History On Tap: A Saturday Walk Through Potter Highlands

History On Tap is heading to Potter Highlands for a Saturday afternoon walk.

Come early to Leevers Locavore and grab a coffee, a drink or something to eat. At 2:00 we head out for a level 1.5 mile tour led by Sam Ward, a docent with 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. Doctors opened tuberculosis sanitariums here to get patients above Denver's coal smoke. There wasn't a saloon in the place until after Prohibition, so we're saving the beer for after the walk.

The neighborhood is named for Reverend Walter Potter, who homesteaded 320 acres here in 1864 and died two years later at twenty-nine. He left the land to fund construction of Denver's First Baptist Church, and it was sold to developers to make that happen. He never saw a house go up.

Sam will walk us past the mansions, bungalows, cottages and foursquares that did go up, and tell us about the families who lived in them.

Here's how the afternoon runs:

Before 2:00 PM: Come early for coffee, a drink or a bite at Leevers Locavore

2:00 PM: We walk one block south to the Patrick McGowan house, 2633 W 37th Ave, where the tour begins

About 3:30 PM: Tour ends back at the McGowan house

After the tour: Beers at Leevers for anyone who wants to stay

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