Five Points is named for the five-way intersection of 27th Avenue, Washington Street, 26th Street, and Welton Street, the main street of Denver's early twentieth-century African American neighborhood. Following a pattern typical of other cities, the area's population was initially white, with many German and Jewish residents. Not until the 1920s was Denver's small and previously scattered black community forced by restrictive housing covenants into Five Points. Italian-ate houses built in the 1880s, when this was part of the elegant Curtis Park streetcar suburb, linger behind some of the storefronts.
The Rossonian Hotel, formerly the Baxter Hotel ( DV031.1; 1911, George Bettcher), 2650 Welton Street, is a restored brick edifice, once home to Denver's premier jazz club. The Ex-Servicemen's Club and Casino Ball Room ( DV031.2), 2633–2639 Welton Street, is a two-story brick complex housing the city's first major African American–owned hotel. During the jazz age, this turn-of-the-century commercial building was updated with an Art Deco ballroom. La Paz Pool Hall, formerly Douglass Undertaking Company ( DV031.3; 1891; 1916 remodeling, Merrill H. and Burnham F. Hoyt), 2745 Welton Street, is a reminder that Neoclassicism was more than an elitist style for grand public buildings. The single-story, three-bay storefront of flat brick features an urn recessed in the tympanum of the pedimented and pilastered facade. The original business supposedly was founded by a son of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. A typical Italian-ate house at 3091 California Street, once the home of African American physician Justina L. Ford, is now the Black American West Museum ( DV031.4; 1890; 1991 restoration, C. W. Fentress, J. H. Bradburn and Associates).