Cheesman Park
Cheesman Park is a historic public park located southeast of downtown Denver, Colorado, recognized as one of the city's oldest neighborhoods and green spaces. Sitting amid the mansions of Capitol Hill, the park occupies land that carries among the most unusual and consequential histories of any urban green space in the American West. From its origins as Denver's first cemetery to its present-day role as a center of recreation, community events, and civic life, Cheesman Park remains a defining feature of the city's cultural and geographic landscape.
History and Origins
The land that would eventually become Cheesman Park has been part of Denver's story since the very earliest days of European-American settlement in the region. The area that is now home to Cheesman Park, the Denver Botanic Gardens, and Congress Park was originally a barren hillside that served as the city's first cemetery.[1] This burial ground predates the formalized development of the surrounding neighborhoods and reflects the rapid, sometimes chaotic, growth that characterized Denver in its earliest years as a frontier settlement.
The park's history began in 1858 when General William Larimer played an early role in shaping the site's trajectory.[2] Denver at that time was an ambitious but raw settlement, and the need for public burial grounds was an immediate practical concern. The cemetery that occupied this hillside served residents of the young city for decades, accumulating thousands of burials over the course of the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The transformation of the cemetery into a public park was neither smooth nor without controversy. When city officials determined to convert the land to recreational use, the process of relocating remains proved deeply problematic. Many bodies were never properly moved, and in the years since, construction projects and erosion events have periodically brought human remains back to the surface, serving as unsettling reminders of the land's original purpose.[3] This aspect of Cheesman Park's past has made it a subject of enduring local fascination and has contributed to its reputation in popular culture, particularly in accounts focusing on Denver's ghost lore and unusual history.
The Park Today
Cheesman Park is situated southeast of the Denver downtown area and is considered one of the city's oldest established neighborhoods as well as one of its most beloved green spaces.[4] The park is bounded by some of the most architecturally significant residential streets in Denver, surrounded by Capitol Hill mansions that speak to the wealth that flowed through the city during its late nineteenth and early twentieth century boom years.
On any given day, the park serves a wide cross-section of Denver residents. Couples relax on the grounds, children play in open areas, and joggers make their way past gardens and formal plantings.[5] The park's open lawns, pathways, and central pavilion make it a natural gathering point for the surrounding neighborhoods, which include some of Denver's most densely populated and walkable residential districts.
The park is also notable for its proximity to the Denver Botanic Gardens and Congress Park, with which it shares a contiguous stretch of green space on what was once that original cemetery hillside.[6] Together, these spaces form among the most significant corridors of public green space in the city's eastern residential neighborhoods.
The Cheesman Park Pavilion
among the most recognizable features of the park is the Cheesman Park Pavilion, a neoclassical structure that anchors the park's central area. The pavilion has served as a backdrop for community gatherings, public ceremonies, and informal social activities throughout the park's history as a recreational space. Its architectural character is consistent with the grand civic ambitions that Denver's planners brought to public infrastructure at the turn of the twentieth century, when many American cities were investing heavily in parks and public buildings intended to signal civic maturity and sophistication.
The pavilion remains a popular venue for photographing the Denver skyline and for organized events that draw participants from across the city and beyond. Its elevated position within the park offers sweeping views, and it has become one of the more photographed landmarks in Denver's residential neighborhoods.
Community and Neighborhood Context
Cheesman Park is embedded within a network of neighborhoods that are among Denver's most historically significant. The surrounding Capitol Hill area is defined by its large Victorian and Edwardian mansions, many of which were built during the silver and gold boom years of the late nineteenth century. This architectural legacy gives the immediate surroundings of the park a character quite different from the newer residential developments found in other parts of the city.
The park serves residents from a range of nearby neighborhoods. Dog owners and residents from Capitol Hill, Park Hill, the Highlands, and other Denver communities regularly use the park and its surrounding green spaces for recreation and exercise.[7]
The park has also long been recognized as an important gathering point for Denver's LGBTQ+ community. Its central location and open character have made it a site for community events, informal gatherings, and organized activities. Cheesman Park has appeared in coverage of Pride events and LGBTQ+ community activities in Denver, reflecting its role as a welcoming and inclusive public space in the city.[8]
Events and Cultural Life
The park has been the setting for a wide variety of public events that reflect the breadth of Denver's cultural life. Among the more distinctive recurring events associated with the space is the Denver Memorial Day Tango Festival, which has drawn participants from across the country to dance in and around the park. In 2007, participants at the festival were recorded describing the experience of dancing at Cheesman Park, with the park's setting described as beautiful and conducive to the kind of focused, sensory engagement that tango dancing demands. One participant noted that dancing without music near the park's pool allowed dancers to focus more on the sound of their feet and engage more of their senses, with the rhythm provided by the splashing of water.[9]
This kind of event — drawing participants from other states who make Cheesman Park a destination in its own right — speaks to the park's reputation beyond Denver's city limits. The Memorial Day Tango Festival is just one example of how the park's combination of natural beauty, historic character, and accessible urban location makes it attractive for organized public gatherings.
The park's lawns and open areas have also served as staging grounds and assembly points for civic demonstrations, community marches, and other organized public activities. Its size and central location make it a practical choice for organizers, and its long history as a public gathering space gives such events a certain resonance.[10]
Environmental and Urban Context
Cheesman Park exists within a broader conversation about Denver's park system and the equitable distribution of green space across the city. Denver has in recent years examined the ways in which its park infrastructure reflects historical patterns of investment and neglect, and how access to quality green space has not always been evenly distributed across different communities and neighborhoods.[11]
Cheesman Park itself, given its location in a historically affluent neighborhood, has generally benefited from sustained investment and maintenance over the years. The quality of the park's gardens, pathways, and facilities reflects this history of stewardship. However, discussions about park equity in Denver necessarily involve considering how parks like Cheesman compare to green spaces in less wealthy parts of the city, and what obligations the city has to ensure that all residents have access to comparable quality of public outdoor space.
The park's gardens represent a deliberate horticultural investment, and their maintenance contributes to the overall character of this section of Denver. The continuity between Cheesman Park, the Denver Botanic Gardens, and Congress Park creates an extended zone of cultivated and semi-cultivated green space that is unusual in its scale within a dense urban residential neighborhood.
Legacy and Significance
Cheesman Park occupies a distinctive position in Denver's civic identity. Its unusual history — from frontier cemetery to public park — gives it a depth of meaning that few urban green spaces can claim. The periodic resurfacing of remains from the original cemetery has kept that history present and visible in a way that is unavoidable for the park's stewards and residents.[12] This layered history makes Cheesman Park not just a place of recreation but also a site of memory, where the city's origins remain literally embedded in the ground.
The park's role as a neighborhood anchor in one of Denver's most historically significant residential districts adds to its importance. Surrounded by Capitol Hill mansions and adjacent to cultural institutions including the Denver Botanic Gardens, Cheesman Park functions as a connective tissue between different aspects of Denver's historical and contemporary identity.[13]
As Denver continues to grow and evolve, Cheesman Park remains one of the constants in the city's landscape — a space that has witnessed the full arc of the city's development, from its earliest days as a frontier settlement through its emergence as a major American city, and continues to serve the daily recreational needs of thousands of residents.