The 1400 block of Denver’s Larimer Street today serves as a haven for shoppers and a sanctuary for food-lovers, a beacon drawing in tourists and locals alike. It’s the city’s prized social hub and a historical treasure.
By the end of the year, Larimer Square will welcome at least five new concepts to the block — including a custom bakery, an experiential ice cream shop, and a “coffee saloon” — this on top of the five other concepts it gained earlier this fall.
Unfortunately, this surge of new offerings comes at the weighty price of COVID-19, as new tenants take advantage of lower rents and the spaces left vacant by now-shuttered concepts such as The Market and Euclid Hall.
However, this isn’t the first time the Square’s future has wavered in the face of catastrophe. The last century and a half has seen Larimer Square blossom from a tiny saloon town, rebound from the title of “Denver’s Skid Row”, and even come back from the brink of demolition. As this Denver destination struggles to recover from the devastation of this year’s pandemic, the community can appreciate more than ever its resilient history.
Many locals consider Larimer Square “the street where Denver began,” named by General William H. Larimer Jr. who founded Denver City in 1858 and constructed the city’s very first residence on Larimer Square.
In 1861, Denver was officially chartered and Larimer Street served as the city’s bustling main street for the next 30 years, until Colorado’s silver crash. From that point on, businesses on Larimer Street collapsed into a decline before it was eventually dubbed “Denver’s Skid Row”.
For the first half of the 20th century, Larimer Street was overrun with saloons and gambling houses, all of which were rumored to serve as the watering holes for corrupt city officials.
Following World War II, the city began plans for demolition.
Enter Dana Crawford, the founder of Larimer Square as we know it in 2020.
In 1965, Crawford began corralling investors. Buildings were refurbished and courtyards were created to become the social hub recognizable today.
When Crawford looks back on the ambitious endeavor, she notes that her vision was two-fold: save the buildings and celebrate the city.
“I think it’s appreciated as a destination in the city and as a participant in the national preservation movement,” Crawford said in an interview with the Denver Gazette.
“I was hoping that Denver would be able to have a sample of what its downtown had been like 100 or so years ago.”
Crawford explained that there was no public money put into the project, so she relied heavily on the loyalty of the investors and tenants she’d found, two of which were Stig and Astrid Gusterman.
The Gustermans came to Denver in the ’50s. They first launched their silversmith business in Georgetown before moving to Larimer Square at the beckoning of Crawford. Gusterman Silversmith was among the original lineup of tenants picked out by Crawford and is today the longest-standing business on the block.
Mary Eckels, the current owner of the shop, joined the Gustermans as an apprentice in 1970 and has had the chance to see Larimer Square change through the decades more closely than most others.
While business ebbs and flows, tenants come and go, one thing has always stayed the same, she says.
“The one thing that everyone has always been able to agree on is that it’s the people that make Larimer Square the magic that it is. It’s the shop owners and employees that have made it the success that it is.”
Though she has shopped other options every time her lease was up for renewal, she found herself coming back to the Square time and time again.
“I’ve never been able to find anything at any price that I felt was comparable to this,” Eckels says. “I haven’t been anywhere else that I’ve felt the sense of community that we have here.”
Chef and restaurateur Jennifer Jasinksi felt that same magnetic pull when she arrived in Denver in 2000.
“When I started looking to do a restaurant of my own, I looked here first,” she says. “The street was perfect.”
Jasinski opened her flagship restaurant, Rioja, in 2003. By 2010, she had two other concepts also located on the Square; Bistro Vendome and Euclid Hall — the latter of which was a casualty of the COVID-19 closures.
This year’s coronavirus pandemic was just another in a long history of obstacles facing Larimer Square.
Alongside Euclid Hall closing, Jasinski’s other businesses suffered as well. Rioja, she says, closed its doors for almost two months. She struggled to market her upscale cuisine in a to-go order arena.
“The impact of COVID is heavy and still happening,” Jasinski says.
“I’m scared for multiple reasons. There’s a lot of uncertainty. I, as the business owner, am scared for the business, but our four restaurants employ 200 people and it’s their livelihood.”
Similarly, Eckels had to close shop for five weeks, trying to navigate social distancing around her work just to make enough money to keep the doors open. Ultimately though, she still lost a number of employees.
However, Eckels believes the recent surge of new tenants is a promising turn of a corner for Larimer Square.
An uptick in local wares and vendors has been a trend for the block in the past several years, according to both Eckels and Jasinski. It’s now reflected in the several new businesses opening up this season.
The Farmers Market, which opened in October and is owned by Good Baby MGMT, is a modern homage to its predecessor The Market, featuring all local goods. Garage Sale, also under the Good Baby umbrella, is a collaborative vintage market featuring 20 local vendors.
Other independent neighbors that have entered the scene recently include Bao Brewhouse, an Asian cuisine concept and tearoom, and Buckley House of Flowers, a plant shop also offering artisan crafts and gifts.
Soon to come also is Drunken Bakery, serving eclectic pastries and custom cakes; Ghost Coffee Saloon, crafting classic cocktails and Queen City espresso drinks to the beats of live DJs; and Hidden Gems, an immersive art and ice cream experience inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” — just to name a few.
So the question at hand now is, can Larimer Square bounce back from another bout of bad luck?
“I think it will not only be what it was, but it will be better,” says an optimistic Eckels.
“The enthusiasm and the love that’s been felt by anyone who has ever done business on Larimer Square since the 1800s is still here. You feel it when you walk by the buildings. Some places you walk into in your life are electric, and Larimer Square is electric.”
