Whittier

Whittier is the stretch of North Denver between Downing Street and York Street, from 23rd Avenue north to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which is 32nd Avenue. Five Points is across Downing to the west, Skyland is across York to the east, and City Park West is south of 23rd. Downtown is about two miles to the southwest.

Platted early and named for a school

This is some of the oldest ground in Denver outside the original town. The Case Addition, in the northeast corner, was filed in 1868, and the city's first annexation, in February 1874, took in part of the neighborhood. Most of the building came in the 1870s and 1880s. The name comes from Whittier School, on the east side of Downing between 24th and 25th Avenues, which honors the poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier. The original Robert Roeschlaub school building was torn down, but its 1934 gym is still there.

The houses, almost all of them prewar

Denver Assessor open data counts 1,260 detached single-family houses in Whittier, and 90% were built before 1940. Only about 5% have gone up since 2000, and the median house is 1,500 square feet. That count leaves out condos, rowhomes and small apartment buildings. Queen Annes went up in the 1880s. After the Silver Crash of 1893, builders dropped them for the plainer Foursquare, and Craftsman houses followed in the early 1900s. At a median of 1,500 square feet, space is worth asking about house by house. A newer house here is rare, so if that's what you want, expect to wait for one of the few infill builds or look for a prewar house that's been redone.

A few blocks are worth a slow drive. Babcock Row is four houses on Vine Street, 2337 through 2361, on lots Henry C. Babcock bought in 1879. Over on Race, 2332 to 2336 is a Queen Anne duplex. At 2501 High Street, stonemason Robert Russell built a house of rough-cut Castle Rock lava stone. Buffalo Bill Cody died in 1917 at his sister's Queen Anne at 2932 Lafayette Street, built around 1892, and a metal bison stands in the yard.

The 1902 Foursquare at 2329 N. Gaylord St., home to former mayor Wellington Webb and Wilma Webb since 1971, became an official Denver landmark in June 2026 on a unanimous City Council vote. The Webbs talked over his 1991 run for mayor in the living room.

Fuller Park and Morrison Park

Horace J. Fuller donated the land for Fuller Park in 1879, which makes it Denver's second-oldest park, and it has a dog park. Nearby is Manual High School at 27th and Franklin, where the first building went up in 1894. After a fire, the present building was dedicated in 1953. George Morrison Sr. Park, on the neighborhood's north side, has a memorial and signs on Morrison, known as the godfather of Denver jazz, and the Five Points music scene.

Coffee on 25th, dinner on 28th

Whittier is mostly houses, so most errands mean heading out of the neighborhood. Two places are worth knowing. Whittier Cafe, at 1710 E. 25th Ave., is an espresso bar built around African coffee, with beer and wine from the same countries, pastries and burritos, and an East African coffee ceremony on Sundays at 2 p.m. Point Easy, at 2000 E. 28th Ave., serves house-made pastas and a seasonal menu built with local farms, Tuesday through Saturday evenings.

Getting around

Downing, York, 23rd and MLK frame the neighborhood. The 30th & Downing light rail station, at 2999 Downing on the Five Points side of the west edge, is the north end of the L Line into downtown, and RTD buses 12, 28, 38 and 43 stop there. The L Line is suspended during RTD's downtown rail reconstruction, with service planned to return in 2027, so check RTD before you count on the train for a commute.