Don’t let the name Historic Denver fool you. Its members aren’t afraid to try something newlike having the VIP reception for its 40th-anniversary celebration in a barbershop.
Not just any clip joint, though. Al’s Barbershop in historic Larimer Square is considered one of the city’s best examples of urban preservation, and owner Al Urbanowski seemed delighted to play host for the cocktail party that got Historic Denver’s two-day bash off to a merry start.
Approximately 100 guests spent an hour or so there last Friday night, enjoying munchies and beverages from Baur’s Ristorante before proceeding to St. Cajetan’s Center on the Auraria campus. There, they joined about 200 others to savor food and entertainment offered in spaces decorated to reflect what was popular in the four decades since Historic Denver was started by the late Ann Love and others.
The next day’s activities, also on the Auraria campus, featured a street fair and the Karle Seydel Memorial Baseball Game.
At the VIP gathering, Historic Denver’s executive director, Annie Levinsky, and such trustees as Margy Anderson, Cynthia Stovall, Liz Walker, Tom Lorz, Mike Coughlin, Sarah Krause, Rosemary Stoffel and Katrina Benes mixed and mingled with a crowd that included Levinsky’s predecessor, Kathleen Brooker, who now heads Historic Seattle; former board president Julia Secor and Nancy Parker, who served 10 years on the Historic Denver board.
City auditor Dennis Gallagher and his buddy, historian Tom Noel, were there, too, along with City Council members Jeanne Robb and Carla Madison; Barbara and Dennis Baldwin; preservation architect Christie Murata; developer Charlie Woolley; Savannah Jameson, senior preservation planner for the the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission; Four Mile Park executive director Barb Gibson; retired Evergreen Specialty Co. owner Bob Rhodes and his wife, Sandy; Ann Pidgeon; Victoria Livingston; Jim Rhye; and facilities planner Dan Paulien.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and GetItWrite on Twitter
