Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Peace on Earth in Civic Center Park

Genuine original vintage POSTCARD circa 1920 Denver, Colorado, features Civic Center Park with natural snow & Christmas tree, Santa Claus & reindeer atop archway, "Peace on Earth" among other holiday decorations. Further in background is E.J. Johnson auto dealer. Some signage on dealership includes: "Bargains in rebuilt cars", Willys, Chalmers, Wills Sainte Claire etc.  There was an E.J. Johnson used car dealership at 633 Van Ness Avenue in Fresno, California as early as 1937, possibly the same auto dealer, but a new location? 

From Wikipedia: 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. The park is home to many fountains, statues, and formal gardens, and includes a Greek amphitheater, a war memorial, and the Voorhies Memorial Seal Pond. It is well known for its symmetrical Neoclassical design.

Civic Center is located in central Denver just south of the Central Business District. The park is located at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway, perhaps the best-known and most important streets in Denver. The park borders are defined as Bannock Street on the west, Lincoln Street on the east, Colfax Avenue on the north, and 14th Avenue on the south. The institutions surrounding the civic center are generally thought of as part of the Civic Center area, and future plans for the civic center would extend the area further west all the way to Speer Boulevard. Civic Center is also a neighborhood defined by the Denver city government, but is probably identified in the minds of Denverites as the "Golden Triangle." The borders of this neighborhood are Speer Boulevard on the west and south, Broadway on the east, and Colfax Avenue on the north.

Civic Center was an idea that originated with former Denver mayor Robert W. Speer. In 1904, Speer proposed a series of civic improvements based on the City Beautiful Ideas shown to him at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Speer hired Charles Mulford Robinson among others to develop plans for the area. Robinson proposed extending 16th Street to the Colorado State Capitol and to group other municipal buildings around a central park area. However, the plan was defeated in a 1907 election. Undaunted, Speer gathered business leaders who brought in new ideas for the Civic Center including the creation of an east-west axial between the Colorado State Capitol, and swinging the north and south borders of the park into the city grid system. These plans were stalled when in 1912, Speer was replaced as mayor. The new mayor brought in Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. who was developing plans for Denver's mountain parks. His ideas include an informal grove of trees on the eastern edge of the park, and a lighted concert area.

When Speer was reelected in 1916, he re-pursued his ideas about the Civic Center, hiring Chicago planner and architect Edward H. Bennett, a protégé of Daniel Burnham. Bennett combined the ideas of all of the previous plans, adding the Greek amphitheater, theColonnade, the seal pond, and the realignment of Colfax Avenue and 14th Ave., around the park. The park officially opened in 1919. Civic Center has long been the government, arts, history, and learning nexus of both the state of Colorado and the Denver Metropolitan Area. Among the institutions in the Civic Center areDenver Art Museum, and the Denver Public Library's Central Library along the parks south side, the Colorado State Capitoland the City and County Building of Denver along the east and west axis of the park, the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building on the park's north side, and the Colorado History Museum and the Colorado State Judicial Building towards the southeast of the park. The Denver Mint lies immediately west of the Civic Center Park across the street from the City and County Building.

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