Cheesman Park's Past Life...as a Cemetery

Mount Calvary Cemetery (later Denver Botanic Gardens), the Catholic section of Mount Prospect Cemetery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of the City and County of Denver, Colorado, is overgrown with weeds; an obelisk-shaped monument has toppled to the ground in the foreground. Names on the headstones: "Monahan" and "Taney."

April 11, 1937

It's no secret in Denver that Cheesman Park and the Denver Botanic Gardens sit on land that once served as cemetery grounds.

Mount Prospect Cemetery opened on the 160-acre site in 1858. In 1865, 40 acres of the cemetery became Mount Calvary, a burial place for Catholics. In 1872, Congress decreed that the site of Mount Prospect was technically federal land. The land was sold to the City of Denver with the provision that it always serve as a cemetery. In 1873, the cemetery became known as Denver City Cemetery.

View of snow covered Mount Calvary Cemetery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood (now the Denver Botanic Gardens in the Cheesman Park neighborhood) in Denver, Colorado. Shows a fence, trees, headstones and unmarked graves. Light snow covers the ground. Corona School (Dora Moore), houses, and the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains are in the distance.

1903 February 8

By the 1880s, the City of Denver was pleading with Congress to change the status of the land from cemetery to park land. On January 25, 1890, Congress acceded to their demands, and Denver City Cemetery became Congress Park.

In 1893, the task of moving 5,000 graves began under the management of undertaker E. P. McGovern. Due to mishandling of the project (including allegations of dismembering corpses so they could be placed in child-sized coffins), McGovern was famously dismissed before all of the graves could be relocated.

Surveying Notes for Congress Park

Denver Mayor Robert W. Speer, a proponent of the City Beautiful movement of the early 1900s, looked to beautify Congress Park, but claimed the City did not have the funds to do so. He encouraged benefactors to donate, but didn't have any success until the widow and children of Walter Scott Cheesman (1838-1907) came forward with $100,000 for a park pavilion. Hence, the park became known as Cheesman Park.

Exterior view of Cheesman Memorial Pavilion, Cheesman Park (formerly Congress Park), Denver, Colorado; designed by Marean & Norton firm (Willis A. Marean & Albert J. Norton), completed in 1909 as memorial to Walter Scott Cheesman using Colorado Yule marble; cement sidewalks, park benches, landscaping in process; view south towards distant Pikes Peak.

[1909 or 1910]

In 1950, the City of Denver successfully persuaded the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver to deed the Mount Calvary land back to the City. While a city botanic garden was originally planned for construction in City Park, it was relocated on the Mount Calvary site. The Denver Botanic Garden was dedicated in 1966.