Understanding Denver Streets' decimal system; Or why the intersection of Broadway and Ellsworth is so important

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Hi Sophia - We continually learn interesting new facts from Denver Streets and Phil Goodstein's other works. We're really fortunate to have local historians of this caliber. Thanks for reading and commenting!

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Thanks!! I understood Broadway being zero but never understood Ellsworth. Makes sense to me now.

Hi Amy - The Broadway/Ellsworth continuum is one of the aspects of Denver's street plan that actually makes sense, once you get a grasp of it. 

Thanks for reading and commenting! 

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Another oddity is the numbering of addresses on Speer. It is treated as a north/south west of Broadway. Since it is north, a directional designation is not needed.
East of Broadway, it is an east/west street with no directional designation until Pearl Street as the first six blocks are unambiguous. From Pearl to Downing an east is required to separate it from north addresses.
All of this will soon be moot as the Denver GIS mapping department has decreed that the use of north will be added to all addresses north of Ellsworth, at least in Denver.
Another Denver GIS decree is that Broadway is now Broadway Street. It has always been just Broadway to me (and Google maps).

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And interestingly, my mail sometimes gets delivered to the same address on South Bellaire even when the zip code indicates that my mailbox is located North of Ellsworth.
Also, I think it's now a Denver County requirement to have the letter "N" added to the address if your address is not otherwise indicated as South--something to do with property tax and/or voting district. Can you clarify this?

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I appreciated and learned from this article! Thank you, and yes, indeed, Phil Goodstein is indeed, a treasure.

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