The gold dome of the Colorado State Capitol atop Brown’s Bluff can be seen from across the city, and the 13th step is exactly one mile above sea level. Denver City Hall is almost as grand. The Denver Mint is one of three coinage plants in the United States and the world’s largest. Presidents and captains of industry have stayed at the Romanesque-styled Brown Palace Hotel since the 1890s. The Queen Anne-styled Molly Brown House Museum on Pennsylvania Street has become iconic after its owner survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The French Gothic Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was worthy of a visit from Pope John Paul II in 1993.
Denver Union Station is one of America’s true railroading treasures. Republic Plaza is the tallest building in Colorado. The third-tallest building in the city, the Wells Fargo Center, is known to the locals as the Cash Register Building for its unique glass profile. Confluence Park preserves the spot at the South Platte River and Cherry Creek where the city began in the 19th century goldrush. The Tattered Cover Bookstores have made their own history as one of America’s largest independent bookstores.
The Denver housing market is dominated by single family homes with 127,609 of them. Another 18,042 residences can be found in row houses. Fueled by real estate trends in gentrifying Lower Downtown and the Central Business District, Denver offers 36,293 condos. Apartments number 5,101, with 277 other residential properties present in the Denver streetscape. As sleek new office towers rise against the Rocky Mountain backdrop, Denver’s total number of commercial properties increases to 9,277. Denver’s real estate mix also includes 3,100 industrial properties, 577 mixed-use properties and 6,310 vacant lots.
The Regional Transportation District covers over 2,000 square miles of Colorado’s Front Range with 138 bus lines. The city also offers commuter rail, light rail, and rapid transit bus services with its FasTracks program. Denver B-Cycle, the city’s bike-sharing program, launched big – its 400-bicycle fleet was America’s largest. As a bonus, if you have an annual pass, you can enjoy two-for-one beer specials at multiple local breweries.
Denver Public Schools educates over 70,000 students each year in 138 schools. The University of Denver is over 150 years old and the University of Colorado Denver is the state’s largest research institution.
The University of Colorado Hospital is ranked in close to a dozen specialties nationwide. One quarter of all Denver residents rely on Denver Health for adult trauma, pediatric emergency and urgent care.
Despite being one of America’s largest metro urban areas, FBI data reveals that the chances of property crime in Denver are 1 in 28 and only 1 in 38 in Colorado. The numbers for violent crime are 1 chance in 148 in Denver and 1 in 312 in the state.
The first stop for many transplants is at the revitalized warehouses of Lower Downtown for dining and entertainment. The Buckhorn Exchange, “Denver’s Original Steakhouse,” was serving thick beefsteaks when those brick buildings still housed actual industries back in 1893. Denver’s reputation as the “Queen City of the Plains” was crafted from the likes of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Denver Art Museum, and the History Colorado Center.
Denver music pours out from an array of eye-catching venues, from the massive glass roof of the Denver Performing Arts Complex to the open air Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The concert center is part of Denver Mountain Parks, a collection of 22 parks and open spaces, encompassing 14,000 acres. That means skiing in the winter, and hiking and kayaking in the summer.
You can cheer for Denver in an array of sports, including football with the Broncos, baseball with the Rockies, basketball with the Nuggets, ice hockey with Avalanche, soccer with the Rapids, and lacrosse with the Outlaws.
