Insider Tours: Colfax History

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Registration opens to Members Friday August 16 at 4pm MT. Registration opens to General Public Friday August 30 at 4pm MT.

Join Denver Architecture Foundation, Historic Denver, and Jonny Barber for tours highlighting the history of Colfax Avenue – the people’s street! There are 2 unique versions of this tour:

Friday @ 11am and 3pm, Saturday @ 11am with Historic Denver (75 minutes)

About the tour: Join Historic Denver for a stroll down Colfax and an engaging exploration of its past and present. We’ll discuss the evolution of Colfax from a boundary line, to the longest street in America, to mainstreet, all the while remaining a storied avenue that attracted all types.

About the tour guide: Alison Salutz is the Director of Education for Historic Denver. In this role she oversees programs throughout the organization, including the walking tours. Salutz has been with the organization since 2017, and loves unpacking the stories of Denver’s past, and connecting it to the present day. In particular, Colfax is one of her favorite Denver streets, and she loves telling its stories.

Saturday @ 3pm with Jonny Barber (2 hours)

About the tour: Rock-and-roller and Renaissance Man Jonny Barber, founder and webmaster of ColfaxAvenue.org, has dedicated a great deal of his life to living around, enjoying, and serving the unique people and culture on Colorado’s World Famous Colfax Avenue. He also launched the Colfax Avenue Museum in 2017 as a tribute to his favorite street.

About Colfax Ave: Colfax Avenue is the longest commercial street in the United States, and is known as Colorado’s Gateway to the Rockies. This colorful thoroughfare is 26.5 miles in length. It’s actually part of the 2,285-mile-long U.S. Route 40, or the Main Street of America. and it hosts many Colorado icons along the lengthy commercial road that passes through Aurora, Denver, Lakewood, and Golden. Before being named after Schuler Colfax, Vice-presdient to President Ulysses S. Grant, this avenue was dubbed “The Golden Road” because of its crucial role transporting goods from Denver to the mountains during the Gold Rush. Quickly, as the city of Denver gained population, the street became populated with saloons and brothels. After the completion of Interstate-70, tourism along Colfax declined, causing decreased revenue from the businesses that formerly depended on the high tourist traffic that came down Colfax. Since those days, Colfax has worked to regain traffic by encouraging fresh small businesses to join the community alongside longtime Denver establishments. Now, Colfax has a much larger variety of businesses, including some of Denver’s favorite restaurants, bars, and music venues. 

Accessibility: This tour requires walking on sidewalks along and off of Colfax Ave, which can at times be uneven.

Photo courtesy of Denver Public Library.