Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill runs east from the State Capitol to Downing Street, with Broadway on the west, Colfax Avenue on the north and 7th Avenue on the south. North Capitol Hill, which some people call Uptown, is across Colfax, and Cheesman Park is its own neighborhood on the far side of Downing. At about six-tenths of a square mile, Capitol Hill is Denver's most densely populated neighborhood, and more than 95 percent of the land is built out.

How the hill filled in

Denver became the territorial capital in 1867, and Henry Brown's land on the hill east of town was the site picked for a capitol. Construction began in 1886, and houses were already going up around it. Through the 1880s and 1890s, the streets to live on were Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Logan, Pennsylvania and Colfax.

Colfax was zoned for commercial use in the 1920s. From then on, many mansions were cut up into offices and apartments, and others came down for bigger apartment buildings, offices and parking lots.

Mansions, walkups and Poet's Row

The average building here dates to about 1920, and the neighborhood has some of the city's oldest detached houses. Even so, apartments and condos make up most of the housing, and many older rentals have been converted to condos, so expect to shop for a condo or a converted unit. The mix of styles runs from Italianate and Queen Anne to Romanesque, Denver Square and Art Deco.

The Sheedy Mansion at 1115 Grant, built from 1890 to 1892, mixes Queen Anne with Richardsonian Romanesque. The Quality Hill blocks south of 11th Avenue filled in after 1900 with Neoclassical and Mediterranean Revival mansions, a different look from the Queen Anne and Romanesque houses farther north.

On the 1000 block of Sherman, between 10th and 11th, Poet's Row is eleven three-story brick walkups built from 1929 to 1956. Many are Art Deco and Art Moderne designs by Charles Strong, and many carry writers' names, like the Mark Twain and the Robert Frost. The block went on the National Register in 2004.

Quality Hill, Pennsylvania Street and Sherman-Grant are Denver historic districts. Quality Hill is only one block wide, between 9th and 10th Avenues, and Sherman-Grant runs between 9th and 12th, taking in Poet's Row. Inside a district, city staff review exterior work that requires a building or zoning permit, from roofing and solar panels to window replacement and a new garage. Find out whether a building is in one before you plan that kind of work.

The Capitol and Molly Brown's house

The Capitol sits at the neighborhood's western edge, and Civic Center Park is next door across Broadway. The Molly Brown House at 1340 Pennsylvania went up in 1889, designed by William Lang as a Queen Anne with Romanesque touches like rusticated stone and arches. Historic Denver bought it in 1970 and runs it as a museum.

13th Avenue and Colfax

Colfax, Broadway and 8th, 13th and 14th Avenues carry most of the shops and restaurants. City, O' City at 206 E. 13th is a vegetarian restaurant with pizza, vegan pastries, coffee and a full bar, open from 9 a.m., and Westword named it best vegetarian restaurant in 2011. Wax Trax has sold records at 13th and Washington for decades and took Westword's "Best Holdout on 13th Avenue" in 2017. The Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax, was built in 1917 as a movie theater, reopened as a concert hall in 1993, holds 1,600 and is on the National Register.

Parking and Colfax buses

Parking is the thing to plan for, since most of the older buildings have no off-street spaces. If you own a car, find out whether a space comes with the unit before you write an offer.

Since September 27, 2026, buses on Colfax get the middle two lanes from Broadway east to Colorado Boulevard, while drivers share the curb lanes. RTD's 15 and 15L pick up at center-lane stations, among them Pennsylvania and Downing. The city has also recommended new curb rules for the blocks between 13th and 17th Avenues, so street parking near Colfax could change.