Cheesman Park, Denver
Encyclopedia
Cheesman Park is an urban park
and neighborhood located in the City and County of Denver, Colorado
, United States
.
on the east, 13th Avenue on the north, and 8th Avenue on the south. The neighborhood's borders are approximately:
was converted to a park which opened in 1907, after city planners felt it would provide an amenity to new residents as land development moved east of the central city. The park was originally named for the US Congress
who gave permission to change the cemetery to a park and was renamed Cheesman Park in honor of Denver pioneer Walter Cheesman whose family donated the funds for the neoclassical
pavilion on the eastern side of the park in his honor shortly after his death.
The cemetery opened in 1858 and the first burial occurred the following year. In 1872, the U.S. Government determined that the property upon which the cemetery sat was actually federal land, having been deeded to the government in an 1860 by a treaty with the Arapaho
. The government then offered the land to the City of Denver who purchased it for $200. Although today it is still mostly remembered as Mt. Prospect Cemetery, in 1873 the cemetery’s name was changed to the Denver City Cemetery.
As time went on different areas of the cemetery were designated for different religions, ethnic groups and fraternal organizations such as Odd Fellows, Society of Masons, Roman Catholics, Jewish, the Grand Army of the Republic, and a segregated section at the south end for the Chinese. Some sections were well maintained by family descendants or their organizations, but others were terribly neglected. In 1875, 20 acres (80,937.2 m²) at the northeast part of the cemetery (slightly east of where the botanic gardens are now located) were sold to the Hebrew Burial Society, who then maintained it, while much of the rest of the graveyard fell further into disrepair. By the late 1880s the cemetery was rarely used and in great disrepair, becoming an eyesore in what had become one of the most exclusive parts of the quickly growing city. Real estate developers soon began to lobby for a park to be in its place, rather than an unused cemetery. Before long, Colorado Senator Henry Moore Teller
persuaded the U.S. Congress to allow the old graveyard to be converted to a park. On January 25, 1890, Congress authorized the city to vacate Mt. Prospect Cemetery and in recognition, Teller renamed the area Congress Park.
Families were given 90 days to remove the bodies of their loved ones to other locations. Those who could afford to began to transfer bodies to other cemeteries throughout the city and elsewhere. Due to the large number of graves in the Roman Catholic section off to the east, Mayor Joseph E. Bates sold the 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) area to the archdiocese, which was then named Mount Cavalry Cemetery. The Chinese section of the graveyard was given over to the large population of Chinese who lived in the "Hop Alley" district of Denver. Most of these bodies were then removed and shipped to their homeland of China.
Several years went by while the city waited for citizens to remove the remains of their families, but few did. Most of the people buried in the cemetery were vagrants, criminals, and paupers, which probably had a lot do to with why the majority of bodies, more than 5,000, remained unclaimed. In 1893 The City of Denver then awarded a contract to undertaker E.P. McGovern to remove the remains. McGovern was to provide a "fresh" coffin for each body and then transfer it to the Riverside Cemetery at a cost of $1.90 each. The macabre work began on March 14, 1893, while an assorted audience of curiosity-seekers and reporters came and went. For the first few days, the transfer was orderly. However, the unscrupulous McGovern soon found a way to make an even larger profit on the contract. Rather than utilizing full-size coffins for adults, he used child-sized caskets that were just one foot by 3½ feet long. One source claims this was done at least partially because of a coffin shortage caused by a mining accident in Utah. Hacking the bodies up, McGovern sometimes used as many as three bodies for just one casket. In their haste, body parts and bones were literally strewn everywhere in disorganized mess. Their haste also allowed souvenir hunters and onlookers to help themselves to items from the caskets.
The Denver Republican newspaper ran a story breaking the news, its March 19, 1893 headline read: "The Work of Ghouls!" The article described, in detail, McGovern’s practice of hacking up what were sometimes intact remains of the dead and stuffing them into children's-size coffins. The article partly described the scene:
Mayor Rogers canceled the contract and the city Health Commissioner began an investigation. Although numerous graves had not yet been reached and others sat exposed, a new contract for moving the bodies was never awarded.
The city built a temporary wooden fence around the cemetery and in 1894, grading and leveling began in preparation for the park, though several of the open graves wouldn’t be filled in until 1902. Finally shrubs were planted and the holes filled in where coffins were removed. Work was completed in 1907, without ever having moved the rest of the bodies.
Denver's landscape architect
, German-born Reinhard Schuetze, did the initial designs for the park with its meandering carriage-ways that join in a figure-8, the pavilion and reflecting pool and the verdant central meadows outlined in groves of trees. Schuetze died in 1910 before the park was completed, but his predecessor S.R. DeBoer
finished the park with much of Schuetze's plan intact. The central connection street of the figure-8 was later removed and grass planted in its place. High Street also originally ran through the park, passing just east of the marble pavilion, but was eventually removed, with grass and trees taking its place.
The area at the south edge of the park, near the intersection of 8th and Williams Streets, once used as the Chinese cemetery was used as the city tree and shrub nursery until 1930 when a WPA
project converted it to an addition for the park. The Catholic Church moved most of the remains of those buried in the Mount Calvary Cemetery and sold the land back to the city in 1950. This city-block-sized park is now Cheesman Esplanade, often called "Little Cheesman Park" by the area's residents.
In November 2008, during initial construction of a new parking structure for the Denver Botanic Gardens between York and Josephine Streets, human bones and parts of coffins were unearthed. Construction is currently halted and all bones found so far have been cataloged and sent to Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge
.
Cheesman Park is considered a gathering spot among the gay
community in Denver. Notable LGBT
-related events that take place at the park include the annual PrideFest
parade, which typically takes place during June and travels from Cheesman Park to Civic Center Park
near downtown. Also, the AIDS Walk
Colorado takes place in and around the park annually, usually during September.
buildings.
The neighborhood of Cheesman Park is bordered north-south by Colfax and 8th Avenues, and east-west by Downing and Josephine Streets. The Cheesman Park neighborhood is often considered part of Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood (to the west), as the northern residential area of Cheesman Park was part of the "Capitol Hill" subdivision of the city on February 14, 1882, and the southern residential area was part of the "South Division of Capitol Hill" subdivision of August 26, 1882. At the time, this "fashionable residential district" was occupied by the city's "business and professional class."
The neighborhood has a population density of more than 12,000 people per square mile, far exceeding Denver's average density of 3,600 people per square mile, due the many high-rise and mid-rise apartments and condominiums surrounding the park. However, the neighborhood contains not only modern, dense residential units; it also contains three of Denver's residential historic districts: Wyman’s, Morgan’s Addition, and Humboldt Island. These historic districts now preserve homes of a wide variety of architectural styles, from the late 19th century through the early 20th century.
The neighborhood is a predominantly white
, and middle class
with a median household income of $42,477 in 2008, and a higher average level of educational attainment than the city as a whole. The neighborhood has more single/unmarried people than Denver's average (only 13.2% married, compared to 34.7% for the entire city), with only 2.6% having children, compare to 15.0% for the city), and it consequently has a consequently smaller average household size.
There are more renters than homeowners in the neighborhood; the area's apartments are a mix of newer and older apartment buildings, and conversions of older mansions into apartments. Only about a quarter of the neighborhood's residents live in owner-occupied units, and the average detached single family home value was $791,976 in 2008, more than double the city's average of $341,104.
Cheesman Park has a fairly urban character with its density and closeness to the central part of the city. The neighborhood's crime
rates are close to the city's averages. It contains several areas of commercial activity particularly north of park between 13th and Colfax avenues, and is also home to the 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) Denver Botanical Gardens.
said in a 1980 interview said he based many elements from The Changeling
on experiences from his first months in Denver in 1968, while living in a large house at 1739 East 13th Avenue on the northern edge of Cheesman Park. The house was razed in the 1970s and a condominium building now stands on the site. The house the film centers on is called the Chessman House, a nod to the park's name.
Urban park
An urban park, is also known as a municipal park or a public park, public open space or municipal gardens , is a park in cities and other incorporated places to offer recreation and green space to residents of, and visitors to, the municipality...
and neighborhood located in the City and County of Denver, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Geography
Cheesman Park is located in central Denver, southeast of downtown. The Park has inexact borders, as it is framed on 3 sides by private residences, but is located in center of the Cheesman Park neighborhood, between Humboldt Street on the west, Race Street and Denver Botanic GardensDenver Botanic Gardens
The Denver Botanic Gardens is a public botanical garden located in Denver, Colorado in the Cheesman Park neighborhood. The park contains a conservatory, a variety of theme gardens and a sunken amphitheater, which hosts various concerts in the summer...
on the east, 13th Avenue on the north, and 8th Avenue on the south. The neighborhood's borders are approximately:
- West: Downing Street
- East: York Street
- North: Colfax AvenueColfax AvenueColfax Avenue is the main street that runs east–west through the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the local street system, it lies 15 blocks north of the zero...
- South: 6th-8th Avenue, depending on the source
Early park history
In the late 19th century, the land that is now Cheesman Park was Prospect Hill Cemetery, which also included the land that is now the Denver Botanical Garden and Congress Park further east. The long-disused cemeteryCemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
was converted to a park which opened in 1907, after city planners felt it would provide an amenity to new residents as land development moved east of the central city. The park was originally named for the US Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
who gave permission to change the cemetery to a park and was renamed Cheesman Park in honor of Denver pioneer Walter Cheesman whose family donated the funds for the neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
pavilion on the eastern side of the park in his honor shortly after his death.
The cemetery opened in 1858 and the first burial occurred the following year. In 1872, the U.S. Government determined that the property upon which the cemetery sat was actually federal land, having been deeded to the government in an 1860 by a treaty with the Arapaho
Arapaho
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
. The government then offered the land to the City of Denver who purchased it for $200. Although today it is still mostly remembered as Mt. Prospect Cemetery, in 1873 the cemetery’s name was changed to the Denver City Cemetery.
Henry Moore Teller
Henry Moore Teller was a U.S. politician. Secretary of the Interior between 1882 and 1885.-Biography:He served in the Senate and Cabinet for over thirty years, and was connected with the Free Silver question, beginning in 1880. During that time, he did much in and out of Congress with tongue and...
persuaded the U.S. Congress to allow the old graveyard to be converted to a park. On January 25, 1890, Congress authorized the city to vacate Mt. Prospect Cemetery and in recognition, Teller renamed the area Congress Park.
Families were given 90 days to remove the bodies of their loved ones to other locations. Those who could afford to began to transfer bodies to other cemeteries throughout the city and elsewhere. Due to the large number of graves in the Roman Catholic section off to the east, Mayor Joseph E. Bates sold the 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) area to the archdiocese, which was then named Mount Cavalry Cemetery. The Chinese section of the graveyard was given over to the large population of Chinese who lived in the "Hop Alley" district of Denver. Most of these bodies were then removed and shipped to their homeland of China.
Several years went by while the city waited for citizens to remove the remains of their families, but few did. Most of the people buried in the cemetery were vagrants, criminals, and paupers, which probably had a lot do to with why the majority of bodies, more than 5,000, remained unclaimed. In 1893 The City of Denver then awarded a contract to undertaker E.P. McGovern to remove the remains. McGovern was to provide a "fresh" coffin for each body and then transfer it to the Riverside Cemetery at a cost of $1.90 each. The macabre work began on March 14, 1893, while an assorted audience of curiosity-seekers and reporters came and went. For the first few days, the transfer was orderly. However, the unscrupulous McGovern soon found a way to make an even larger profit on the contract. Rather than utilizing full-size coffins for adults, he used child-sized caskets that were just one foot by 3½ feet long. One source claims this was done at least partially because of a coffin shortage caused by a mining accident in Utah. Hacking the bodies up, McGovern sometimes used as many as three bodies for just one casket. In their haste, body parts and bones were literally strewn everywhere in disorganized mess. Their haste also allowed souvenir hunters and onlookers to help themselves to items from the caskets.
The Denver Republican newspaper ran a story breaking the news, its March 19, 1893 headline read: "The Work of Ghouls!" The article described, in detail, McGovern’s practice of hacking up what were sometimes intact remains of the dead and stuffing them into children's-size coffins. The article partly described the scene:
"The line of desecrated graves at the southern boundary of the cemetery sickened and horrified everybody by the appearance they presented. Around their edges were piled broken coffins, rent and tattered shrouds and fragments of clothing that had been torn from the dead bodies...All were trampled into the ground by the footsteps of the gravediggers like rejected junk."
Mayor Rogers canceled the contract and the city Health Commissioner began an investigation. Although numerous graves had not yet been reached and others sat exposed, a new contract for moving the bodies was never awarded.
Park construction and changes
Denver's landscape architect
Landscape architecture
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor and public spaces to achieve environmental, socio-behavioral, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic investigation of existing social, ecological, and geological conditions and processes in the landscape, and the design of interventions...
, German-born Reinhard Schuetze, did the initial designs for the park with its meandering carriage-ways that join in a figure-8, the pavilion and reflecting pool and the verdant central meadows outlined in groves of trees. Schuetze died in 1910 before the park was completed, but his predecessor S.R. DeBoer
Saco Rienk DeBoer
Saco Rienk DeBoer , was a landscape architect and civic planner. He was the official Landscape Architect of Denver from 1910 to 1931. He also designed the planned community of Boulder City, Nevada. In 1919, he joined with another Dutchman, M. Walter Pesman to form a partnership...
finished the park with much of Schuetze's plan intact. The central connection street of the figure-8 was later removed and grass planted in its place. High Street also originally ran through the park, passing just east of the marble pavilion, but was eventually removed, with grass and trees taking its place.
The area at the south edge of the park, near the intersection of 8th and Williams Streets, once used as the Chinese cemetery was used as the city tree and shrub nursery until 1930 when a WPA
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
project converted it to an addition for the park. The Catholic Church moved most of the remains of those buried in the Mount Calvary Cemetery and sold the land back to the city in 1950. This city-block-sized park is now Cheesman Esplanade, often called "Little Cheesman Park" by the area's residents.
In November 2008, during initial construction of a new parking structure for the Denver Botanic Gardens between York and Josephine Streets, human bones and parts of coffins were unearthed. Construction is currently halted and all bones found so far have been cataloged and sent to Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge
Wheat Ridge, Colorado
The City of Wheat Ridge is a Home Rule Municipality located in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Wheat Ridge is a western suburb of Denver. The Wheat Ridge Municipal Center is approximately west-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver...
.
Cheesman Park is considered a gathering spot among the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
community in Denver. Notable LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-related events that take place at the park include the annual PrideFest
PrideFest (Denver)
PrideFest is an annual Gay pride event held each June in Denver, Colorado. PrideFest honors the culture and heritage of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in the State of Colorado. The annual event draws an estimated 200,000 spectators to downtown Denver and is presented by the...
parade, which typically takes place during June and travels from Cheesman Park to Civic Center Park
Civic Center, Denver
Civic Center is a neighborhood and park in Denver, Colorado. The area is known as the center of the civic life in the city, with numerous institutions of arts, government, and culture as well as numerous festivals, parades, and protests throughout the year...
near downtown. Also, the AIDS Walk
AIDS Walk
AIDS Walk is a walkathon fundraiser that raises money to combat the AIDS epidemic. The funds raised from AIDS Walks usually benefit a local AIDS service organization , which provide services and advocacy for local community residents who are infected with HIV...
Colorado takes place in and around the park annually, usually during September.
The Cheesman Park Neighborhood
The Cheesman Park neighborhood is one of the oldest in Denver, with city plats dating to as far back as 1868 and was annexed by the City of Denver in 1883, though development was slow at first. By 1915, with the completion of the park, the neighborhood was mostly developed with large mansions for some of the city's wealthiest people. Since the 1930s however, the neighborhood has become denser with a plethora of apartmentApartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
buildings.
The neighborhood has a population density of more than 12,000 people per square mile, far exceeding Denver's average density of 3,600 people per square mile, due the many high-rise and mid-rise apartments and condominiums surrounding the park. However, the neighborhood contains not only modern, dense residential units; it also contains three of Denver's residential historic districts: Wyman’s, Morgan’s Addition, and Humboldt Island. These historic districts now preserve homes of a wide variety of architectural styles, from the late 19th century through the early 20th century.
The neighborhood is a predominantly white
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
, and middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
with a median household income of $42,477 in 2008, and a higher average level of educational attainment than the city as a whole. The neighborhood has more single/unmarried people than Denver's average (only 13.2% married, compared to 34.7% for the entire city), with only 2.6% having children, compare to 15.0% for the city), and it consequently has a consequently smaller average household size.
There are more renters than homeowners in the neighborhood; the area's apartments are a mix of newer and older apartment buildings, and conversions of older mansions into apartments. Only about a quarter of the neighborhood's residents live in owner-occupied units, and the average detached single family home value was $791,976 in 2008, more than double the city's average of $341,104.
Cheesman Park has a fairly urban character with its density and closeness to the central part of the city. The neighborhood's crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
rates are close to the city's averages. It contains several areas of commercial activity particularly north of park between 13th and Colfax avenues, and is also home to the 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) Denver Botanical Gardens.
Film inspiration
Writer and playwright Russell HunterRussell Hunter (playwright)
Russell Ellis Hunter was a writer, playwright, and composer based in Denver, Colorado. He was best known for writing the story for the movie The Changeling.-External links:...
said in a 1980 interview said he based many elements from The Changeling
The Changeling (film)
The Changeling is a 1980 horror film directed by Peter Medak and starring George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere . The story is based upon events that writer Russell Hunter said he experienced while he was living in the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion of Denver, Colorado.-Plot:Scott stars as Dr...
on experiences from his first months in Denver in 1968, while living in a large house at 1739 East 13th Avenue on the northern edge of Cheesman Park. The house was razed in the 1970s and a condominium building now stands on the site. The house the film centers on is called the Chessman House, a nod to the park's name.