Do you ever wonder what goes on behind closed doors?
Doors Open Denver, one of our town’s best free events, has more than 80 answers for you at government offices, private office suites, lofts, mansions and other buildings open the weekend of April 17-18. It’s tough to choose from this smorgasbord, but here are some top picks:
• Unless you are a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals federal judge, big-time criminal, or $400-an-hour attorney, you will have a very hard time getting into Denver’s grand old main post office, now reborn as the high-security Byron R. White Federal Courthouse, at 18th and Stout streets. DOD gives you a chance to poke around inside this lavish Colorado Yule Marble Greek Temple, complete with fabulous murals called “Agriculture” and “Mining” and a tribute to Pony Express Riders.
• One of Denver’s top-secret destinations is the basement of Union Station. The subterranean O-Gauge model train layout has been growing more extensive since model railroaders first went to work in 1937. Featuring some of Colorado’s most spectacular rail settings in miniature, this fantasy world is being preserved as part of the planned reincarnation of Union Station as RTD’s rail hub, complete with a reborn Welcome Arch.
• First ladies Jeannie Ritter and Frances Owens have both put their considerable charm, energy and talents into restoring the old Cheesman Mansion at 8th and Logan as the Colorado Governor’s Residence. Don’t miss the pink flamingos Jeannie has planted in the garden.
• Inside the Daniels & Fisher Tower, 1601 Arapahoe, Holly Kylberg has finished the final stages of a multi-year, $2 million restoration. During DOD, she will show you the clock room dramatically furnished as Denver’s most awesome party place.
• Behind the scenes at Baur’s Ristorante, 1512 Curtis St., longtime and legendary Denver restaurateur and raconteur Jimmy Lambatos has restored Denver’s oldest restaurant to its former glory and culinary distinction. This restaurant museum is an ode to the old Curtis Street Theatre district. Don’t forget to ask Jimmy about his friendship with Elvis Presley, whom he befriended with peanut butter, jelly and bacon sandwiches.
• This year, DOD is offering more than 30 expert guided walking tours. They are also free, but you have to register. Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher will introduce you to the Union Station area where his grandfather worked as a locomotive engineer.
DOD began with Sharon and Bill Elfenbein, two longtime Denver civic activists. Sharon recalled that she and her husband, then chair of the RTD board, were in Toronto for a mass transit meeting in 2003. “We discovered Doors Open Toronto, which had borrowed the idea from Paris, which launched the program in 1986. More than 40 cities in Europe and North America now host these open houses.”
Sharon, an architectural historian, figured that Denver also had many buildings to show off. She contacted the president of the Denver Architectural Foundation, Dennis Humphries. They then sold the idea to the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and Mayor John Hickenlooper, who helped provide staffing, publicity and marketing. “As city budgets shrank,” Dennis Humphries told me this week, “we at the DAF and our many DOD sponsors have shouldered an increasing amount of the fund-raising and work, but still appreciate the city’s support.”
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