Art Deco...
Horace Mann Middle School
Horace Mann Middle School, a Temple Buell Art Deco brick masterpiece designed in 1931.
Named after the famous education reformer from Massachusetts,
the floor plan view is a giant “H”.
And because the floor plan is clearly an “H”, I would suggest that the elevations also
represent abstracted “H”’s, as well.
Temple Buell is the master Denver architect repsonsible for the location of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. In the 1930s, he designed Art Deco treasures, thankfully some still survive today. Other examples are the brick Mullen’s Home For Nurses and the terra cotta Paramount Theatre.
I cannot imagine how the designs created from the stacked brick could be planned out on a sheet of drafting paper or how bricklayers could even implement these plans.
(as always, click photos to enlarge)
December 2nd, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Bryant-Webster Elementary
Bryant-Webster Elementary, an Art Deco design from
1932 by G. Meredith Musick and J. Roger Musick.
Doorway of the main entrance.
Buffalo and mountain abstracts.
I have a difficult time fathoming how someone can plan
such elaborate, decorative “3D” brickwork.
Secondary entrance.
Arrows and birds abstract.
November 28th, 2011 / 2 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Buerger Bros
The Buerger Brothers Beauty Supply building in downtown Denver, an Art Deco design
from 1929 by Montana Fallis. Fallis’ firm also designed the Art Deco Mayan Theater.
Terra cotta design from Buerger Brothers Beauty Supply.
The Historic Denver Guidebook, Denver: The Modern City (by Michael Paglia, Rodd Wheaton and Diane Wray Tomasso) suggests that Fallis’ son Myrlin Fallis might have been that actual designer of The Mayan and Buerger Bros.
In 1937 Buerger Brothers expanded into the Denver Fire Clay Building next door with a
white tile Art Deco makeover to create the Buerger Building Annex sister building.
November 16th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Paramount Theatre
Downtown Denver’s only surviving original movie house, the Art Deco Paramount Theater. Designed 1929 by Temple Buell.
Other surviving Temple Buell Art Deco designs are the Horace Mann Middle School and Mullen’s Home for Nurses.
Temple Buell was one of Denver’s more successful architects. He purchased land and eventually used it as the location of the original Cherry Creek Shopping Center.
November 13th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Denver brickwork
Incredible brickwork, bordering on Art Deco, from the 1920s (I assume).
This triangular wedge-shaped building is just referred to as 2185 Broadway.
October 24th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Poet’s Row roll call!
Poet’s Row is a concentrated, Capitol Hill, historic district of apartment buildings built with elements of Art Deco, Streamline Modern & International Style, all on one short block. Most of the buildings were designed by an architect responsible for much of Denver’s modernist character, Charles Strong.
Charles Strong’s buildings are abundant throughout Denver. His most prominent local building is the 1957 Miesian-style glass and aluminum skyscraper, the Petroleum Club Building.
We’ll start at 11th & Sherman, heading east in the opposite order of when these were built.
The International Style Sherman Arms Apartments building was built in 1950 and is just assumed to have been by Charles Strong, as the style of the building and use of Art Deco glass brick match the rest of the structures he built on this street…
…as you can see in this next building, the 1942 World War II-era Panama Apartments. It is also a mixture of Art Deco and International Style and is definitely designed by Charles Strong.
You can see the distinctive use of glass brick by Strong.
The Eugene Field Apartments were designed by Charles Strong in 1939. Another feature that many of these buildings share is the Art Deco stepped-brick spire.
Eugene Field is a famous St. Louis poet and essay writer. He also worked for the
Denver Tribune for two years!
Next we reach the Nathaniel Hawthorne Apartments building, which resembles a film theater with it’s vertical Art Deco movie-marquee entranceway. Named after the famous author of The Scarlet Letter, the building was designed 1938 by Charles Strong.
Strong gave this building Streamline Modern-style radial corners.
Strong had used Moderne radial corners and a similar use of Art Deco glass brick the year before in the design of the Mark Twain Apartments in 1937. Here again is the stepped-brick spire.
Twain, arguably America’s most famous writer, also had a streamline modern Burlington Zephyr route named after him that traveled from Burlington, Iowa down to St. Louis. Here is a borrowed photo of that Zephyr:
The entranceway is notable for it’s high glaze ceramic brick.
The Robert Frost Apartments were not by Charles Strong. They were designed by Andrew B. Wilson in a 1929 version of Spanish-Colonial style and the building was original called the Casa Bonita! The name was changed to Robert Frost in the ’30s.
The 1956 Emily Dickinson Apartments building was originally called The Constellation and was designed in a hip, yet spare ’50s version of the International Style, making this the most contemporary member of Poet’s Row.
And as we reach the corner of 10th and Sherman we come upon the twin of the Robert Frost, the Louisa May Alcott apartments. It was built 2 years later in 1931 and is almost exactly the same Spanish-Colonial design by Andrew B. Wilson. It was originally called Casa La Vista.
Crossing the street we reach the Robert Browning Apartments, named after the Victorian-era English poet. It was designed 1937 in the Art Deco style by Charles Strong.
The Art Deco buildings built on this east side of the street by Charles Strong have a different look than the ones on the west and do not make use of glass brick.
The Thomas Caryll Apartments were named after a Scottish satirist. They were designed in 1936 by Charles Strong.
And finally the James Russell Lowell Apartments, named after a famous Fireside Poet and anti-slavery activist. They were built 1936 by the great modernist and poetry-lover Charles Strong.
(Some facts gleaned from this page: Sherman Street Historic District)
October 10th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Royal Tavern sign
Photo © 2011 Scott Murdock
Streamline Modern sign from the 1930s in Manitou Springs.
October 3rd, 2011 / No Comments » / by Scott Murdock
Federal Theater
The Federal Theater at Federal & 38th stopped showing films in the 1970s. Built in 1923,
the building had an Art Deco makeover in 1948 by architect Charles Strong, who also
designed the Art Deco apartments of Poet’s Row on Capitol Hill around the same time
period.
You can that the original 1920s theater is recessed behind the update. Not only was the
marquee added, but the storefronts were extended out.
You can see the original terra cotta theater name and year behind the Art Deco marquee.
September 27th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Art Deco gas station
An Art Deco gas station from the 1930s on 38th. You can see where the three bays were added on the right by the mid-building location of the three decorative horizontal lines, an Art Deco trademark.
September 20th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Art Deco parking garage
Reflected light created these weird shadows on this Art Deco parking garage at 17th & Glenarm.
(Sorry if I haven’t been posting as frequently! I plan on rectifying that this week!)
September 19th, 2011 / 2 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
The Whip
A Lakeside Amusement Park Art Deco ticket booth for The Whip
ride, designed in the ’40s or ’50s by Richard Crowther.
July 12th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Everyone’s favorite
Everyone’s favorite Bonnie Brae Streamline Modern home, designed 1938 by Lester Jones.
Photo taken of the back while driving by…
July 7th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Scrambler
The Scrambler ticket booth from Lakeside Amusement Park, designed by
Richard Crowther in the ’50s or early 1960s, I believe.
April 29th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Mayan Theatre interiors
Creepy stares from the faces on the Mayan Theatre walls.
Built in 1930 at the end of the construction of grand Art Deco palaces,
this theater adopted the rare Mayan Revival style.
Designed by Montana Fallis with the aid of local artisans, sculptor Julius Ambrusch
and even Victor Hornbein who worked for Fallis at the time.
(6 fingers, 4 toes?)
I took these photos at Doors Open Denver on the yearly tour
of the theater by Chris Citron, who was one of the leaders of
the movement to preserve the Mayan.
The stock market crash put an end to the construction of Art
Deco film theaters and time has taken away most of them.
The Paramount Theater is the other great preserved Art
Deco theater in Denver.
April 21st, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Art Deco home
Art Deco house designed by Charles Jaka in 1931.
Jaka also designed the Art Deco Cruise Room in The Oxford Hotel (1930).
April 20th, 2011 / 3 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Fruitdale
Fruitdale School in Wheat Ridge is to be torn down, so I ran over this morning
to take a couple of pics.
Designed 1927 by Temple Buell, it shows some interesting Art Deco brickwork, a style Buell would evolve into more complex forms like Horace Mann Junior High or Mullen’s Home for Nurses.
Wheat Ridge couldn’t find a financially feasible way to preserve it, so it will be torn down in April.
February 26th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Art Deco terracotta
Art Deco terracotta from the right side of the Paramount Theatre, designed 1930 by
Temple Buell.
November 23rd, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Hotel Monaco
Hotel Monaco, downtown’s Streamline Modern hotel designed by
Fisher & Fisher 1938 as the Railway Exchange building.
November 19th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Denver Art Deco brickwork
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless building at 21st & Champa, a beautiful
example of 1930’s-era Art Deco brickwork.
November 15th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
This morning on Colfax
The Las Vegas style-sign, horse and streamline-modern pre-fabricated aluminum of
Davies’ Chuck Wagon Diner, a W. Colfax institution, built 1957.
November 13th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Denver brickwork
Art Deco brickwork from Horace Mann Junior High, designed 1931 by Temple Buell.
(Click photo to enlarge)
October 28th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Wolf-Wagon Art Deco gas station
Art Deco gas station from the 1930s on Alameda.
September 26th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Neirenberg House
Streamline house that you see all the time driving down Bonnie Brae Boulevard, built 1938.
Contrast with this photo taken in a different season.
September 21st, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
The Spider
Great ticket booth for The Spider ride at Lakeside Amusement Park.
September 4th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Dorset House
The Streamline Modern Dorset House on Capitol Hill, built 1938.
August 23rd, 2010 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
