Tomorrow’s celebration of the 50th birthday of Denver’s Petroleum Club Building will be done in style, with a live band, a huge birthday cake, a vintage car show and the opening of the structure’s 1957 time capsule at 4 p.m.
The public is invited, said Tim Borst, one of the building’s co-owners.
Cleveland Place at Broadway will be closed all day as the city — and more specifically retired oilmen, their children and grandchildren, and former and current tenants of the building — celebrate.
Borst said that several individuals with fond memories of the club are traveling great distances to attend.
“We have people coming from all over the country because the time capsule opening means something to them,” Borst said today. “One gentleman who grew up in Denver and was born in 1957 called me this week from Oregon.
“He told me his dad worked at the building and he would walk by the time capsule when he was a little boy and dream of what was inside. He promised himself that no matter where he was in the world, he would come back for the opening in 2007 when he turned 50 as well,” Borst said.
Borst said that the man is flying in from Oregon and is bringing his 80-year-old father to the event.
When it open in 1957, the Petroleum Club Building at 16th and Broadway was not only the tallest building in Denver, but is also housed the biggest oil man’s club in the world with 1,100 members.
It was a mid-century modernist high-rise with simple, austere lines designed by Denver architect Charles Strong.
The club, situated on the 12th and 13th floors, was described as a “thing of expensive magnificence, elegance and luxuriousness,” in The Denver Post at the time.
The oil and gas industry was booming in the Rocky Mountain region, and Denver was the regional oil capital.
Thirty-five oil and gas companies had offices in the 14-story building.
After the oil bust of the 1980s, the club fell on hard times and eventually closed its doors. Oil and gas companies moved out of the building, and city and state agencies moved in.
Borst and Lou DellaCava purchased the property in 2005 and are putting the finishing touches on a $4 million renovation.
“We wanted to respect the original, ’50s modernist architecture, while trying to freshen the building and welcome it into the the 21st Century,” DellaCava said. “Besides the obvious external facelift, which will be completed by the end of November, we have completely redesigned and renovated the interior spaces.”
Borst and DellaCava have attracted several major new tenants including the longtime law firm of Holme Roberts & Owen. Other new tenants include Tidewater Oil & Gas and Veracity Credit.
Kool 105 FM will broadcast the time capsule opening.
Borst said members of the public who attend will be able to enter to win prizes including free gasoline, and gift certificates from Petroleum Club merchants including Jimmy Johns Gourmet Sandwiches, Dazbog Coffee and Green Fine Salad Company.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
