The head of Historic Denver blasted the Colorado Department of Transportation for demolishing five historic buildings at Denver’s Burnham Yard site without reaching out to the public, as did local community advocates.
“The Neighborhood Association had no warning that these historic buildings were going to be torn down,” said David Riggs, the head of the La Alma-Lincoln Park neighborhood association, in a statement. “The demolition of these historic buildings shows enormous disrespect for the history of our neighborhood.”
The five buildings, constructed in the first decades of the 1900s, included:
- The Women’s Locker Room, built for women who were taking over jobs traditionally held by men during World War II
- The Roundhouse Foreman’s Office, the oldest shop building on the site
- The Steel Car Shop, where the railroad’s steel rail cars were built and serviced during the transition from wood to steel cars
- And a testing laboratory for fuel oils and lubrication.
The Colorado Transportation Investment Office has been preparing to sell the land for years, according to a spokesperson. Currently, the office is working on cleaning up the site and navigating the historical preservation process. The buildings demolished in recent weeks had not been marked for preservation by state officials, according to CDOT.
“None of the buildings found to be historically eligible by the State Historic Preservation Office are a part of this cleanup effort, and we are committed to working through the historic eligibility process for those structures,” said a spokesperson for the transportation investment office. “The historic easements will remain on those structures after the sale of the property.”
City officials have acknowledged Burnham Yard is under consideration for a future Broncos stadium. Companies tied to the team have been purchasing buildings in the area, BusinessDen reported. And voters will likely be asked to approve about $140 million in debt from the Vibrant Denver bond to rework bridges in the area.
“Demolishing such historically significant buildings without engagement with local communities, Historic Denver, or the City and County of Denver is deeply immoral,” said John Deffenbaugh, the head of Historic Denver, in a statement. “The narrative that we can have either older buildings or new development is a false choice.”
Deffenbaugh said the opportunity to integrate the buildings “into a future development or stadium district has been erased, as has the story they once told.”
Riggs said many neighbors in La Alma-Lincoln Park had relatives who worked at Burnham Yard and that the destruction of the buildings is an insult to them and to the state’s railroad history.
CDOT has acknowledged the historic nature of the buildings in previous planning documents.
