Henry Johns never bit at the dozens of offers he got to sell his houses in Cherry Creek North, now an upscale neighborhood full of expensive condominiums.
Finally, people stopped trying to buy the homes – one of which Johns was reared in, on Monroe Street, and the other six blocks away on Cook Street, where he lived with his wife and children.
The two houses are among a handful of the neighborhood’s original homes still standing.
Johns, 84, died Aug. 3 after collapsing in the lobby of a bank near his home.
Only days before, he was riding his bike to his favorite haunts, such as Confluence Park.
He was an engineer who retired and said, “Now, I can write,” said his daughter Susie Fultz of Denver.
And write he did.
Johns wrote an annual newsletter about his neighborhood, once known as Harman.
He also wrote to the local daily newspapers about the loss of affordable homes in Harman, as well as writing poetry and limericks. Johns wrote a book, “Harman,” a history of the neighborhood.
The newsletter was a compilation of the daily journal he kept, newspaper stories, comics and his personal comments. He published it each January and mailed it to about 50 friends. Other people dropped by his house to get copies.
The 10 to 20 pages included tributes to people he admired and sometimes some of his poetry.
The newsletters provide an interesting amateur history of the times and specifically the Harman neighborhood and Denver, Fultz said.
Henry Johns’ fight to preserve his neighborhood started in the 1950s, when the original Cherry Creek Shopping Center was developed by the late architect Temple Buell.
Buell visited Johns to tell him of his plans, adding that Johns needed to spruce up his property, specifically the shed in the backyard.
Johns followed up on that suggestion, painting the shed bright green and the roof white. Buell never spoke to him again, Fultz said.
“Dad could be a bit of a stinker sometimes,” Fultz said.
Johns was born in Denver on Feb. 5, 1923.
He graduated from Cathedral High School and earned his civil-engineering degree at the University of Colorado at Denver.
He married Vera Gannon on Oct. 18, 1947.
As a civil engineer, he helped in the construction of dams in Colorado and surrounding states, said son Bill Johns of Denver.
The only time Henry Johns didn’t live in the neighborhood he loved was while he was in the Navy.
In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by his wife; another daughter, Celine Johnson of Colorado Springs; another son, Patrick Johns, who lives in Henry Johns’ boyhood home; and six grandchildren.
Henry Johns regularly visited the house where he was reared, calling it his “Southern Estate.”
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
