History On Tap: Drinks and a Walk Through Potter Highlands

History On Tap is heading north for our next walk, this time through Potter Highlands.

We'll start with a drink and some catching up at Leevers Locavore at 5:00, then walk one block over for a level 1.5 mile tour led by Sam Ward of Historic Denver.

Highlands was its own town before Denver annexed it in 1896, and it sold itself as the high-minded alternative to the city below: clean air, clean water and high morals. There wasn't a saloon in the place until after Prohibition, which we will try not to take personally.

The people who moved up here built to match. The showpiece is the Lumber Baron at 2555 W 37th Avenue, the Queen Anne John Mouat built in 1890 for his wife Amelia and their five children. Mouat owned a lumber company and he used it: cherry, sycamore, oak and walnut throughout, and the largest private ballroom in the city on the top floor. Three years later the silver crash wiped out his fortune. Our walk starts and ends right next door.

Sam will take us through the mansions, bungalows, cottages and foursquares around it, and the families who lived in them.

Here's how the evening runs:

5:00 PM: Meet up and drinks at Leevers Locavore
6:00 to 6:15 PM: Tour begins at the Patrick McGowan house, 2633 W 37th Ave
7:30 PM: Tour ends back at the McGowan house

Cost is $20, and all proceeds go directly to Historic Denver as a donation to support their work. Space is limited, so sign up ahead of time to hold your spot.