Recap: An Evening at the Charles Deaton-designed Community Banks of Colorado Building

On Wednesday, April 18, 2018, we presented our new Modernism Series in partnership with Denver Modernism Week and sponsored by Adrian Kinney, Denver’s Mid-Century Modern Expert. The first event in the series was An Evening at the Charles Deaton-designed Community Banks of Colorado Building, 3501 S. Broadway in Englewood, and ran from 5:30 to 8:00 PM.

Throughout the evening we learned about and celebrated the historic bank, originally the Key Savings and Loan Association. Attendees toured the local modernist gem, built in 1967, and enjoyed a lecture by Erika Warzel, the State Preservation Planning Manager for History Colorado. An exhibit and video on the bank, on loan from the Museum of Outdoor Arts, was on view. The evening also included food and wine.

About the site: Englewood’s 1967 Key Savings and Loan Association building (now owned by Community Banks of Colorado) was designed by the Colorado architect and engineer Charles Deaton. The building’s modernist design signals a wider shift in bank design during the post-World War II era, when the previously conservative American banking industry transformed into a customer-oriented service industry. It is an excellent example of post-war Sculptural Expressionist design in Colorado. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

About the speaker: Erika Warzel is the State Preservation Planning Manager for History Colorado, overseeing the National and State Register, Centennial Farms and Roadside Marker programs for the State of Colorado. Prior to her joining History Colorado in 2008, Erika served as Director of Preservation Programs at Historic Denver, Inc., helping historic sacred places undertake preservation projects and running the organization’s easement program. Erika holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College.

Image courtesy of Atom Stevens.