Denver, Colorado - Wazee Market

Veering off course of locating out of the way repositories containing genealogy information, I came across and old photo my cousin sent me years ago. It was a photograph of the Santa Fe Railroad Representatives who attended the opening of the Wazee Market in Denver on August 1, 1939, also known as the Denver Market and Produce Terminal Railroad. A wholesale produce terminal used by several railroads to deliver produce to the Denver area.

 

I did a little surfing for information on the Wazee Market and its history. In doing so, I found some very interesting websites and I want to share those with you who might be interested in historical buildings, railroads, and/or residential areas, etc.  where your ancestors might have lived or worked, but now due to progress, those neighborhood homes no longer exist.

 

I also thought it might be of value to someone to know the names of those Santa Fe RR Representatives who attended the opening of the Wazee Market on August 1, 1939. Here is the list of names (in order of their place in the photograph) along with the photograph.

 

Santa Fe Railroad Representatives

Attending the opening of the Wazee Market

Denver, CO August 1, 1939.

 

Top Row, Left to Right

R. M. Spahr, Denver

E. H. Dedrick, Denver

R. H. Forbes, Lubbock

H. A. Taylor, Chicago

H. E. Everheart, Galveston

G. L. Goin, San Francisco

J. J.  Grogan, Chicago

G. H. Nelson, Chicago

F. G. Gurley, Chicago

P.P. Hastings, Chicago

J. C. Burnett, Topeka

J. A. Gillies, Amarillo

J. R. Skillon, La Junta

E.     Kancher, Amarillo

J. E. Whitman, Dallas

 

 Middle Row, Left to Right

G. C. Lyman, Denver

G. W. Vetter, Wichita

R. T.  Anderson, Denver

P. E. Taylor, Topeka

E. A. Tusha, San Angelo

R. H. Doitiker, Ft. Worth

J. A. Fitzgerald, Kansas City

W. C. Hilton, Chicago

L. C. Krames, Stockton

H. T. Bornefeld, Houston

E. P. Dudley, Pueblo

F. A. Bell, Los Angeles

R. W. Hobart, Topeka

G. N. Offield, Salt Lake City

T. H. Murray, San Bernardino

Bottom Row, Left to Right

M. L. Lylos, Chicago

C. L. Davis, Joplin

J. A. Dana, Denver

T. E. Dohoney, New York City

G. W. Smith, Oklahoma City

F. W. Myers, Denver

E. L. Boardsley, Amarillo

R. J. Lehman, Chicago

Homer W. Davis, Chicago

Sam Fabrizio, La Junta

Chas. Railsback, La Junta

L. V. Gardiner, El Paso

J. W. Bunco, Denver

Brief history of the Wazee Market, Denver Colorado

A great website full of information for architecture, Denver history and the evolution of the railroads on Wazee Street.

http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/co/co0100/co0121/data/co0121.pdf

 

“Historic American Buildings Survey”

Prepared by the National Parks Service

 

Excerpt from Document

 

“From the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the first quarter of the twentieth, West Wazee Street served as Denver's principal wholesale and warehouse district. The development of the Wazee Warehouse District was made possible by the area's location which afforded both street frontage along Wazee Street and convenient railroad access immediately to the northwest. In addition, Union Station, the Denver and Rio Grande freight depot and other freight depots were located in the area so that limited freight handling was necessary. Inter-city access was provided by the 14th Street Viaduct whose southern terminus was linked to Wazee Street.

 

The nine buildings which survive in the 1100 - 1300 blocks of Wazee Street form an intact row of structures representing the history of the area as a warehouse center. These buildings are distinguished by similarities in scale, size, design and materials. The architectural and historical significance of the Wazee buildings was recognized in June, 1983, when the West Wazee Street Warehouse District was determined eligible for inclusion In the National Register of Historic Places.”

 

 Another good source for reference and reading. It is currently on Google Books.

 

“Denver: an archaeological history”

By Sarah M. Nelson

 

Excerpt from book

 

“The early 1900s marked a period of railroad consolidation in the Platte Valley during which the principal lines came under the control of the Denver and Rio Grande and the Colorado and Southern Railroads.  These two companies subsequently expanded their railroad facilities. The railroad expansion encouraged further industrial development in the area.  Wazee Street became a solid warehouse district early in the twentieth century, and additional warehouses went up west of the 14^th Street viaduct, replacing the stone yards originally located there. Several of the latter buildings were connected to additions located under the viaduct, evidently built after its completion in 1898. 

The streets south of Wazee were characterized by similar warehouse and manufacturing expansion on a smaller scale. The residential elements in this increasingly industrialized area were gradually pushed further west.  By the 1940s, factories and warehouses had displaced virtually all the earlier residences east of 11^th Street.  In 1944 the 1300 blocks of Wazee and Blake were demolished to accommodate expansion of the Wazee Market, a wholesale produce market that eventually extended from 9^th to 13^th Streets between Wazee and Walnut.  In the early 1970s, many of the remaining historic buildings in the area were demolished to allow the construction of the Auraria Higher Education Center.”

I hope you enjoy this historical information as much as I did researching it.

You never know where the next link to your ancestor will be found.  Anyone have a relative listed among these Santa Fe Representatives? At least now, you know exactly where they were and who they worked for on August 1, 1939.