Park Hill

Park Hill is the big piece of northeast Denver between Colorado Boulevard and Quebec Street, running from Colfax Avenue north to 52nd Avenue, with City Park just across Colorado Boulevard. The city splits it into three neighborhoods, South Park Hill, North Park Hill and Northeast Park Hill. The houses change a lot as you drive north, so check which one a listing is actually in.

A baron's plat and a $3,000 rule

Baron Alois von Winckler platted Park Hill in 1887 on open ground east of City Park. The original developers set rules you can still see from the sidewalk: houses had to sit 40 feet back from the street and cost at least $3,000, when Denver houses usually went up for about $1,000. Denver annexed the area in 1903.

Montview and 17th Avenue

Montview Boulevard is the street to drive first. It was laid out in 1892 and runs 1.5 miles from Colorado Boulevard to Monaco Street Parkway, with trees planted between 1902 and 1911. South of it, East 17th Avenue Parkway covers the same stretch, with a wide grassy median that gets flower plantings every summer. Both are on the National Register of Historic Places, listed in 1986. The Italian Renaissance house at 4101 Montview, built in 1910 and designed by J.J. Benedict, shows how far the street's houses go.

The houses, south to north

Styles run from Victorian forms to Arts and Crafts houses to modest mid-century homes. Most went up in two bursts: the 1920s and 1930s, then the 1940s and 1950s, when demand was strongest near the old Stapleton airport.

Denver Assessor open data on detached single-family houses (condos and rowhomes left out) shows the split. In South Park Hill, 74% were built before 1940, and the median house is 1,570 square feet. In North Park Hill, 62% date from 1940 to 1959, with a median of 1,150. Northeast Park Hill is 89% from 1940 to 1959 and 10% built since 2000, with a median of 1,050. If you want an older house with more room, start in South Park Hill. If a smaller postwar house suits you, North and Northeast Park Hill have far more of them.

Park Hill Park, the old golf course

The Park Hill Golf Course closed in 2018. Voters turned down a plan to redevelop it in 2023, the city took it over in a land swap, and it opened as Park Hill Park on October 28, 2025. At 155 acres, it is the largest acquisition of private land for a park in Denver's history. Right now it's rolling grassland with one paved walkway. The master plan shows a dog park, playground, community garden, athletic fields, mini golf, a picnic pavilion and an event lawn, and the city takes the design back to neighbors in 2027. Buying near it means living beside a work in progress for a while.

On the other side of Colorado Boulevard, City Park's 330 acres hold the Denver Zoo, the Museum of Nature and Science and two lakes.

Kearney Street and 23rd Avenue

The 2200 block of Kearney Street was zoned for small stores in 1926 and still works that way. The old Tower Theatre at 2245 Kearney was the neighborhood movie house until the 1980s. Bistro Vendôme spent 19 years on Larimer Square before moving to 2267 Kearney in 2023, and it's known for steak frites and weekend brunch. Down the block, Cake Crumbs has been a Park Hill bakery and cafe for well over a decade, with ready-made "In a Pinch" cakes in the case every day. On 23rd Avenue, Spinelli's Market has been serving sandwiches and groceries since 1994 and was Westword readers' pick for best specialty market in 2025.

Getting around

Colorado Boulevard runs the west edge, Colfax the south and Quebec the east. The 40th & Colorado station sits where Park Hill meets Elyria-Swansea, on the A Line between Union Station and the airport, with 200 park-and-ride spaces. If that lot is full, Central Park station, one stop east, has 1,500.