Denver’s Barnum neighborhood isn’t exactly an oasis of glitz.
Sitting on the city’s western edge, it is a patch of modest houses owned by the sort of working people who don’t get year-end bonuses.
Unless you live in the neighborhood, there’s little reason to enter it.
But it harbors a secret: Unassuming as it is today, the Barnum neighborhood was founded in the 1880s by America’s first great dream merchant, circus magnate and mega-promoter P.T. Barnum.
Top that, Cherry Creek North.
And South Hazel Court, which runs through the neighborhood from West Alameda Avenue until it dead-ends in a park? Its original name was Jumbo Avenue, after Barnum’s prized elephant.
Other streets were named for various circus performers or public figures that Barnum admired, such as Beecher and Holmes. The names were changed in 1897, after Denver annexed the neighborhood and gave it alphabet streets.
Barnum, who sold lots in his hilly “streetcar suburb” for as cheap as $15, touted Colorado’s climate, claiming it could bring the sick back from death’s door.
Today a new set of dreamers populate the neighborhood. Many are immigrants from Mexico. Shops include joyerias and carnicerias.
Luis Rodriguez moved to the neighborhood in 2001 from Jalisco, Mexico.
“It was just a dream of mine, really,” he said. “My dad had worked here in the 1960s, then came home. But he never stopped talking about Denver. I remember he couldn’t get over the snow.”
Rodriguez didn’t know about Barnum but was intrigued that the man ran a circus. “Pretty cool,” he said.
The neighborhood sits in a roughly square-mile pocket bordered by Federal Boulevard, Perry Street and West Alameda and Sixth avenues.
Barnum’s name abounds.
At the Ross-Barnum Library on West First Avenue, Dominic Zamora curled up with a newspaper. He sat beside a shelf packed with Spanish-English dictionaries and instructional audiotapes for Spanish speakers learning English.
“I grew up in this neighborhood,” he said. “I went to Barnum Elementary, played hoops in Barnum Park growing up and swam at the Barnum rec center.
“It’s a friendly place, and you can get around easy.”
Charlie Dismang was delivering mail on Hazel Court, keeping an eye on a fat, barking dog in the next yard.
Did Dismang know the street he stood on was once named after the world’s most famous elephant?
“I had no idea,” he said. “Though I knew this is where Barnum used to keep his circus in winter. And I’ve been told there’s a house over on Hooker Street where they used to keep the elephants.”
Michael Garcia has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years. He is trained in body-and-fender repair and is looking for work. So far, no luck.
“I’m trying to land a job, but it’s hard,” he said. “I’m just trying to catch a break.”
Garcia has thought about moving, but he remains. “It’s a pretty sweet neighborhood,” he said. “It’s home.”
Barnum was a huckster of the first order. But as a man who spent the bulk of his life on the road, he would have appreciated the sentiment.
William Porter’s column appears twice a week. Reach him at 303-954-1977 or wporter@denverpost.com.
