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April 18, 2023

The Hidden History of Cherry Creek

City Cast Denver

The Hidden History of Cherry Creek

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Cherry Creek Week continues!

Sometimes it feels like the only constant in Denver is change. And that feeling is especially present in Cherry Creek, a community that today is known as a high-end shopping destination — but it wasn’t always this way. The neighborhood is named for the waterway running alongside it, a natural resource that has been attracting people for hundreds of years. Back in the mid-1800s, settlers came from all over the country to make a home in Colorado, including many Black families and homesteaders who put down roots in what at the time was known as the town of Harman. Today, host Bree Davies hears from Terri Gentry of History Colorado and retired judge Gary Jackson about the Black families of early Cherry Creek, as well as the area’s evolution under Temple Buell’s vision from farmland to city dump to the wealthy neighborhood of this century. 


Don’t miss the $15 million real estate listing Bree cited for the home that was once Harman Town Hall!


Bree also mentioned the original Quiznos, on 13th Ave., and the Nuggets opening playoff win


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