Before there was a 16th Street Mall

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The two most interesting things about this set of photographs, to me-- is that we discovered that Thorney had his partner driving him around in the back of a pickup truck making his survey! This is evidenced by his and his view camera's reflection in some shop windows, and in shadows cast in some shots.

The second interesting thing is that we deduced that he did not take many exposure meter readings, if any. Most of these color negatives were severely underexposed. It would have been great to see a set of working prints to see how the print lab managed to wring out great work, but without question-- every one of these image files was a forensic challenge for the techs and interns of Western History and Genealogy's Imaging Services Lab.

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I should have also stated that regardless of the challenges we faced-- Thorney did a stupendous job of chronicling a fantastic time frame of history down 16th Street!!

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Wow. The 70s were a depressing era for downtowns. Nice to see that we actually have improved things since then!

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I agree about downtown Denver of the '70s. For city commercial centers, that decade was all about parking lots. A livelier downtown is an improvement! 

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Growing up in Denver. Downtown was always the place to be. During the Holiday Season my family would ice skate at May D&F and all the store windows were decorated 16th street was the best. In the evenings the teenagers, including myself, would Cruise 16th with our cars shined up, meeting other teens for dates. Those were the days, a true American pastime. Everyone hated when the city closed 16th street, but I have found memories.

Thanks for sharing this memory, and for noting that 16th Street was a place for cruising on weekends... that's something these photographs don't show! 

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This is making feel old knowing I was in the rebirth process before the 16th mall ever was

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Going to Woolworths for pizza, Denver Twin for movies, Dave Cooks for sports equipment....and cruising 16th street in late 70's.

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