Virginia Village

Virginia Village covers a big piece of southeast Denver, about five miles from downtown. Colorado Boulevard is the west edge, I-25 clips the southwest corner, Evans Avenue runs along the south and Quebec Street the east, and Mississippi Avenue and Cherry Creek close it off up top. Holly Street splits it down the middle, and the two neighborhood associations split the same way: Virginia Village Ellis to the west, Cook Park to the east.

Mostly houses from the 1940s and '50s

Denver Assessor records count 3,311 detached houses here, and 77 percent of them went up between 1940 and 1959. Another 20 percent came between 1960 and 1999. Brick ranches are the everyday house, with townhomes, shopping plazas and some apartment and office towers closer to the big roads.

The median detached house is about 1,240 square feet. If you'll need more room down the road, check the lot and what the zoning allows for an addition before you write an offer.

Krisana Park and Lynwood, the Wolff tracts

Two pockets break the ranch pattern. H.B. Wolff and his son Brad started building Krisana Park in 1954 on what had been an alfalfa field, taking their cue from California builder Joseph Eichler. It's 175 houses between Dahlia Street and Fairfax Street, from Florida Avenue to Louisiana Avenue. Wolff sold them as "3-D Contemporary" houses: low-pitched or flat roofs, carports, open plans, side entrances, small windows on the street and big glass facing a courtyard or backyard. Houses sit at varied angles to the street, unlike a standard tract.

Lynwood is Wolff's other tract, across Holly: east of Holly to Jasmine Street, between Mexico and Jewell Avenues, ringed by brick ranches. It went up in the mid-1950s from five or six basic models, most of them between 1,230 and 1,290 square feet.

What you can build in Krisana Park

Denver put a conservation overlay, CO-5, on Krisana Park's 176 houses in 2016. It isn't a historic district, but it does limit size. Houses top out at 1.5 stories and 18 feet, where the base zoning would allow 2.5 stories and 30 feet. Rooftop and second-story decks are off the table, and the rear setback drops from 20 feet to 15 so additions can spread back instead of up. If a full second story is part of your plan, buy somewhere else. A voluntary pattern book from Historic Denver and CU Denver lays out what to keep and what to update on these houses, and it's worth a read before you remodel.

Cook Park and the creek

Cook Park Recreation Center sits at 7100 Cherry Creek South Drive near Monaco Parkway. It has a gym, an outdoor pool, pickleball and a pottery studio. The Cherry Creek Trail passes the park on its roughly 40-mile run from the Confluence downtown out to Cherry Creek State Park. If an off-street ride downtown matters to you, start your search on the streets nearest the creek.

Holly Street errands

Esters Neighborhood Pub, at 1950 South Holly, is a beer and pizza place that opened in 2015 and landed fourth on Westword's 2016 list of Denver's best pizzas. Detour Bakery, at 1479 South Holly, made Westword's 2017 list of the city's best croissants. Go early, because the case gets picked over. The Virginia Village Branch Library, at Florida Avenue and Dahlia Street, stands on the site of an old carnation greenhouse.

Light rail, and where growth is headed

Colorado Station, in the southwest corner next to the Colorado Center offices and movie theater, has 363 parking spaces. The E Line stops there. The H Line is suspended during the Downtown Rail Reconstruction, and a temporary T Line fills in until it returns.

The Near Southeast Area Plan, adopted in May 2023, points new growth at Evans Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, two of Virginia Village's edges, and at the land around Colorado Station. If you buy near either road or the station, expect more building nearby over the coming years.