Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Colfax Avenue

Colfax Avenue, the Longest, Wickedest Main Street in America, has a colorful and vibrant history that must be preserved. This site is a gift to the people of Colorado and the World for historical archival purposes. All content can be found through the links in the right hand column or use the search feature in the top left. If you use any content, please credit ColfaxAvenue.org.
 
Please visit the Colfax Avenue exhibit currently on display at History Colorado entitled Forty Years on the 'Fax!
 
Thanks for visiting!




Friday, March 29, 2024

Stan's Auto Sales

Stan's Auto Sales, 7500 East Colfax, Denver (undated photo courtesy of the Shorty Hanger collection and scanned by Todd Matuszewicz)

Also pictured is a sign for Bragdon's TV at 7540 East Colfax.

Thursday, March 28, 2024

West Vernon Hotel

 West Vernon Hotel-Sid King's Crazy Horse Bar

This two-part commercial block at 1201 East Colfax Avenue was built in 1905 on lots 21 and 22 of block 31 in the Park Avenue Addition for a cost of $21,000. The three-story Mediterranean Revival style building was designed by architect Edwin H. Moorman, whose other works included the Fillmore Auditorium, Park Hill Fire Station, and the iconic Tower of Jewels at Lakeside Amusement Park. The property was owned by John S. and Nellie Flower.  John, a prominent investor and president of the Real Estate Exchange, had purchased the parcels in 1900 from the Jefferson Investment Company.

In 1912, the Flowers sold the building to the Scherrer Land and Investment Company. Through the years, many different commercial businesses occupied the ground level of the building.  Perhaps most notably, Sid King’s Crazy Horse Bar occupied the building beginning in 1948.  King and his partner Joseph Goodman purchased the building from owner William Vasil in 1965.  Westword magazine credited the Crazy Horse as one of the anchoring post-World War II properties on East Colfax that turned the thoroughfare into the “gauntlet of dives, XXX theatres, hookers, (and) drug deals…” An iconic Denver burlesque club, it attracted notable locals, celebrities, and dignitaries alike, among them Elvis Presley, King Hussein of Jordan, and Clint Eastwood. The interior and exterior of 1201 E. Colfax was included in Eastwood's 1978 film “Every Which Way But Loose.” Outside his club, Sid King was a noted philanthropist.