Denver Neighborhoods

Auraria, Denver’s oldest neighborhood, predates the city’s establishment, and its history neatly encompasses the city’s founding, its development and its redevelopment as a modern urban center. As a contemporary Denver neighborhood, Auraria is synonymous with the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC), which opened in 1976, and home to the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver. The neighborhood forms a rough triangle, bounded on the south by Colfax Avenue, with the South Platte River to the west and Speer Boulevard to the east, roughly the line of Cherry Creek, converging at today’s Confluence Park.

Ballpark sits north of Lower Downtown and surrounds Coors Field. Its boundaries meander between 15th and 18th Streets on the southwest, the South Platte River on the north and west and Five Points to the east. The neighborhood is home to numerous brick buildings and historic warehouses.

Capitol Hill's boundaries include Broadway on the west, Colfax on the north, Downing on the east and 7th Avenue on the south. The neighborhood derives its name from the acceptance of Henry Brown’s donation of land for the construction site of Denver’s Capitol building.

Central Business District is home to many Denver icons including The Colorado Convention Center and Denver Performing Arts Center. The area is bordered by Speer Boulevard, Lawrence Street, 20th Street, North Broadway and Colfax Avenue.

The neighborhood is located near the geographic center of the City and County of Denver and is a mixture of dense urban development and tree lined residential streets. It is bounded by the Cherry Creek on the south, East 6th Avenue to the north, University Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard on the west and east, respectively. The neighborhood takes its name from the nearby Cherry Creek running along the south side of the neighborhood.

Downtown Denver encompasses parts of the Union Station, Central Business and Lower Downtown neighborhoods. Downtown Denver boasts a unique combination of rich history, an abundance of architectural gems and exciting new development.

Five Points is one of Denver's oldest neighborhoods. It is on the northeast side of downtown Denver's Central Business District with a small portion wrapping around Coors Field and encompassing the Union Station North neighborhood (formerly Prospect). It is where the downtown street grid meets the neighborhood street grid of the first Denver suburbs. The five points in the district name are the vertices formed where four streets meet: 26th Avenue, 27th Street, Washington Street and Welton Street. Five Points was the shortened name for the streetcar stop at this intersection.

The Downtown Denver Partnership and the Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association define the Golden Triangle as extending one block east to Lincoln Street, thereby incorporating almost all of Civic Center Park and the institutions surrounding them (with the exception of the Colorado State Capitol in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and a few buildings to the north of Colfax Avenue). The main arterial street through the Golden Triangle is Bannock Street. 13th, 14th and 8th avenues are important east-west arterials as well.

Highlands is a distinct city-center neighborhood in Denver, bounded by West 38th Avenue to the north, a Union Pacific Railroad line on the east, the South Platte River to the southeast, Speer Boulevard on the south and Federal Boulevard on the west. The misnomer Highlands is sometimes used to refer to two separate city-center neighborhoods in Denver, Highlands and West Highlands, although the two neighborhoods are distinct. Highlands and West Highlands are both in the area that is referred to as North Denver.

La Alma / Lincoln Park is a dynamic, mixed-use neighborhood at the heart of Denver. The neighborhood is bounded by West Colfax Avenue on the north, Speer Boulevard on the east, West 6th Avenue on the south and the South Platte River on the west.

Lower Downtown, known as “LoDo,” was created by the enactment of a March 1988 zoning ordinance that encouraged historic preservation and promoted economic and social vitality. The status provided protection to the community’s archivable resources and to the area’s 120 contributing historic structures.

Lowry is a neighborhood built following the closure of Lowry Air Force Base in 1994 as a new, master-planned neighborhood in the airfield’s former footprint. The east Denver neighborhood features a variety of home styles, parks, retail shops, businesses and schools. It is bounded by 11th Avenue to the north, Yosemite, Dayton and Fulton streets to the east, East Alameda Avenue to the south, and Quebec Street and Monaco Parkway to the west.

Montclair was originally developed as a small suburban community east of Denver. The land was purchased and developed by the Montclair Town and Improvement Company in 1885. One of its founders, Matthias P. Cochrane, originally came from Montclair, New Jersey and named the new community in its honor. The neighborhood boundaries are Colfax Avenue to the north, 6th Avenue to the south, Holly Street to the west and Quebec Street to the east.

The Overland neighborhood is located on the southern boundary of Denver. It is influenced by several major thoroughfares. The neighborhood is bounded on the north by Mississippi, on the south by Yale, on the west by the South Platte River and on the east by South Broadway. Existing residential land uses are located in three small enclaves separated by Evans and Santa Fe Drive and surrounded by either industrial, business or park uses.