Description: 6CK-324 C-108 CITY AND COUNTY BUILDING, DENVER, COLORADO1437 Bannock Street, Denver, Denver County, CO 80202 Facing Bannock Street on the west side of Civic Center. Built on modified lines of Roman Architecture with Ionic and Corinthian Columns, this structure is one of the finest in the west. Published by Cooper Post Card Co., Lakewood, CO1956 Curteichcolor ® Reproduction from Kodachrome or Ektachrome Original Postmarked DENVER, COLO JAN 1964Canceled 1962 Gray 5c George Washington US Postage Stamp________________________ Denver's City and County Building is a historic building in the Denver Civic Center, in the Civic Center Historic District, built to house Denver government bureaus. It was built in 1932, facing the Colorado State Capitol, at the west end of Civic Center Park, at 1437 Bannock Street, on land that had been home to the La Veta Place apartments, home to some of Denver's early high society members, including Louise Sneed Hill. It is Greek Revival in style. It was kept low in height to preserve the Capitol building's view of mountains. The design of the Denver City and County Building is a testament to the grandeur of the Neoclassical style, characterized by its massive columns, intricate carvings, and balanced proportions. The façade is made of Colorado Yule marble, adding a local touch to the building's majestic appearance. Facing the State Capitol Building and completing the dominant east-west axis for Civic Center, Denver’s City and County Building (300 W. Colfax Avenue) is the grandest monument of Mayor Robert Speer’s City Beautiful efforts. The elegant neoclassical building houses the mayor, city council, many county and district courts, and other city offices. Conceived as part of Charles Mulford Robinson’s original City Beautiful Plan of 1906, which placed it on the north side of West Colfax Avenue, it took twenty-six years to materialize due to extended legal, political, and architectural battles. Completed in 1932 at a final cost of more than $5.5 million, it has not been altered much over the decades. After a 1970s restoration, it stands today as an anchor of the Civic Center National Historic Landmark District. https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-city-and-county-building Designing the New City HallIn 1923 voters approved a bond issue and the full-block site bounded by West Colfax and West Fourteenth Avenues between Bannock and Cherokee Streets. The design came from a coalition of thirty-nine leading local architects formed in 1924 as the Allied Architects Association, led by Robert K. Fuller along with George Gray and Roland L. Linder. Construction began in 1929; a welcome effort during the early years of the Great Depression, it employed almost 400 men. Completed in 1932, the City and County Building’s had a neoclassical style that reflected Denver’s aspirations to be the Rome of the Rockies or the Athens of the West. The stone edifice has a symmetrical H plan that measures 435 feet wide and 275 feet deep but only 90 feet high, to avoid blocking Denver’s cherished mountain view. The massive pedimented entry portico has six fifty-foot Corinthian columns; at its base is the entablature “Erected by the People City and County of Denver.” The City and County Building’s most striking feature is the two four-story wings, fronted by Ionic columns, arching forward from the central structure—as cynics complained, like arms reaching out to taxpayers. The north wing leads toward the unattached 1910 Denver Public Library (now the McNichols Building) in Civic Center Park. It was to be matched on the south side by a twin extension, perhaps for an art museum, but that space remains grass to this day. Similarly, niches for statues of heroic Denverites on the exterior of the building were never filled. Besides the wings with their Ionic columns, another dominant feature is a thin central tower whose clock and chimes were donated by Kate Speer in honor of her late husband, Mayor Robert Speer, who had pushed for the development of Civic Center during his tenure. The tower is crowned by an eagle with outspread wings, the position in which the bird defecates; according to folklore, this was the artist’s response to charges of corruption in the building below. Travertine granite from Cotopaxi quarries and Stone Mountain granite from Georgia make up the exterior and some of the interior. These granites are among the many fine stones used in the interior, including Colorado Yule marble, pink Tennessee marble, Resea marble, Vermont gray marble, black and gold Italian marble, and Italian Botticino marble. Noted Denver artist John E. Thompson supervised interior décor and color schemes. A large city council chambers reigns on the fourth floor, which also served as space for a never-realized city museum. The Denver Art Museum had some of its galleries there for decades before it opened its own dedicated building in 1971. One level down, the mayor’s office dominates the third floor. Various other offices and eleven county and district courts fill the rest of the building. Initially, the building also housed a jail as well as the police department and their shooting range until all of that moved to a new building at 1245 Champa Street in 1941. The building’s notable artworks include Gladys Caldwell Fisher’s “American Indian Orpheus and the Animals,” an eleven-by-six-foot bas relief with panels of Colorado stone, and Allen Tupper True’s courtroom murals “Frontier Justice” and “Miner’s Court” (both 1950). Busts of Mayor Speer and of city planner Saco R. DeBoer distinguish either end of the main lobby.
Price: 7.99 USD
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
End Time: 2024-12-15T16:00:01.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
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Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Unit of Sale: Single Unit
Number of Items in Set: 1
Size: Standard (5.5 x 3.5 in)
Material: Cardboard, Paper
City: Denver
Original/Licensed Reprint: Original
Subject: 1956 Denver City & County Building Bannock St. CO Vintage PC
Continent: North America
Type: Printed (Lithograph)
Unit Type: Unit
Era: Photochrome (1939-Now)
Country: United States
Region: Colorado
Theme: Aerial View, Architecture, Denver Civic Center, in the Civic Center Historic District, Famous Places, Landscapes, Roadside America, Social History, Tourism, Vintage cars and trucks
Features: Chrome, Divided Back, Stamped
Unit Quantity: 1
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Postage Condition: Posted
