Whether you've just moved to the Mile-High City or you've lived here your whole life, decoding Denver's street can be a real challenge. But the mystery of how the Denver street grid is laid out can be somewhat easily solved once you understand the importance of the intersection of Broadway and Ellsworth to the streets off the downtown grid.
While there are plenty of resources for helping decode Denver streets, we've found that local historian Phil Goodstein's encyclopedic work, Denver Streets: Names, Numbers and Logic (New Social Publication, 1994) provides the most succinct descriptions and was the main source for this blog.
To better understand why Broadway and Ellsworth is the nexus of Denver streets, you have to go back the late 1880's when Denver street names and naming conventions were something of a free-for-all. Street names were frequently assigned by land developers and little heed was given to the difference between streets and avenues. Though some attempts were taken to govern this mess, Goodstein points out that there was generally, "no correlation between an address and the location of the street."
In 1887, the city introduced a system that allowed for addresses to consistently identify their distance from a central nexus, which turned out to be Broadway and Ellsworth. But why that intersection? To answer that question, you have to go back to 1886 when Denver had only seventeen numbered avenues which began at Seventeenth Avenue and counted down to First Avenue. "The road one block south of First Avenue, Ellsworth Avenue, was consequently defined as being the zero axis dividing the north-numbered from south numbered streets," Goodstein says.
The decimal system of 1887 codified a system in which Broadway is the dividing line between east and west avenues; and Ellsworth is the dividing line between north and south streets. There is one catch that Denver travelers should be aware of: streets that aren't specifically labeled "South" are always north of Ellsworth while avenues without the specification "west" are east of Broadway.
For the downtown grid, which is diagonal mostly because it was laid out to follow the Platte River, a different decimal system is used. This one counts from the north using Broadway and Colfax as its nexus.
Each block was also assigned a number based on its proximity to the nexus. For example, Goodstein points out that Federal Boulevard is 30 blocks west of Broadway hence it is the 3000 west block.
But decimals weren't the only thing that came out of the 1887 re-ordering. City planners also introduced some order into how buildings in Denver were numbered. Since 1887, buildings on the east or south side of the street must have an even number. Buildings on the north or west side of the street must have an odd number. Though the origins of this system were rooted in Denver's earliest days, they weren't written into law until 1887.
Various other efforts to impose order on to Denver's unruly street grid, including the fabled Mahoney System, have been undertaken over the years with varying degrees of success. Every plan had to overcome major hurdles, such as the fact that "Denver" is something of a moving target that's composed of multiple, annexed municipalities that never considered they would one day be part of the Mile-High City. But with a basic knowledge of the decimal system, and an understanding of the importance of Broadway and Ellsworth, understanding Denver's Streets gets a whole lot easier.
Comments
Denver is really easier to
Denver is really easier to figure than cities with quadrants, like NW, SE, etc. Basically, Avenues run east-west. Streets run north-south. Numbered avenues are north of Ellsworth. Named avenues are mostly south of Ellsworth. There are some exceptions though. Colfax Ave is 15Th Ave. Montview Blvd is E 20Th Ave. Martin Luther King Blvd is E 32nd Ave, Bruce Randolph is E 34Th Ave. Streets east of Broadway aren’t necessarily alphabetical until you get to York/University. Streets west of Broadway are more predictable. Then there’s Downtown, which confuses a lot of people due in part to the angle (45 degrees? Or is it 60 degrees?) from Colfax Ave as noted in the article above. The info about Speer Blvd is new to me.
There is a Naming and
There is a Naming and Numbering system that used to be in the phone book, detailing the numbering and listing of the streets, as well as conventions for naming Avenues, Streets, Courts, Drives, Ways, and Places. Per these conventions, examples of roads/addresses in violation of the conventions include: 84th Way, 91st Court, Chase Drive; Red Birch; 2400 block of Buckley Road which should be in Aurora not Brighton. In the suburbs there are many violations to the rules.
This doesn't explain "why
This doesn't explain "why Ellsworth" became Nexus (beyond 1 less then first).
The blog says, "But why that intersection? To answer that question, you have to go back to 1886 when Denver had only seventeen numbered avenues which began at Seventeenth Avenue and counted down to First Avenue."
Why did avenue numbers begin so far south of then city center (downtown)? Or perhaps conversely why did central Denver
start at Seventeenth Avenue and count down? It would be nice to understand how First Avenue came to be First Avenue.
Research for when library opens back up!
I had the same question. Was
I had the same question. Was there a plat that laid out 17 numbered avenues, and if so who was the developer and when was it platted? I believe that everything south of Colfax in Capitol Hill was laid out by one developer who called the area "Quality Hill" or something like that. But I don't think it went down as far as 1st.
Hi Jude - Thanks for reading
Hi Jude - Thanks for reading and for the interesting follow up questions. I'll be looking into this a little deeper when we have full access to our collection and can provide a more in-depth answer.
Feeling a little sheepish
Feeling a little sheepish that I'd never realized the E/W numbering convention had Broadway as its nexus. Perhaps now I can stop looking up cross streets for businesses along Colfax! Thanks, Brian.
Denver Streets is an
Denver Streets is an incredibly enlightening book!
Phils books are all wonderful
Phils books are all wonderful. I have trouble reading maps. Denvers early streets and then the changes have driven to distraction and I have often just given up. So thank you for this information.
Hi Lavonne - Thanks for
Hi Lavonne - Thanks for reading and commenting. We are in complete agreement regarding those old Denver maps - they can be maddening. Phil has done an amazing job of turning them into something a normal person can understand!
i believe the origin of the
i believe the origin of the numbers of the east/west avenues relates to their conjunction with the original diagonal numbered streets — near civic center, 15th, 16th and 17th Streets all neatly join to 15th (Colfax), 16th and 17th Avenues; the pattern breaks down after that, but with the importance of those particular streets, it seems very likely they inspired the avenue names
that raises the question of why 16th Street is the middle of downtown; the answer is clear when viewing maps of early Denver, at a time when Auroria was gridded much like downtown, but at a slightly different angle; the 1879 Thayer map (linked below), shows 1st St. at the extreme SW corner of the congressional grant boundaries that then defined Denver; 1st St. was only about two blocks long; it extended south-southeast from the S. Platte River to the southern boundary of Denver (along which Colfax extended, though it hadn't reached that far west yet); 4th St. is the lowest numbered remaining street; Meow Wolf's new building currently faces a diagonal section of Walnut St. almost exactly where 1st St. once was
here's the 1879 Thayer map:
https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p16079coll39/id/129
and here, if DPL allows it, is a commercial site which has overlayed that map on Google Maps (use the transparency slider in the upper right):
https://rumsey.geogarage.com/maps/g4841001.html
Colfax (which didn't extend that far yet, but was still the boundary of Denver)
nea the fact that in response to the question "why 17 numbered avenues" — i believe it relates to the fact that 8 long blocks, or 16 short blocks, usually equal one mile; by counting
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