| La Alma/Lincoln Park is one
of Denver's oldest neighborhoods, lying just to the south of today's Auraria Higher
Education Center campus where Denver was settled in the 1850s by goldseekers. Many houses
in this predominantly Latino neighborhood date from the turn of the century, and its
proximity to Downtown and broad range of housing types make it an attractive center city
neighborhood. The La Alma/Lincoln
Park neighborhood--known to many as the West Side--is often identified by its primary
retail and commercial corridor: Santa Fe Drive. The street has seen a significant amount
of investment in recent years, as office users, shops, restaurants and banks have
renovated building facades (nearly 20 buildings on Santa Fe have new facades, including
two refurbished historic buildings). Business owners and neighborhood leaders have worked
closely with the City to install street trees and other amenities to enhance the
pedestrian environment. Other tenants along Santa Fe include an authentic Mexican bakery,
galleries, a Spanish-speaking radio station, picture framers and specialty retailers.
The Denver Civic Theater is a Santa Fe
Drive landmark. Opened in the 1930s as a movie theater, the building was variously used
(including one stretch as a meatpacking plant) before a renovation in 1993 recast it as a
neighborhood arts center with two theaters and a gallery. Local playwrights and a resident
performance company have used the venue in recent years for a variety of dramatic
productions.
Much of La Alma/Lincoln Park's housing is
single family detached houses from a variety of architectural styles and eras. Two-story
brick Victorians, row houses, duplexes, brick bungalows and one-story stucco houses line
La Alma/Lincoln Park's streets. The 1,050-unit Parkway Center apartment and condominium
complex is located at 12th and Galapagos Street, with a prominent frontage on Speer
Boulevard. The new South Lincoln Park public housing facility was completed in 1996,
replacing a dilapidated housing complex that was built in the 1950s.
Downtown is easily accessed from La
Alma/Lincoln Park via RTD's light rail line, which has a station at 10th and Osage Street
on the western edge of the neighborhood.
Also among the neighborhood's landmarks
are: Museo de las Americas (also on Santa Fe Drive, the first museum in the region that is
dedicated to educating the public about the artistic and cultural achievements of Latinos
in the Americas), Denver Health hospital complex, Denver West High School, Lincoln Park,
the Asian and Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, and Sunken Gardens Park along Speer
Boulevard. A vacant building at the intersection of Speer Boulevard and Colfax Avenue that
formerly housed Denver's courts and District Attorney offices was recently renovated into
a Latino cultural and business center. Buckhorn Exchange, a 105-year old restaurant that
holds the state's first liquor license, is also located in La Alma/Lincoln Park.
FACTS:
General boundaries: West
Colfax Avenue, Speer Boulevard, 6th Avenue, Osage Street.
Population: 7,000
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