“I am Denver City,” William Larimer wrote to his family after founding the town on November 22, 1858, by jumping the claim of another town company. A tour of Larimer Street provides a quick profile of Denver's growth, from tiny, century-old cottages to modern high rises. Upper Larimer Street still has quaint one- and two-story masonry buildings. Sacred Heart Church ( DV053.1; 1879, Emmett Anthony), 2760 Larimer (NR), uses Carpenter's Gothic wood-work to enhance the brick exterior of a traditional cruciform church with the steeple above the Larimer Street entrance. Now painted and with the octagonal masonry tower replaced by a diminutive wooden steeple, it is Denver's oldest church building still regularly used for religious services.
The two-story Italianate El Bronco Bar ( DV053.2; 1879), formerly Christopher Columbus Hall, an ethnic saloon where Italians gathered, at 2219 Larimer, is the oldest saloon in Denver still operating in its original location. La Casa de Manuel restaurant ( DV053.3; 1889), 2010 Larimer, is a one-story building, stark on the exterior but rich inside with large-scale paintings by José Castillo, a Denver artist, depicting the settlement of the West from a Hispanic perspective.