Indian Creek

Indian Creek is a small residential pocket in southeast Denver, on the east side of South Quebec Street around East Florida Avenue. It runs about a mile north to south and three-quarters of a mile across. South Parker Road runs along its northeast side, Cherry Creek cuts through the southern part, and apart from a short stretch along Quebec, unincorporated Arapahoe County wraps around the whole thing.

Annexed, then boxed in

This was horse pasture and farmland until Denver annexed it in pieces between 1965 and 1973. In 1974 Colorado voters passed the Poundstone Amendment, which said Denver couldn't annex land without a vote of the county it came from, and Indian Creek has been a Denver island inside Arapahoe County since.

That same year Indian Creek Filing 1 was platted, covering most of the neighborhood, and builders like Nu-West and Brock Homes started carving it into townhome projects in 1981.

Because the city line follows old survey lines instead of streets, listings out here get tagged Denver, Aurora or Arapahoe County. Confirm which one a property actually sits in before you write an offer, since that decides who taxes it.

Townhomes on curving streets

Most of what you'll tour is a duplex or multiplex townhome or a condo, built in the 1980s on streets that curve and dead-end in cul-de-sacs instead of following a grid. The styles track the decade. Conchas, finished in 1983 at East Iowa Avenue and South Syracuse Street, is stucco with the slanted rooflines of Shed Style modernism. Villa Marbella, also 1983, on South Quebec Way, went Mediterranean with barrel-tile roofs, and Granville West Townhomes (1984), off East Colorado Avenue, are Neo-Victorian in wood siding. When the city surveyed the area in 2020, nothing had been torn down and rebuilt.

Detached houses are scarce. Two later filings are all single-family: Filing 10, split-levels from the mid-1990s near South Ulster Street and East Jewell Avenue, and Filing 11, finished in 2014. If you want no shared walls, those two pockets are your short list. Nearly everything else sits inside a townhome association, so read its budget, reserves and rules as closely as you read the listing.

Cherry Creek, the High Line Canal and Chennai Park

Cherry Creek crosses below the houses, with open space between the homes and the water. A walking and bike path follows the creek and East Cherry Creek Drive South, heading downstream toward Confluence Park downtown and upstream through Cherry Creek State Park. The High Line Canal, opened in 1883, runs near the east edge, and about 60 miles of trail follow its old maintenance road.

City of Chennai Park, about eight acres at South Quebec Street and East Iowa Avenue, was dedicated in 1977. It's one of Denver's sister city parks, named for Chennai, India, and it's mostly open lawn ringed by trees and a walking loop, with plenty of room for a kite.

The industrial strip on South Quebec

South of Cherry Creek Drive, a triangle of warehouses and offices fills the south end. The city's trash transfer station has run here since 1965, and most of the warehouses south of it date to the 1970s and early 1980s. In the southwest corner, 2080 S. Quebec is Humane Colorado's Leslie A. Malone Center, the animal shelter the Dumb Friends League built in 1974. If a unit near the south edge catches your eye, drive by on a weekday to see the truck traffic for yourself.

Coffee on Quince, a brewery just south

Indian Creek itself is nearly all homes, with one coffee stop among the warehouses: Sacred Beans Coffee, at 1900 S. Quince St., roasts its own coffee and runs a cafe in the same building. For more, head to South Parker Road or Iliff. Just south of the line at 7667 E. Iliff Ave., Comrade Brewing has been pouring since 2014 and has a taproom and a coffee counter. At the 2019 Great American Beer Festival it took two golds and small brewing company of the year.

Buses on Parker Road and Quebec

RTD's 83L runs from Union Station through Cherry Creek and out Parker Road to Nine Mile Station, stopping at Parker and Quebec, Florida and Parker, and Parker and Iliff. The 73 covers Quebec Street between Belleview Station and Central Park Station.