Washington Park East Neighborhood Association

Historic Washington Park.1

Would you believe what we know today as Smith Lake in Washington Park was once a buffalo wallow? When humans moved in, the buffalo moved on. What was left was a most unattractive plot of barren land with “no tree or even a shrub upon it”. By the mid 1800s the area was being used, at the peak of the irrigation season, as a storage reservoir. In the Winter ice was cut from the wallow and stored in icehouses for the City’s summer ice needs.

Then in the early 1890s residents of Denver’s first “suburb” decided that they wanted a large central park. South Denverites began talking to their mayor. But the economic collapse of 1893 put the issue on the back burner. Due to the hard times, South Denver voted to be annexed in the same year. Once annexed the issue of a park in south Denver re-surfaced. The Vaughn administration agreed that it was a good idea and chose the Smith Lake area.

The City had been leasing the lake since 1872 for $2,500 a year. (Remember the City’s need for ice). The lake was now owned by Laura Smith Porter who had inherited it from her father John W. Smith of Smith’s Ditch fame. When the City approached Ms. Smith-Porter about purchasing the lake, she agreed. However the title could not be found. By 1897 the city had paid the value of the property and wanted possession. But still the deal could not be concluded.

Rumors began to float that someone with “plenty of capital” was trying to build a pleasure resort at the lake site. The Denver Republican, a leading newspaper of the time, warned “if the trustees do not secure the Smith Lake property, the sheet of water and its surroundings will be turned into a resort”. The Park commissioners were frustrated, the residents were angry, and the Mayor was feeling the heat. So Mayor Thomas McMurray did what any mayor worth his salt would do. He gave orders to condemn not only the 20 acres of Smith Lake but an additional 40 more acres to the south. Proceedings began in October 1897. But still the matter could not be resolved. The park site remained bound up in legal difficulties until June of 1899.

In the meantime the newspapers had a heyday. The Denver Eye accused both the McMurray and the new Johnson administration of “corruption and working some sort of graft scheme in the affair to get Smith Lake”. The Eye stated “this new purchase was a result of a political deal in which the creditors would take all the profits”. Who would have thought, some hundred years later, similar things would be said about another deal – DIA.

Finally in June 1899 the park got off the ground. In July the City purchased an additional 30 acres from Kentucky to Mississippi and Marion to Franklin for $25,500. Washington was picked as the name from a list which included Broadview, Sylvan, Romona, Ouray. Landscaping finally began in August. And the rest is history as they say.

If you want to learn more about our neighborhood history and want a few laughs, come to the next neighborhood association meeting January 20 - 7p.m. at the Denver Academy auditorium. Historian Phil Goodstein will be illuminating our spicy history by sharing his wonderful collection of facts and stories. See there. If you have questions or comments give me a call Terry Andrews 733-6704 Andrews