A Brief History of the Blair-Caldwell Library

Fast forward 17 years and plans for a new branch library were set  in motion by former Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb and his wife Wilma to not only replace the tiny Five Points Branch Library but also give the community a modern, updated and interactive facility that captured the unique history of the neighborhood.

In 1999, a commission was formed to lead the charge in developing plans for a new Five Points branch library. Charleszine ‘Terry’ Nelson, senior special collections librarian and Gwendolyn Crenshaw, former library manager, joined with community members and the Webbs to lead the charge to collect the history of the historic neighborhood of Five Points. Many of the artifacts and collections sought were already tucked away in dusty basements and the aging memories of the elders in the community.

The commission’s vision was to create a space that preserved and showcased the many contributions and accomplishments of African Americans to the City of Denver and the West. Consultants were hired and a community advisory committee was established to conduct public meetings so that the unique desires and needs of the neighborhood could be shared and recorded. A common theme quickly emerged from these meetings, revealing a clear desire from the community to have a branch library that supported and integrated the neighborhood and acted as a focal point for Five Points.

5 Facts About the Blair-Caldwell Library You Might Not Know:

1. The Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library is named after two African American trailblazers. Omar Blair was a Tuskegee Airmen and the first African American president of the Denver Public School Board. Elvin R. Caldwell was the first African American Denver city councilman in District 8. It is noted he was the first African American to serve on a city council west of the Mississippi River.
2. The BCL archive is home to the original manumission papers of the Smith Family. Robert Smith was a former slave from Virginia who hired himself out for 10 years as a barber to buy the freedom of himself, wife and two children in 1834.
3. BCL has a large collection of community and national African American newspapers on microfilm, these include: The Colorado Statesman (1909-1940), Afro-American (Baltimore) 1893-1988, Chicago Defender 1956-1969 and the New York Amsterdam News (1962-2000).
4. The archive collection of John Mosely has 2 unique yearbooks that range from 1941-1945 of Black Airmen commonly referred to as Tuskegee Airmen. This collection also includes his flight jacket, a replica of the Red Tail plane he flew in WWII and a replica of the highway signage that honors the Tuskegee Airmen in Colorado Springs on highway I-25 South.
5. The art inside and outside of the library is part of what makes us so special. The “Freedom’s Legacy” Mural located over the circulation desk on the first floor features 34 national and local figures from the civil right movement painted by Kenyan artist Yvonne Munde. On each side of the building two 15-foot bronze and mosaic reliefs of a African American man and woman represent the noble strength, bearing and pioneering spirit of African American people in the West designed by sculptor Thomas Jay Warren.