Denver’s Landmark Preservation hits 50-year mark
The Emmanuel Shearith Israel Chapel on the Auraria campus hasn’t served as a synagogue in nearly 60 years, but it’s still a special place in Denver.
Built in 1876 as an episcopal church, it became a synagogue in 1903 and then art studios in 1958. It now serves as an art gallery and was renovated in 2006.
“It’s an amazing space to experience art,” said Jeff Lambson, director of the Emmanuel Gallery.
The building is one of the city’s oldest and was the first dedicated landmark in Denver in 1968, a year after the Landmark Preservation program was adopted.
Fifty years later, the city is celebrating the 336 individual landmarks and 52 historic districts that have been designated since the program’s inception for its anniversary as it looks back on the protective work that has been done since designation began.
“We are focusing on as many of the individual landmarks and districts as possible during that time,” Landmark Preservation supervisor Jennifer Cappeto said. “There’s so many that are really unique to their neighborhood or unique to the history of city that are often overlooked.”
Although the landmark ordinance was adopted March 6, 1967, the city is planning more festivities in May during preservation month and will have a table at Union Station — one of the more well-known of the city’s 336 landmarks — during Doors Open Denver, a two-day event in late April that gives people an opportunity to explore the city.
The Landmark Preservation program has a staff of five, and the Landmark Preservation Commission has a board of nine mayoral appointees who review applications for new
landmarks and plans for improvements or renovations on existing landmarks or buildings within historic districts.
Residents submit applications to designate new buildings, which is different from other cities where staff can take a more proactive approach in designating historic structures and areas.
“It really helps us as city staff to understand what residents value, which buildings they want to preserve and what they think is significant to their neighborhood,” Cappeto said.
To receive designation, a building or area must meet two of three criteria: historical significance, architecture and geography. After staff reviews an application and the Landmark Preservation Commission makes a recommendation, the Denver City Council votes on the matter. Residents who own historic properties are eligible for state income tax credits when working on a preservation or restoration work.
Several outside organizations also focus on the preservation and protection of historic structures in Denver, including Historic Denver, which was formed in 1970 and helped save the Molly Brown House in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and convert it into a museum.
Historic Denver executive director Annie Levinsky said the push for historic preservation came in the mid-1960s after urban renewal saw a big overhaul of the downtown landscape with lots of demolition of buildings that could have been considered historic.
“I think Denver recognized coming out of urban renewal that it would be better served to take advantage of landmarks,” Levinsky said. “The strong sentiment of 1970s was that people did not want to lose these places and instead use them to make our city a bigger and better place.”
Stephen Leonard, a history professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver and former board member with the Landmark Preservation Commission, noted that historic preservation has positive economic value and that Denver has been a forerunner in historic preservation, forming its program in the year after the National Preservation Act of 1966.
“The preservation of some neighborhoods, many neighborhoods, has helped give Denver a charm that makes it an attractive place to live,” Leonard said.