left a skid row of pawnshops, gin mills, and flophouses. The buildings were spared demolition from the sweeping urban renewal projects of the mid-1960's, primarily due to the efforts of Denver preservationist Dana Crawford. As part of the nation's first historic neighborhood revitalization campaign, a for-profit corporation renovated all 16 of the block's commercial buildings in 1969, providing mixed space for shops, restaurants and offices. Larimer Square Historic District National Register #73000468 (1973)