Denver's tree-lined parkways are a designed historic system

The wide, tree-lined streets that cut through older Denver neighborhoods are not accidents. They were planned, in the early 1900s, as part of one connected park-and-parkway system.

City planners and landscape architects of the day, including the Olmsted Brothers and local designers like Saco DeBoer, drew up grand boulevards to link parks across the city. The idea, part of the national City Beautiful movement, was that the route between parks should be beautiful too. That is why some Denver streets carry medians, mature trees, and a different feel from a plain through-road.

Why this matters to a resident: many of these parkways carry historic recognition as a system, and some have rules about trees and changes along them. It also explains the character, and sometimes the price, of homes that sit on a designated parkway. The leafy street is a designed feature with a long history, not just landscaping.

For the system’s history and which streets are designated parkways, start with History Colorado and Denver Parks and Recreation.