Henry Lee Building

Henry Lee Building. The pattern of ownership of 1545 Wazee Street symbolizes the development of Denver's rail age boom as an industrial and supply city requiring large scale warehousing. Its first owner and occupant, Henry Lee, was an agriculturist, pioneer gardener and fruit grower. In 1864, he successfully experimented with the culture of the eastern onion in Colorado, and brought the first chilled-steel plow to the state. These events marked the beginning of Lee's Farm Implement Business, and in 1870 he constructed this large-frame warehouse here to store his inventory. Lee was also known as the father of Denver's Park System, working tirelessly to acquire land for City Park, assisting in its landscaping, and later serving as a member of the Denver Parks Commission and the State legislature. In 1907 Chester Stephen Morey, having constructed the new Morey Mercantile Building across the Alley, acquired the Lee Building and incorporated it into his thriving business. Gove and Walsh Architects completed renovations to the Lee Building in 1907, and Morey put it to use as a home for, among other things, roasting, grinding and packaging his Solitaire coffee.