Denver in 1876: Fifteen Windows Into the City at Statehood

These Denver 1876 photographs capture a city that had already found its footing well before Colorado received official recognition. Statehood arrived on Aug. 1, 1876, marking 150 years this month, but Denver had been building momentum for nearly two decades by then.

The settlement traces back to 1858 and the rush of prospectors drawn by gold near Pikes Peak. By the time the Centennial State joined the union, tens of thousands of residents had established themselves here, setting foundations that shaped everything the city later became. A handful of structures from that era have survived to the present day.

What follows is a tour through fifteen locations as they appeared then, paired with what stands there now.

A Sparse Cityscape

Early images from the 1870s show something closer to a large town than a metropolis. Dirt streets ran between scattered houses and a church, with wide gaps of open ground in between.

The population figures explain the emptiness. Denver counted just 4,759 residents in 1870. Within a decade that number surged past 35,000. Today the city holds 746,590 people, ranking as the 20th-largest in the country according to World Population Review.

That trajectory, from frontier outpost to major American city, happened faster than almost anyone photographing those dirt roads could have anticipated.

Union Depot and Its Successors

The original Denver Union Depot opened its doors in 1881. Its life was short. An electrical fire in 1894 destroyed the central hall along with the clock tower.

Reconstruction followed, but the replacement proved inadequate almost immediately as rail traffic climbed. A completely redesigned Denver Union Station opened in 1914, and that building received a major renovation in 2014. It remains in operation, one of the rare threads connecting the 1880s city to the present one.

The City Hall That Vanished

The old Denver City Hall occupied the corner of 14th and Larimer streets. Construction finished in 1883, and demolition crews took it down in 1936.

Almost nothing survives. The building’s bell still sits at 14th and Larimer as a marker of what once stood there, and it is the only remaining physical piece.

Government moved roughly a mile down 14th Street to Bannock Street, where the Denver City and County Building now serves that function.

Streetcars on Larimer

Photographs from between 1875 and 1885 show streetcars running along Larimer Street. Denver’s first line was installed in 1871, connecting Seventh and Larimer to 27th and Champa.

The technology evolved through three phases. Early cars were pulled by horses. Others ran on cable systems powered by coal. Electric streetcars arrived later.

The system’s final effective lines shut down by 1951. Modern residents depend on light rail and buses instead, though a small heritage line still operates along the Platte River, running from Confluence Park to stops at the Denver Aquarium and the Children’s Museum of Denver.

Beer, Then Students

Workers at the Union Brewing Company appear in photographs taken sometime between 1870 and 1900.

The company combined with Tivoli Brewery in 1901, creating the Tivoli-Union Brewery Company, which produced beer until the mid-1960s. A revival brought brewing back to the site from 2012 until 2023.

The building now serves an entirely different purpose as the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria Campus, shared by the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver.

Looking Down 17th Street

A late-century view down 17th Street from Wazee frames Denver Union Depot at the far end, with the Hendrie & Bolthoff Manufacturing Company occupying the right side of the frame.

That same corridor is now among the busiest social districts in the city, packed with restaurants, bars and cafes and positioned between 16th Street and Coors Field.

The Barth Building’s Long Career

The Barth Block went up at 17th and Blake in 1882, initially functioning as a warehouse before conversion into a hotel.

By 1980 it held the distinction of being Denver’s longest continuously operating hotel. The following year it became an assisted living facility. Operations ceased in January 2025, with redevelopment into senior housing planned.

16th and Arapahoe

An albumen stereoscopic image from between 1870 and 1890 looks northeast near 16th and Arapahoe, showing a secondhand store, a laundry and a shop advertised as a fancy store.

The Daniels & Fisher Tower now marks that intersection.

The Tabor Block

Standing at 16th and Larimer from 1879, the Tabor Block housed a mix of tenants including a jeweler, a drug store and an office handling insurance and loans.

Wrecking crews removed it in 1972. A Cheesecake Factory occupies the southeast corner today, which may be the sharpest before-and-after contrast on this list.

The Courthouse Mistaken for the Capitol

An early 1880s aerial perspective looking southwest captures the Arapahoe County Courthouse at Court Place and 16th Street on the right side of the frame.

The building is frequently misidentified in old photographs as the Colorado State Capitol, though it predates it. Construction ran from 1881 to 1883, and demolition came in 1933. The Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel now covers that block.

The actual State Capitol opened in 1894, half a mile away.

15th Street in 1870

Horse-drawn carriages fill a stretch of 15th Street in an 1870 image, with the Eastman & Bostwick Hats & Canes shop visible along the row.

Cars and electric scooters have replaced the horses, though the street still functions as a busy corridor.

Snow on the Rooftops

A rooftop vantage from between 1870 and 1890 shows homes buried under winter snow.

The measurements are interesting. Downtown Denver averaged 37.7 inches of snowfall annually during the 1880s. The 2020s average sits considerably higher at 51.6 inches.

One caveat matters for comparison. The National Weather Service relocated its measurement site from downtown to Denver Stapleton Airport in 1950, then to Denver International Airport in 2007, so the numbers reflect different locations rather than a single continuous record.

Holladay Street Becomes Market Street

Images from the 1870s show Holladay Street near 16th, featuring the Estabrook Livery and the original Denver Mint.

The name changed in the late 1880s at the insistence of descendants of Ben Holladay, the transportation magnate honored with the original 1866 naming. His family objected to the association after the street filled with gambling establishments and brothels.

Lawrence Street

A view north from 15th along Lawrence Street shows dirt roads, buggies, and the Joslin Dry Goods and Daniel & Fisher stores in the distance.

Office towers, parking structures and businesses including Front Porch bar and Ike’s Love & Sandwiches now line that stretch.

Longs Peak Above It All

A late 19th-century photograph frames Longs Peak rising behind the young city.

Of everything in this collection, that view has changed least. The buildings beneath it have risen, fallen and been replaced several times over, but the mountain still anchors the skyline exactly as it did when Colorado was brand new.