Cool, hip and intact

Hip, bohemian and intact, Baker, which earned historic district status from the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, is one of the few Denver neighborhoods that has avoided the proliferation of tugboat-style contemporaries.

That is to say, Baker feels real. Maybe a porch needs painting. Maybe you can’t find parking on the narrow streets. Maybe people are accustomed to walking to dinner, drinks, the Mayan theater or the Broadway Book Mall from which they’re likely to emerge with enough reading for the price of a coffee to stay enraptured for days.

If you want at 20’ x 20’ master bedroom suite, Baker is probably not your hood.

Here are some basics: Baker is a 90-degree triangle of a neighborhood delimited by West Sixth Avenue on the North, West Mississippi Avenue to the South, the Platte River to the West and Broadway to the East. Established during Denver’s early rough-and-tumble days, the area is rich in gold-rush, post-Civil-War history. The oldest homes date back to the 1870s.

At least four Denver Historic Landmarks are part of the neighborhood’s landscape. The Coyle/Chase House at 532 W. 4th Ave., home of Mary Chase who wrote the Pulitzer-Prize-winning play Harvey, the First and Broadway Building at 101-115 N. Broadway, Fire Station No. 11 at 40 W. Second Ave. and the fabulous Art Deco movie palace, Mayan Theater on South Broadway, which was almost razed but for the efforts of Friends of the Mayan to save it in the 1980s. It’s one of only three Mayan Revival architecture movie houses left in the country.

Another historic theater has recently gotten new life. The historic Webber, built in 1917 during the silent film era that subsequently spent years from the 1970s to the 2000s as the infamous adult movie theater, Kitty’s South was re-visioned as a home for Archetype Distillery to create their spirits and host events in the space. Pete Foster, a local real estate broker, and his business partner Yimaj “Steve” Kalifa have taken over the 119 S. Broadway building with “plans to keep it as an event center, but kick it up a notch,” Foster said.

What else will you find in Baker? Lovingly restored Queen Anne homes, small Victorians, Denver Squares and bungalows, well-tended gardens and narrow, quiet streets that belie Broadway’s traffic just to the East.

Broadway, though, offers access to an eclectic array of one-of-a-kind shops, independent eateries, bars, antique shops, boutiques and the world’s best cinema at the three-screen Landmark Mayan Theater. In other words, date night is just a walk away.

BAKER HIGHLIGHTS
Population: 6,450+
Location: Ten minutes south of downtown Denver
Housing stock: Victorian homes, bungalows, Denver Squares, Queen Anne’s  
Public schools: Denver Public Schools
Public high school: West High School, Denver Center for International Studies
Nearest hospital: Denver Health
Nearby parks: Dailey Park
Fun fact: Alice Polk Hill, Colorado’s first poet laureate, lived in Baker.

Niche.com rankings:
     Overall Niche Grade:  A
     Nightlife:  A+
     Good for Families:  A-
     Diversity:  A-
     Best Neighborhoods for Young Professionals in Denver:  #13 (of 76)
     Best Neighborhoods to Live in Denver:  #16 (of 76)
     Best Neighborhoods to Raise a Family in Denver:  #25 (of 76)