Cheesman Park is a city park and neighborhood located in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States.
Video Cheesman Park, Denver
Geography
Cheesman Park is located in central Denver, southeast of downtown. The Park has an unclear border, as it is framed on 3 sides by private residences, but is located in the center of the Cheesman Park neighborhood, between Humboldt Street to the west, Race Street and the Denver Botanic Gardens to the east, 13th Avenue to the north, and 8th Avenue on South. Boundaries of the surroundings:
- West: Downing Street
- East: York Road
- North: Colfax Avenue
- South: 8th Avenue
80 hectares of garden land planted with 1880 trees of 57 different species. These include the American Linden garden in the western part of the park, American elm, Black Walnut, Green Ash and large conifers such as Colorado Blue Spruce and Douglas Fir.
Maps Cheesman Park, Denver
Initial garden history
At the end of the 19th century, the current land of Cheesman Park is the Prospect Hill Cemetery, which also includes the now Denver Botanical Garden and the more eastern Congress Park. The old graves used were converted into parks opened in 1907, after city planners felt it would make it easier for new residents because land development moved east from downtown. The park was originally named for a US Congress granting permission to turn the cemetery into the park and renamed Cheesman Park in honor of the Denver pioneer Walter Cheesman whose family donated funds to the neoclassical pavilion on the east side of the park in his honor. shortly after his death.
The cemetery was opened in 1858 and the first burial took place the following year. In 1872, the US Government determined that the property where the cemetery was located was actually a federal land, which had been submitted to the government in 1860 by a treaty with Arapaho. The government then offered the land to the city of Denver that bought it for $ 200. Though it is now largely still remembered as Mt. The Prospect Cemetery, in 1873 the grave's name was changed to the Denver City Cemetery.
Over time in different areas graves are set up for different religions, ethnic groups and fraternal organizations such as the Odd Fellows, the Society of Masons, Roman Catholics, Jews, the Grand Army of the Republic, and a separate section on the southern end for the Chinese. Some parts are well cared for by the offspring of their family or organization, but others are highly neglected. In 1875, 20 acres (81,000 m 2 ) in the northeastern part of the cemetery (just east of where the botanical gardens are now) were sold to the Hebrew Burial Society, which later defended it, while most of the graves fell further into the collapse. In the late 1880s, graves were rarely used and in a state of heavily damaged, spoiling the scene in what has become one of the most exclusive parts of the fast-growing city. Real estate developers are soon starting to lobby for the park to be in place, not an unused cemetery. Shortly, Colorado Senator Henry Moore Teller persuaded the US Congress to allow the old graves converted into the park. On January 25, 1890, Congress authorized the city to vacate Mt. Funeral Prospect and recognition, Teller renamed the Congress Park area.
Families are given 90 days to move the bodies of their loved ones to another location. Those who can afford this start moving bodies to other graves throughout the city and elsewhere. Due to the many graves in the Roman Catholic section of the east, Mayor Joseph E. Bates sold an area of ​​40 acres (160,000 m 2 ) to the archdiocese, later named Mountain. Calvary Cemetery. The Chinese section of the grave was given to a large population of Chinese living in the "Hop Alley" district of Denver. Most of these corpses were later transferred and sent to their homeland in China.
Several years passed while the city waited for residents to move the remnants of their families, but few did. Most of the people buried in the cemetery are the homeless, the bad guy, and the poor, which probably has much to do with why most of the body, over 5,000, remains unclaimed. In 1893, the City of Denver subsequently awarded the contract to the decision maker E.P. McGovern wiped out the remains. McGovern will provide a "fresh" casket for every body and then transfer it to Riverside Cemetery at a cost of $ 1.90 each. The terrible work began on March 14, 1893, while various audiences of seekers of curiosity and journalists came and went. During the first few days, the transfer is regular. However, unscrupulous McGovern soon found a way to make greater profits on the contract. Instead of using a full-size crate for an adult, he uses a child-sized chest with only a foot 3 ½ feet long. One source claimed this was done at least partly because of the shortage of coffins caused by mining accidents in Utah. Hacking the body, McGovern sometimes uses as many as three boxes for one body only. In haste, their body parts and bones are literally scattered everywhere in an irregular disorder. Their haste also allows souvenir and audience hunters to help themselves to the items from the coffin.
The Denver Republican newspaper carried news breaking news, the headline on March 19, 1893 read: "The Work of Ghouls!" The article explains, in detail, McGovern's practice of hacking what is sometimes still intact from a corpse and putting it in a child-sized coffin. This article partially describes the scene:
"The grave lines that have been marred on the southern border of the cemetery make everyone confused and horrified by the appearance they present.At around the edges they are stacked with crumpled coffins, rags and tattered shrouds and fragments of clothing that has been torn from the corpses... All trampled to the ground by traces of gravedigators like refuse dumps. "
Mayor Rogers canceled the contract and City Health Commissioner initiated the investigation. Although many graves have not been reached and others are exposed, new contracts for transferring bodies have never been given.
Garden construction and changes
The city built a temporary wooden fence around the cemetery and in 1894, the assessment and leveling started in preparation for the garden, although some open graves would not be filled until 1902. Finally the bushes were planted and holes were filled in which the coffin had been removed. The work was completed in 1907, without ever moving the rest of the body.
The Denver landscape architect, German-born Reinhard Schuetze, did the preliminary design for the park with its twisty coaches that joined in the 8-figure, pavilion and reflecting pool and green central pastures outlined in the trees. Schuetze died in 1910 before the park was completed, but his successor S.R. DeBoer completed the park with many intact Schuetze plans. The central connecting ramp of figure-8 is then removed and the grass is planted in its place. High Street also originally walked through the park, passing east of the marble pavilion, but was eventually removed, with grass and trees taking its place.
The Cheesman Memorial was built in 1908 from the Colorado Yule marble, in Neoclassical style, on an elevated platform with retaining walls wrapped in ashlar stones and topped by a decorative ledge. The walls are fitted with a fountain and an inset with a large staircase approaching the pavilion, in the style of the Italian Renaissance Garden. At the base of the support platform to the west are three large reflecting pools, used as a wading pool in the summer until the 1970s. Between 1934 and 1972 the Denver Post sponsored open-air performances of Broadway musicals and operas performed at the pavilion. The famous Olmsted Brothers designed the landscape around the memorial; in 1912 an esplanade with an official parterre for flower planting was installed between the memorial monument and Williams Street to the east.
In the 1970s the pavilion and supporting pole were in greatly damaged condition. The city authorities restored the pavilion but decided to change the platform altogether with the sloping lawn and simple concrete steps. Currently only pavilions and ponds are left over from the original compound. New grading means that many of the original formal landscapes disappeared during this period, replaced by modest flowers and rose gardens in the north.
The area on the south edge of the park, near the 8th junction and the Williams Streets, used to be used as a Chinese cemetery used as a city tree and shrubs until 1930 when the WPA project was turned into an addition to the park. The Catholic Church moved most of the remains of those buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery and sold the land back to town in 1950. The city's block-sized park is now Cheesman Esplanade, often called "Little Cheesman Park" by the locals..
Modern Garden
In November 2008, during the initial construction of a new parking structure for the Denver Botanic Gardens between York and Josephine Streets, human bones and casket sections were excavated. The bodies were removed and buried in a different cemetery and construction was allowed to continue.
In 2008 an assessment by City and County Denver proposed recovering much of Cheesman Park along the lines of the original plan of 1902 compiled by Reinhardt Scheutze. This will include replanting many lost trees over the years, removing obstructive vegetation, and restoring the parkway to the original 8-figure design. Retaining walls, fountains, and stairs that once supported the Cheesman Memorial will also be restored along with the esplanade and park that once surrounded the pavilion.
Cheesman Park is considered a gathering place among gay communities in Denver. The LGBT-related events taking place in the park include the annual PrideFest parade, which usually takes place during June and travels from Cheesman Park to the Civic Center Park near the city center. Also, AIDS Walk Colorado takes place in and around the park every year, usually during September.
The Cheesman Park Neighborhood
The Cheesman Park neighborhood is one of the oldest in Denver, with towns dating from 1868 and annexed by the City of Denver in 1883, although its construction was slow at first. In 1915, with the completion of the park, the neighborhood was largely developed with large houses for some of the city's richest men. But since the 1930s, the environment has become increasingly crowded with many apartment buildings.
The Cheesman Park neighborhood borders north-south by Colfax and 8th Avenues, and east-west by Downing and Josephine Streets. The Cheesman Park neighborhood is often regarded as part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver (to the west), as the northern Cheesman Park settlement area is part of the city's "Capitol Hill" division on February 14, 1882, and the southern residential area. was part of the "South Capitol Hill Division" division on August 26, 1882. At that time, this "fashionable dwelling district" was occupied by the city's "business and professional class."
This neighborhood has a population density of over 12,000 people per square mile, far exceeding the average density of Denver 3,600 people per square mile, due to the many high-rise and intermediate apartments and condominiums that surround the park. However, the environment contains not only modern solid dwelling units; It also contains three historic residential districts of Denver: Wyman, Addition of Morgan, and Humboldt Island. This historic district now preserves the home of various architectural styles, from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century.
This neighborhood was dominated by white and middle classes with an average household income of $ 42,477 in 2008, and a higher average education level than the city as a whole. This neighborhood has more unmarried people than the average Denver (only 13.2% married, compared with 34.7% for the whole city), with only 2.6% having children, compared with 15.0% for cities, and consequently have smaller average household sizes.
There are more tenants than homeowners in the neighborhood; apartment area is a mixture of newer and older apartment buildings, and conversion of older luxury homes into apartments. Only about a quarter of the neighborhood's population lives in the occupied unit, and the average value of a single separate family home is $ 791,976 in 2008, more than double the city average of $ 341,104.
Cheesman Park has a fairly urban character with its density and proximity to the central part of the city. The environmental crime rate is close to the city average. It contains several areas of commercial activity especially north of the park between the 13th and Colfax roads, and also home to the 23-acre (93,000 m 2 ) Denver Botanical Gardens.
Movie inspiration
Writer and playwright Russell Hunter said in a 1980 interview that he based many elements of The Changeling on his first month's experience in Denver in 1968, while living in a large house at 1739 East 13th Avenue in north edge of Cheesman Park. The house was demolished in the 1970's and condo buildings now stand on site. Although the film is set in Seattle, the home that became the center of the film is called "Cheesman" House, a nod to Denver's inspiration.
See also
- Yule marble
References
External links
- Cheesman Park, Backyard of Capitol Hill
- Denver Public Library: Denver Area Cemetery
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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