Watch Your Step: These Craftsmen Stamped Our Sidewalks

Honor A Civil Rights Icon

“Vote.”

That admonition was included this July in the final message of John Lewis, the civil rights icon who was severely beaten and nearly killed by Alabama State troopers in 1965 as he and nearly six hundred others attempted to march from Selma to Birmingham to demand the right to cast a ballot.

We now have the privilege, as well as the obligation, to honor Lewis by participating in the Nov. 3 election.

However, since Colorado will continue its established practice of distributing mail-in ballots to all registered voters, most voting will be done by mail. The distribution of ballots will begin on Oct. 9, several weeks prior to the Nov. 3 election date. And since this process will place a heavy burden on our postal system, please return your ballot promptly, either by mail or by placing it in one of the many secure drop boxes located around the city. (Boxes in and near Park Hill include the north side of the Museum of Nature and Science in City Park, and Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center at 33rd and Holly.) You may also assist others by picking up their ballots and depositing them in a drop box or mailbox. The legal limit for this practice is 10 ballots.

However, it will still be possible to vote at a polling place on Tuesday, Nov. 3. You can register and vote on Election Day, with the proper identification, up until 7 p.m.

Important: it should be noted that while some have argued that mail-in voting is subjected to mass fraud, such claims are unfounded, and Colorado has a fine record of secure elections. Along with your ballot you will receive a blue book in the mail that includes an explanation of the items on the ballot with arguments for and against each measure.

May we all take the time and make the effort to honor John Lewis and participate in this vital election that will have significant consequences for our city, state, and nation. Frank Tapy, Park Hill

RS Blome Co.

Orville Stickley

The Hinchman Renton Co.

Ford Rogers City Sidewalk Co.

Watch Your Step

The Craftsmen Who Stamped Park Hill’s Sidewalks

By Dale S. Deane, Clara R. Deane, Caitlin A. Deane and Kevin D. Deane For the GPHN

You may have been walking around the neighborhood more during this time of COVID-19, in which case you may have noticed stamps on the cement sidewalks.

The stamps list the names of companies/contractors and usually the year that the sidewalk was placed. The names are varied. They include Ford Rogers (who was quite prolific), J. Hildebrand, A. Leason, T.W. Love and J.W. Anderson, among others. One of the more colorful contractor names is Orville Stickley – especially if one is a fan of popcorn and furniture, respectively! In addition, there are the slice-of-bread style logos of the National Construction Company and the flowing banner of the City Sidewalk Company.

Most are stamped or etched into the cement. However, a few are embedded metal plaques. At times, the manufacturer of the cement is also listed. For example, many stamps list “Ideal Portland Cement,” which was made by the Ideal Cement Company (formerly the Colorado Portland Cement Company) that was based in Portland, Colo., near Cañon City.

Lincoln Cushing, who authors a website dedicated to sidewalk stamps, notes that the stamps can help us learn about construction dates and patterns of urban development. (Check out the site, at docspopuli.org/articles/Stamps/SidewalkStamps.html.)

Indeed, seeing a stamp dated 1903 along Montview Boulevard can remind us that was the year the boulevard was first paved – and further lead us to imagine the excitement of 100 years ago when the Park Hill neighborhood was first developing. A well-preserved example of a 1903 stamp can be found on the sidewalk in front of

National Construction Company

the Park Hill Branch Library, at the northeast corner of Dexter and Montview.

Notably, while there are stamps from 1903 (and some streets close to Colorado Boulevard still have sandstone pavers which likely predate many cement sidewalks), most dates are from the 1950s to 1970’s.

Fewer are from the 1980’s onward. There are likely several reasons for this trend, including the longevity of well-poured cement in a relatively dry climate. However, given that there are many new unstamped sidewalks, additional reasons for lack of modern stamps may be, as Cushing suggests, “because of fear of litigation and a changing attitude towards craftwork.”

The next time you are out and about on foot in Park Hill, keep an eye out for sidewalk stamps, and a bit of the past beneath your feet.

For more information about sidewalk cement stamps in Colorado, visit these websites: masonryofdenver.com/2014/08/ sidewalk-stamps/ and lainby.tumblr.com. Thomas J. Noel and William J Hansen also write about the historic sidewalks in their 2004 book, The Park Hill Neighborhood (Historic Denver, Inc.)

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Trick-or-treaters from past Halloweens in Park Hill. This year may not be the same as years past because of the pandemic, but kids are likely to still be able to have a spooky, fun and safe time. File photos by Reid Neureiter

Watch out for Jumping Spiders! Photo by Mark Silverstein maintained that we were all about making sure we honored the heritage and architectural integrity of the house,” Theis says. “Once our ghosts saw that we were true to our word, settling into a period roughly of the 1920s for decor and design (with most of our furniture of the period or before), they settled down and we haven’t heard from them since. I have happy ghosts.”

Theis had the fortunate opportunity to find out some of the history of her house when years ago, two elderly ladies calling themselves “the Evans sisters” pulled up. They explained to Theis that they had grown up in the home in the 1930s to 1950s and burst into tears when they saw the front hall had not changed since last they saw it.

The Evans sisters were also the bearers of creepier news. Not only had their grandmother died in the house, there was the death of a butler in the basement. “There were probably others, times being what they were,” Theis says. Melancholy nursery rhymes

Last October in these pages we shared the tale of the haunting of McAuliffe International School in the historic Smiley Junior High building at 26th and Holly. Nearly six decades ago, a United Airlines passenger jet crashed during landing at nearby Stapleton Airfield, now the site of the Central Park neighborhood. Eighteen souls were lost in the tragedy.

Smiley Junior High served as a makeshift morgue for the dead. A young mother who had been flying back to Colorado from a wedding in Pennsylvania and her three small daughters were among those killed.

In the years since, students and staff whisper of witnessing chilling sights and sounds, including a human figure lurking in one of the bathrooms.

One predawn morning three Septembers ago, hours before anyone else would have entered the building, the school’s facilities manager was on the third floor when he heard a disembodied female voice singing melancholy nursery rhymes. He recorded the voice on his phone to share with the other staff members. Could the otherworldly song be the voice of the young mother killed in the 1961 crash of United Flight 859?

“We thought maybe she had been singing to the little girls to calm them as the plane crashed,” Tammy Pittman, McAuliffe’s office manager, told GPHN last year. Bathed in blue glow

The paranormal activities at McAuliffe are not the only ones attached to a local landmark. Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, on Montview at Dahlia Street, has served as a spiritual home for generations of Park Hill families, witnessing their births and deaths, hopes and tears, since it was built in 1910.

In 1918, Montview built a new sanctuary, bathed in the blue glow of gothic stained-glass windows and filled with the pipes of a grand organ. As the congregation continued to thrive and grow, this chamber, now a theater space called the Miller Center, was replaced with the larger, current sanctuary in 1958. Some believe that shades of the Miller Center’s past as a sanctuary linger today. And there may be a picture to prove it.

A longtime Montview sexton was in the backstage area several years ago, taking a reference photo of one the pews. Although the pew was empty when the photo was snapped, the actual picture was blurred and shows what appears to some to be a boy sitting in the pew.

The photo, below, was graciously shared with the GPHN so that readers may make up their own minds: ghost, or digital aberration?

This photo, reprinted with permission, was snapped by a sexton at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church several years ago. The blurred photo suggests a form of a boy, sitting in what was an empty pew.

Get Scared, Not Sick

Ideas For A Spooky Safe Halloween

Halloween is ubiquitous in Park Hill. Houses are festooned with skeletons in all manner of repose. Inflatable Frankensteins and ghosts sway in the chilly October breezes. Cobwebs blanket every bush.

It’s not likely that a pandemic will stop the rich tradition of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood – But this year officials are urging caution – and recommending several precautions for every witch’s favorite hour.

As of Sept. 19, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s website has not posted any Halloween-specific guidelines, however current general rules apply: Colorado is still under a mask-wearing mandate, and gatherings should include no more than 10. People are encouraged to stay at least six feet apart from others. For the latest, check out covid19.colorado.gov/safer-at-home.

The Halloween & Costume Association (check out halloween2020.org) has a handy interactive map that features county-by-county CDC data on COVID-19 risk levels, and includes a number of potential ideas for safe celebrations (including karaoke, piñata parties, scavenger hunts, candy stations and drive-up trick-or-treating).

Denver Zoo’s annual Boo at the Zoo has been extended to run from Oct. 1 through 31. The event theme is “Storybook Safari” and includes costumed characters and mythical creatures. All activities are included with pre-purchased tickets. denverzoo. org/events/boo-at-the-zoo/

Ideas for a safe holiday have been popping up on social media, with people making creative suggestions, including doing a Halloween egg hunt with glow in the dark eggs filled with candy. Others have suggested setting up tables on lawns with treats. Grown-ups can watch safely from their front porches as the costumed kids stream through.

Over at 4431 E. 26th Ave., George and Beverly Dennis will be ready to go, beginning Oct. 1. “There probably won’t be much in the way of trick-ortreaters on the night, but we’ll be running the scary movie clips in the front yard on the Zombietron for sure. Maybe some dementors in MAGA hats beforehand. Who knows?” Dennis noted.

All the flavors to entice kids. All the nicotine to keep them hooked.

E-cigarette makers and vape shops are enticing kids with flavors like cotton candy, gummy bear and bubble gum. And nationally, over 5 million kids are using these flavored e-cigarettes. Vape shops and tobacco companies say their products aren’t ending up in kids’ hands, but that’s just not true. Many retailers still sell to minors, and many of them in Denver even illegally sold products during the COVID-19 shutdown violating emergency orders.

Let’s stop pretending vape shops and the industry care about public health or the health of our children. It’s time to stop the sale of flavored tobacco products to protect our kids.

Take action now by visiting FlavorsHookKidsDenver.org to tell City Council Members Chris Herndon and Amanda Sawyer to end the sale of all flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

Paid for by Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund

To The Paint Mines

Hoodoos And Other Delights In This Easy El Paso County Hike

Story and photos by Reid Neureiter For the GPHN

As the weather in the foothills and mountains turns colder and snow begins to fall, there are still ways for close-by hikes in Colorado’s warmer, lower elevations.

One fascinating day outing is El Paso County’s Paint Mines Interpretive Park near Calhan, east of Colorado Springs just off Highway 24 and about 80 miles southeast of Park Hill. The Paint Mines are geological formations of colorful layers of red, orange, purple and yellow clay, exposed by the elements, creating towering hoodoos (fanciful stone and clay spires), narrow gully paths, and even caves carved by wind and water.

American Indian tribes are said to have used the land as favorite hunting ground with badland breaks and gullies serving as hunting overlooks and entrapment locations for big game. The colorful clays were used for making pottery and ceremonial paint and in the early 1900’s, the clay was mined to make bricks.

Now a protected park, the Paint Mines is 750 acres with four miles of hiking trails. Hikers can walk along the gullies and among the hoodoos, but are warned that the formations are fragile and potentially dangerous, so climbing them is not allowed. The Paint Mines are at 29950 Paint Mines Road, in Calhan. There is a restroom in the main entrance parking area. The park is open year-round from dawn to dusk.

To protect the fragile formations, pets, horses and bicycles of any kind are not permitted. For more information check out communityservices.elpasoco.com/parksand-recreation/paint-mines-interpretivepark/.

Which of these is the Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel, and which is the Least Chipmunk? For the answer, turn to page 17.

Chipmunk or Ground Squirrel?

These Critters Are Not The Same

Story and photos by Reid Neureiter tled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus For the GPHN lateralis).

Anyone who has hiked in the foothills to 11 inches long, including the tail, while west of Denver or the trails of Rocky the chipmunk is only 6 to 9 inches long, Mountain National Park has encounwith a bushier tail. The main identifying tered (some would say “harassed”) by difference between the species, besides small, brown, striped rodents looking for size, is that the chipmunk has stripes on crumbs of sandwich or the odd tortilla its face, while the ground squirrel lacks fachip. cial stripes and has a golden, tawny color

One might be prompted to say, “What a across its shoulders (its mantle). The chipcute chipmunk!” But about half the time, munk is also more rapid and nervous in one would be wrong. its movements compared to the squirrel.

The Least Chipmunk (Neotamias miniBoth species of rodent will be busy stormus) is the smallest member of the squiring nuts and other food in caches near rel family inhabiting the mountainous retheir burrows as they prepare for the long gions of Colorado. But a similar looking winter ahead. and behaving creature is the golden-manThe ground squirrel is larger, usually 9