COMMERCE CITY —The walls and display tables in Commerce City’s first history museum are freshly plastered with pictures and artifacts that represent only a small percentage of the objects the city’s Historical Society has gathered over the past several years.
“What we have to show in the building now is just a small, little taste of what we have in storage,” said June Younger, the historical society’s historian. “We could fill another several buildings up completely with pieces that aren’t out there.”
Members of the historical society said they spent five years trying to get the city to lease them a devoted museum space. In May, the sides reached a lease agreement to use the former Conter Community Center at 6505 E. 60th Ave. The center was renamed the Commerce City Heritage and Culture Center and designated as a museum space Sept. 19.
“It’s so great to finally have a space,” Younger said. “Commerce City for the longest time has had a bad reputation, but if people come and see our rich history, they’ll know that it’s a working-class community that will do anything to help each other out.”
The Commerce City Historical Society was formed in basements and church meeting rooms in 2009. Right away, charter members began amassing documents, pictures, yearbooks, building signs and displays from closed drug stores and businesses. They combed the sites of monumental demolitions like and the former to retrieve anything they could for the museum.
“When they demolished the old dog track, the city gave us three days to go in to try and save any memorabilia that we could find,” Younger said. “We had over 20 volunteers each day, and we saved the city thousands of dollars … for salvation efforts.”
She said her team recovered invaluable memorabilia like Rusty the Rabbit, the mechanical bunny that zipped ahead of the dogs during the races, the entrance gate turnstiles, and windows and mirrors that are etched with the greyhound dog emblem. There were enough recoveries at the park to fill the museum over and over.
So, around 2011, the city leased the historical society a mid-size, abandoned warehouse for its items.
Right now, the inaugural exhibition covers the first 100 years of the Derby community, as well as the history and demolition of Adams City High and various business and personality profiles, said Debra Bullock, the historical society’s treasurer.
“This was our dream, and we just kept pushing for it,” Bullock said. “Our hope now is to change exhibits out on regular, quarterly basis and make larger exhibits that focus on area history, community partners and businesses, and antiques.”
The approximately 1,200-square-foot building was used as a pseudo senior center as well as office space for some city officials before it became the museum. Funds from the in 2013 will help build new administrative space in the city, which freed up the old community center for museum space this year.
“City Council is excited to repurpose the former Conter Community Center, creating a new home for heritage and culture within our community,” said Commerce City Mayor Pro Tem Rene Bullock. “(We are) lucky to have two local non-profits — the cultural council and historical society — to help honor our past and highlight our future.”
And the historical society already has its sight set on future expansion. During the demolition of the old high school, representatives from the historical society made it known that they would like to lease the former theater building, which is approximately 10,000 square feet, for the museum.
“In the next five years, we want a larger space — the old Adams City theater and cafeteria have not been demolished in hopes of using them as a future museum space,” Bullock said. “There’s nothing in writing yet, and we need to fund the (estimated $3 million) renovation ourselves.”
Younger said: “But that’s just another hurdle for us to overcome to keep this growing.”
Commerce city heritage and culture center
Location: 6505 E. 60th Ave.
Hours: Saturdays only, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Weekday appointments available by call Debra Bullock at 303-946-3426
