Friday, August 02, 2013

Downtown Denver: Then and Now

Yesterday, I rode to Denver's downtown area, for a job interview.  I wasn't scheduled to be grilled till 3PM by Encana so I got there a couple of hours early so that I could wander about the area near their office and get some current pictures of a couple of Denver landmarks:  The Brown Palace Hotel and the Trinity Methodist Church.

The weather was a bit warm, in the low 90's as I rode into the downtown area, found a spot in an underground garage, and put away my riding gear.  It was much cooler without the riding gear but still, it was slight sweaty work walking around taking pictures.

 Brown Palace Hotel
Circa 1890-1900
Brown Palace Hotel
2013

 Trinity Methodist Church seen from vicinity of
Brown Palace Hotel, circa 1909
Trinity Methodist Church 2013
Though the Brown Palace Hotel remains, the Metropole is gone.

 Trinity Methodist Church circa 1910
 Trinity Methodist Church 1975
Trinity Methodist Church, 2013

 Trinity Methodist Church circa 1897
The view is now quite blocked by the hotel passageway.

Not a then and now, just a shot of the TIAA-CREF building
where I parked Valencia.

View of the Republic Plaza Building, 
this was where I had my interview.

The interview went OK, I don't think I did too badly anyways.  Regardless of the outcome, at least I got a chance to get the above pictures.  Due to traffic and crowds, I don't tend to ride into the downtown area a lot you see.  It had been a hot ride into the downtown area during lunch, it was a relatively cool 84°F during the ride home, the sun being blocked by heavy overcast skies helped a lot.

5 comments:

Lucky said...

Cool!

My knowledge of American History is a little lacking. I had no idea that Denver was such a major city even in the 1800's. Thought it was like Phoenix: a cow town until a few decades ago when it suddenly wasn't. Clearly, I was wrong. :)

RichardM said...

"it was a relatively cool 84°F..."

After the recent heat wave that seems to be all across the country, I guess that would be cool. Nice then and now pictures of Denver. Good luck on the job search. Maybe time to tell the boys to start working to support your riding habit....

;-)

redlegsrides said...

Lucky

Denver was the focal point for the West while the Gold Rushes developed...railroads made it that way...today its telecom links....thanks for reading this stuff.

RichardM, it was a bit over 95F on the way in to the downtown....hot.

Anonymous said...

I keep my fingers crossed that you score the job.

Thanks for the then and now pics. It's mighty interesting.

SonjaM said...

I keep my fingers crossed that you score the job.

Thanks for the then and now pics. It's mighty interesting.