It would be romantic to think that one of Denver’s most distinctive neighborhoods got its name from a shattered love affair in the Scottish Highlands. But the truth is more prosaic. George W. Olinger, a scion of the Olinger Mortuary family, saw a subdivision in Kansas City he liked with the same name, Bonnie Brae, which is Gaelic for “pleasant hill.”

In addition to presiding over the mortuary business (the restaurant Linger is now housed in the famous mortuary he built at 16^th and Boulder Streets), Olinger was active in Denver real estate. His real estate development firm, Associated Industries Company, had acquired the southeast Denver property above Cherry Creek and hired landscape architect and city planner Saco DeBoer in 1923 to design a street system similar to that of Kansas City’s Bonnie Brae. The result: A gracious enclave delimited by University Boulevard and Steele Street west to east and East Exposition and East Mississippi Avenues north to south that’s bisected by the diagonal Bonnie Brae Boulevard, a winding streetscape off this main arterial with a small, emerald park pinned at the center.

Olinger divested his share of Associated Industries Company in 1925 and three years later, firm went bankrupt, and the thoughtfully constructed neighborhood landed with the city for its tax debt. The Great Depression further slowed development, but things picked up after the small Ellipse Park, DeBoer’s neighborhood centerpiece, was built. Soon homes began dotting the perimeter of the orzo-shaped greensward and the neighborhood filled out in the boom after WWII.

Because the neighborhood grew over several decades, Bonnie Brae’s architecture runs the gamut from large Tudors to Modernist gems with the occasional new construction jostling with vintage inventory. Today, mature trees, graceful lawns and quiet streets define Bonnie Brae along with long-standing businesses like the Campus Lounge (originally a sports bar, today it has updated both the decor and the menu to resemble more of a neighborhood bar while retaining some the character of its early beginnings), the Saucy Noodle, which opened in 1964 (get the pasta) and comparatively young Bonnie Brae Ice Cream, which took over the old Dolly Madison ice cream parlor in 1986 (prepare to wait, but it’s worth it).

Though the neighborhood has a secluded feel, it is a bike-ride away from Cherry Creek’s bustle, Old South Gaylord Street’s restaurants and retail, the University of Denver and with a little more pedaling, the busy retail hub that is South Colorado Boulevard.

If you’ve never walked Bonnie Brae’s winding streets, you might just find yourself falling in love with this Scottish-inspired-by-way-of-Kansas-City gem.

Bonnie Brae Highlights
Population: 1,400
Location: 15 minutes southeast of downtown, no traffic.
Housing stock: Single-family homes from the 1920s through 21^st century.
Public schools: Denver Public Schools
Public high school: South High School
Nearest hospitals: Rose Medical Center, Porter Memorial Hospital
Nearby park: Ellipse Park
Fun fact: Bonnie Brae’s alleys serve as a gallery for mosaic tile art, inspired by one neighbor who hung a large mosaic of a giraffe in her alley.