Search Results for "bank"
1959 Denver ads
This is the first of a big batch of new Denver ad scans we are working on
here at The Eye. For this post, all scans are from 1959. (You may have
seen some of these here before, but now in better quality)
The Colorado Visitor’s Bureau. This building still stands in that traffic island
behind the Wellington Webb Building.
Lou Coffee’s in the Colorado Hotel on 17th (hotel now gone).
The Senate Lounge in the Argonaut Hotel, where jazz vocalist Effie The Blond Tigress
held court. The Argonaut is still there across the street from the state capitol, of course.
Click on this and you can compare the original Albany Hotel with the modern facade created
by Red Rocks Amphitheater architect Burnham Hoyt in 1936. (The Albany is gone now)
Ad for the Cosmopolitan Hotel, torn down in 1984, as can be seen here:
An ad for Empire Savings at 1654 California St, now a parking lot.
Ad for William Zeckendorf’s Webb & Knapp firm. These were both I. M. Pei & Associates projects. As the ad says, the Mile-High Complex on top, the Denver-Hilton on the left and the Court-House Complex bottom right. (Click ad to enlarge)
The Mile-High Center
Another ad of the Mile-High Center, this one showing the Matchless restaurant
in the barrel-roofed Transportion Center building.
A photo of the Denver United States National Bank (part of Mile-High Center)
that shows the United States map artwork on the side.
The modern expressionist drive-through addition to the Central Bank of Denver at 15th
and Arapahoe. Designed by Charles Deaton, most famous for the Sculptured House
of Gennessee (the flying saucer house). You can see the D&F Tower behind the older
bank building.
First Federal Savings & Loan. The building is still there at 38th & Lowell. I believe this
is William Muchow Architects.
National City Bank at 99 S. Broadway. The bank is still here, the footprint is about the
same, but it seems to have been altered quite a bit. Still a nice building.
First National Bank on 17th, Denver’s tallest building in 1959. Designed in 1958 by
Raymond Harry Ervin. Still there, though modified a bit. It still retains it’s ’50s charm.
The Sky Deck on top of the First National Bank (click to enlarge ad). Not open to the
public anymore, this would have been a beautiful rooftop vantage point of downtown Denver.
Jefferson County Bank at Colfax and Wadsworth in Lakewood. This modernist building
has been replaced.
The ‘fabulous’ Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. Do yourself a favor and
take your relatives here for an epic brunch sometime. (click to embiginate)
The Harvest House Hotel in Boulder at 28th & Arapahoe. Part of a larger project that included the Arapahoe Village Shopping Center and the Harvest Manor Apartments in back. Designed by Ralph Peterson in 1958, he also designed Denver’s incredible Usonian Calvary Temple.
A more accurate view of Boulder’s Harvest House
Great ad for Gates Rubber Company. Still a great big company, the ruins of
the old factory still reside at Broadway & I-25.
Ad for the Old Navarre, a bordello built in 1880.
(still there across the street from the Brown Palace, of course)
The Melody Lounge, ‘Denver’s Birdland’. Look at the lineup of top shelf jazz who played here in 1959: Cal Tjader, Johnny Smith, Terry Gibbs, Georgia Auld, Slam Stewart, Johnny Griffin, Phineas Newborn, Horace Silver, Conte Condoli, Art Pepper, Ben Webster, Charlie Ventura, Buddy DeFranco, Sonny Stitt, Herbie Mann and Anita O’Day! I think this is now the Alpine Motel, but I am not certain.
The Chez Paree burlesque club/clip joint. Dinner for $2.00! Hmm…
I thought this place was supposed to have burned down in the ’70s,
but there seems to be an old building still standing there today.
The Patio on S. Sante Fe. Notable not just for Buzzie serving cocktails, but you could see
the Billy Wilson Trio here before he opened his own place on W. Alameda, the Tally-Ho.
The Profile Room in the Stanley Plaza Hotel, a building standing today in all it’s original glory.
Furr’s Supermarkets, a Texas company that spread to Colorado. Some of the former Furr’s buildings in this ad still survive like the building at 38th & Harlan and the huge thrift store at Sheridan and Jewell. Furr Food!
Taylor’s Supper Club, a Las Vegas style club on West Colfax in Lakewood that
ran from the 1940s through the 1970s. It was run by Sammy Toole and starred
The Taylors, The Lawmen and many other local favorites.
Beacon Supper Club, another club similar to Taylors, but much more short-lived.
They had a singing cashier!
The Tiffin Inn at Writer’s Manor of S. Colorado Blvd and I-25. This has all been replaced by various office buildings.
There is still a Luigi’s Italian restaurant in Centennial, I assume they may be related.
This 1959 Luigi’s was over by Gate’s Rubber. I just like to marvel at the drink prices.
The Chicken Box! Your last stop on W. Colfax/Highway 40 as you head into the mountains.
This is not a great ad, but I included it because this drive-in restaurant building is still there.
It has changed hands a few times in the last few years, you may know it as the green building
that housed Wuthering Heights and various biker bars.
Andy’s Smorgasbord was a popular place. Before it was Andy’s it was the El Morocco
Supper Club. After it was Andy’s it became the longtime home of Shotgun Willies!
The park in the Top of the Park name refers to the fact that this building sat on the north end of Washington Park. The Park Lane Hotel was replaced with multiple apartment buildings.
The Keyboard Lounge was in the Mesa Motor Inn on west Colfax.
The lounge was run by Morey Bernstein who also ran Denver’s
Finer Arts record label. The Mesa Motor Inn is still there.
You used to be able to see the ghost signage of the King Cole Show Bar on the upper north wall of The Broadway night club. But after it became Club Vinyl, the roof collapsed under a snowstorm and the signage was gone after the rebuild. Bob & Sylvia did comedy & music at the King Cole from 1959 to 1964. Someday I will post their crazy LP on this site.
The old Tropics building on West Mississippi is still hanging in there. It’s currently housing The Stone night club and the neighborhood has been dubbed BuCu, ‘Where business meets community’.
Usually, nationally-famous stripper-attraction Tempest Storm was the star here, but on this night, Tura Satana, later star of Russ Meyer’s ‘Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!‘ film, topped the bill.
A close up of The Tropics ad so you can further appreciate the drawing of The Tropics
and, of course, Tura Satana.
A night at the Venus Lounge with rock & roller Don May in Aurora.
Dig these prices to see the Denver Bears!
This Englewood Speedway ad is confusing me with the Safety With Speed slogan, followed
by a drawing of an exciting racing accident.
Midget racing right next door!
Ad for the Mile High Kennel Club dog track in Commerce City, with Rusty the Rabbit mascot.
Ad for horse races at the Centennial Race Track in Littleton.
Fun ad for Chuck-O-Luck’s Sporting Goods, with snelled hooks and mustad sliced shank.
Wolfberg ran the downtown Paramount Theatre and most of the drive-in theaters scattered around Denver. The West Drive-In lot at 6th & Kipling has been vacant for decades, too bad they haven’t been showing films all these years. The North Drive-In lot in Broomfield and the East Drive-In lot in Aurora have also been vacant and unused about just as long.
In 1959, Fox ran all of the coolest theaters in Denver. The Mayan, The Aladdin,
The Bluebird, The Ogden…
Ad for the Denham Theatre, located at 18th & California. Now gone, of course.
Denver had an incredible theater district downtown filled with movie palaces,
but the only theater that survived in downtown Denver was The Paramount.
Atoz Theaters.. many of these buildings survive, The Gothic, The Oriental, The Golden,
The Santa Fe (Atzlan), The Federal… OK, that’s enough for now.
October 14th, 2012 / 5 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Nikola Tesla in Colorado Springs
The Modern Age starts with the genius and inventions of Nikola Tesla. The post-war futurism of the 1950s would not have been abandoned if this man’s work was allowed to reach it’s full potential in the earlier part of the century. We would have had our push-button paradise, our flying cars and free energy for all.
(or maybe this scenario is the reason Tesla’s free energy has not been pursued)
In 1893, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the first public application of his polyphase alternating-current system at the Columbian Exposition at the Chicago World’s Fair. A remarkable, temporary town was built called The Magic City or White City which was heavily decorated with light bulbs lit by Tesla’s generators. As alternating-current spread across the United States, light bulb-covered, amusement park-imitations of The White City popped up in Chicago, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Massachusetts and Denver. Denver’s White City was renamed Lakeside Amusement Park in the 1930s. The Tower of Jewels and other older portions of the park are still covered with light bulbs in imitation of the city built for the Chicago World’s Fair.
The Tower of Jewels at Lakeside Amusement Park
After his enormous success with The Columbian Exposition and after building the first hydro-electric plant at Niagara Falls with George Westinghouse, Tesla decided his next goal would be the wireless transmission of power.
Patent lawyer Leonard Curtis helped Tesla find land just east of the city of Colorado Springs (which is now N. Foote Street, just north of Pikes Peak Avenue). The spot had many benefits to Tesla; the thinner, more conductive air of the high altitude (6,037 feet above sea level), the large amount of lightning storms attracted to the area, the conductive geology and most of all… free AC power from the El Paso Power Company.
In May of 1899, Tesla and his assistants, engineer Fritz Lowenstein and mechanic Kolmon Czito, moved into the Alta Vista Hotel, with Tesla himself choosing room number 222 as this number was divisible by 3. He told the Colorado Springs residents he intended to send a radio signal from Pikes Peak to Paris.
They built Tesla’s Colorado Springs laboratory to include an 80 foot tall wooden tower with a 142 foot tall metal mast supporting a large copper ball. The lab had large metal grounding plates underneath and a roof that rolled back to aid in preventing fires. Sign posts surrounding the building read KEEP OUT. GREAT DANGER.
Inside the laboratory building they built a large spark-gap magnifying transmitter, which is an advanced version of the air-core Tesla coil. The primary and 7-turn secondary coils were wound around a 51 foot diamater frame. A third 100-turn, 8 foot diameter coil was placed within the other coils magnifying the electrical effects by something called resonant rise. This magnifying transmitter delivered 1,100 amps and 1,000,000 volts.
While in Colorado Springs, Tesla researched transmitters, receivers, additional smaller resonance transformers and concatenated, tuned electrical circuits. Tesla used his equipment to measure the effects of the electrical waves that the Colorado Springs’ lightning storms would create within the very earth itself. Tesla had discovered evidence of terrestrial stationary waves. Tesla then had the idea of sending these extremely-low frequency waves into the earth and as the waves bounced back, Tesla would add a boost, creating resonance rise. This would charge the earth with electricity.
That communication without wires to any point of the globe is practicable with such apparatus would need no demonstration, but through a discovery which I made I obtained absolute certitude. Popularly explained, it is exactly this: When we raise the voice and hear an echo in reply, we know that the sound of the voice must have reached a distant wall, or boundary, and must have been reflected from the same. Exactly as the sound, so an electrical wave is reflected, and the same evidence which is afforded by an echo is offered by an electrical phenomenon known as a “stationary” wave – that is, a wave with fixed nodal and ventral regions. Instead of sending sound-vibrations toward a distant wall, I have sent electrical vibrations toward the remote boundaries of the earth, and instead of the wall the earth has replied. In place of an echo I have obtained a stationary electrical wave, a wave reflected from afar.
- Nikola Tesla, July 3, 1899
Tesla also proposed transmitting ELF waves into the cavity that exists between the surface of the Earth and the ionosphere, 80 kilometers above the surface. This was known as the Schumann Cavity, named after Winfried Otto Schumann who rediscovered this region in 1952. In the 1990s this was renamed the Tesla-Schumann Cavity. Tesla even proposed transmitting power into the ionosphere itself as he believed this ionosphere would be highly conductive. This proved true and experiments in heating portions of the ionosphere are used today to create various atmospheric effects.
In the Fall of 1899 Tesla used his Colorado Springs’ magnifying transmitter to test his idea of creating resonance with terrestrial standing waves projected through the earth. As he worked to tune the equipment to the earth’s resonance, the grass around Tesla’s laboratory glowed faint blue, sparks lept from the ground & fire hydrants and light bulbs close to the lab spontaneously lit up. Tesla gradually increased the strength of the wave by sending reinforcing pulses as each standing wave returned. Blue arcs shot up and down the inner coil. Lightning bolts, that progressively grew to over 100 feet in length, shot out of the copper ball atop the mast. This lightning could be seen as far away as Cripple Creek! Then it all just stopped.
Tesla’s experiment had burned out the dynamo at El Paso Electric Company, knocking out power for all of Colorado Springs. Tesla would receive no more free power. In fact they would receive no power at all until Tesla and his crew repaired the power station, which they did in about a week.
Tesla continued to conduct experiments in Colorado Springs for 9 more months, keeping a diary of his results titled Colorado Springs Notes, 1899–1900 June 1, 1899 to January 7, 1900 (first published in 1978). Sparks from his coils would sometimes create the mysterious plasma phenomenon of ball lightning, which would fly around his lab and explode when finally coming in contact with something.
Tesla’s Colorado Springs experiments in synchronised circuits demonstrated how a wireless receiver could be tuned to receive a specific signal to the exclusion of others. In 1900 he reported that in Colorado Springs, he had *received energy* in a resonance transformer tuned to the same frequency as a separate, larger resonance transformer. Not only was this a demonstration of the wireless transmission of electrical energy, these experiments also gave Tesla the priority for the invention of radio. While this was usurped at the time by Guglielmo Marconi, Tesla’s patent was later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1943 (sadly this was shortly after Tesla died).
In 1899, Tesla demonstrated the wireless transmission of power over 26 miles from his Colorado Springs lab, lighting 200 50-watt incandescent bulbs with electricity broadcast through the earth. While contemporary engineers have trouble duplicating this experiment, it appears that Tesla did not include everything in his extensive notes. Among other things, there are witnesses to some sort of fantastic beam device experiments that are not recorded in his published Colorado Springs Notes.
In the Summer of 1899, Tesla received rhythmic “dot-dot-dot” signals on his low-frequency receiver. He reported these a year or so later to the press, along with some good-natured speculation that these were from outer-space, maybe even Mars. The newspapers exaggerated his claims leaving Tesla’s reputation forever tarnished with this incredible story. Some have speculated that he may have been receiving signals from Marconi’s tests in Europe. Others think he may have received the regular pulses that we now know come from the Sun and other stars. If this was the case then Tesla was also the inventor of the first radio telescope.
In October 1899, during this period when Tesla was in Colorado Springs, Marconi transmitted radio signals across the English Channel, from France to Britian, using some of Tesla’s patents.
Tesla ended his very succesful Colorado Springs experiments and headed for New York to build a new lab at Wardenclyffe, New York. The El Paso Electric Company had successfully sued Tesla for electricity used, so the Colorado Springs laboratory was sadly torn down in 1904 and sold for lumber to pay the $180 judgment. His electrical equipment was placed in storage.
The Colorado Springs-based International Tesla Society operated a Tesla Museum down in the Springs for many years, but eventually went bankrupt in 1998. But as you may have read in the news recently, over $1,000,000 was just raised to create a new Tesla Museum at Wardenclyffe!
(Special thanks to Michael Riversong of the Tesla Academy)
September 17th, 2012 / 2 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Postcards
I was visiting Lee Alex Vintage Modern to see photographer Dan Beahm’s newly mounted works and I spotted these postcards of two of my favorite downtown-Denver buildings.
This first postcard is from 1956 and is a shot of Mile High Center designed by I. M. Pei & Associates. The barrel-roof building in the front is the Transportation Center which is gone now, but much of Mile High Tower is still there.
Daniel Beahm and his wife Erika are Colorado filmmakers whose feature film Leading Ladies is available on Netflix. Lee Alex Vintage Modern just celebrated their one year anniversary in their new location at 24 Broadway.
The second postcard is the First National Bank building on 17th, designed in 1958 by Raymond Harry Ervin. This photo is especially interesting for me to see the roof pattern that you could view looking down from the Sky Deck observation area atop this mostly still intact skyscraper.
August 28th, 2012 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Sampson House
The Sampson House in Boulder.
This Usonian-style home, designed in 1958 by Tician Papachristou, has a roofline influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s temporary 1953 Usonian Exhibition Pavilion.
There are a still a few remaining Papachristou Usonians in Boulder, but in Denver we lost his beautiful Wallbank House about two years ago. We are still fortunate to have one outstanding example of Papachristou’s work, the Koin House in Cherry Hills, which he designed in combination with another great Boulder architect, Charles Haertling.
June 25th, 2012 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Birth of a City
Fascinating little promo film for Broomfield Heights. It’s 15 minutes long,
but try to watch the whole thing.
Many of the stores and business buildings were designed by Roger Musick.
Keep an eye out for this Usonian bank (at 6:45, though now I see it was
not originally a bank). Also a side note, K.C. Ensor also developed Harvey
Park in Denver.
May 8th, 2012 / 4 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Sky Deck
An ad for the Sky Deck of the First National Bank building,
designed 1958 by Raymond Harry Ervin.
It’s a shame that they do not continue to have observation decks
in Denver skyscrapers, but I will let you in on a little secret…
There is one such place, it is the Peaks Lounge in the Hyatt.
February 16th, 2012 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Colfax, then and now
This photo of Colfax Avenue above was taken in 1972 for the Documerica project funded by the EPA to document environmental impact.
I had expressed disbelief that this was a real, undoctored photo, as I did not think the mountains could be photographed towering over Colfax like that.
Well, ace photographer Dan Disner proved me wrong by meticulously finding the exact spot to recreate this photo today. He really nailed it too, didn’t he?
Compare the Big-T Thriftway sign with the current Family Dollar sign, the Capitol building, the church steeple, the outline of the mountains and the Mountain State Bank sign, visible faintly through the trees in the contemporary photo.
Dan has a nice website where he displays some beautiful shots of the wildlife out on his farm in Adam’s County: http://www.your20.com/
December 19th, 2011 / 3 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Troutdale
Troutdale In The Pines ad from 1958.
Troutdale was a three story hotel, built in 1920 with 6,000 wagonloads of local rock. A 4th story was added in 1927. The hotel had a large lounge, a dining room that seated 250 and a dancing pavilion called the Rainbow Ballroom (which you can see in the ad hanging over the lake.)
The first floor had private dining rooms, a billiard room, a bar, a barber shop, a drug store, kitchens and a bakery, guest rooms were on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th floors.
I am guessing, but I would assume the architect was J. B. Benedict, who designed many similar stone based buildings in the Front Range.
Famous guests included Teddy Roosevelt, Greta Garbo, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Mary Pickford and the Marx Brothers!
December 11th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Mile High Center
Photos © 2011 Alan Golin Gass, FAIA
Today we have guest photographer Alan G. Gass (esteemed architect, historian and in my view, city hero) with some 1950s-era shots of I. M. Pei & Associates’ Mile High Center.
If you look closely at this first shot of the entranceway canopy on Broadway, you can see Mr. Gass himself in the reflection of the front door, taking this photo.
Many of the features shown in the photos, of this early important work of I. M. Pei, no longer exist, as many of the spaces were absorbed into the design of One United Bank Center (now Wells Fargo Center, the “Cash Register Building”).
In this shot you can see the canopy as it crosses through the fountains to connect to the restaurant and shops of the Transportation Building. Behind the plaza you can view some of the details of the remodeled bank building, which is the third building of Mile High Center design.
Viewing east toward the fountains, past the row of lights on the bank, this photo nicely depicts the interrelationship of all three buildings with the plaza.
And lastly, a shot of the concrete barrel-shaped roof of the Transportation Building. You can also see additional details of the bank building. This is the intersection of 17th and Lincoln, compare how different this looks today.
November 22nd, 2011 / 4 Comments » / by Alan G. Gass
