Villa Park Neighborhood Assoc.

A little bit of Villa Park History....

Mar 05, 2001

The Villa Park neighborhood got its start in
1871, when a mixture of Colorado and eastern developers bought 1000 acres in what is now Villa Park-Barnum area. According to the Rock Mountain News of August 24, 1871, the group planned a subdivision which would include artifical lakes in ravines on the property, grand views, and streets with pedestrian walkways.

Inital plans for the area included a hotel, landscaping by the man who designed Central Park in New York City, and a design consultation group to review plans for the new housing.
Eight years later, in 1879, the still largely-undeveloped land was sold to Phineas Barnum, whose family was extremely active in real estate development in Denver. Barnum is credited with establishing Villa Park School in 1879. From 1900 to 1939, slow but steady residential development occured in Villa Park. An average of 14 dwelling units were added per year, with a total of 577 single and multi-unit dwellings added during this time.
Over 91.5% of these were single-unit dwellings. From the 1940's through 1950's, the area was largely built-out with single-unit dwellings. During the late 1950's, and into the 1960's and 1970's, multi-unit construction predominated, particularly on sites at the western edge of Villa Park.

Villa Park's hilly topography provides panoramic views of downtown Denver and the Rocky Mountains,particularly fromLakewood/Dry Gulch which divides the neigbhorhood diagonally. The gulches and ravines provide open space for bikeways and parks. The Lakewood/Dry Gulch bikeway connects the Platte River Valley Greenway and truly is an asset to the Villa Park Neighborhood.