The Congress Park neighborhood is bounded on the west by York Street, on the north by Colfax Avenue, on the east by Colorado Boulevard and on the south by Sixth Avenue.

In a survey of residents and businesses of Congress Park conducted in the Fall of 1992, neighbors reported that the following characteristics about the neighborhood were valued the most:
1) Location
2) Sense of Community
3) Old Homes
4) Cultural and Economic Diversity
5) Parks, Mature Trees, Green Space.

From this survey, the vision statement for Congress Park was developed as follows:

“Congress Park is a traditional city neighborhood with a small town atmosphere.
Here people of diverse cultures, ages, colors and economic background share a
sense of community, value older homes and mature trees, and enjoy
the convenience of city living amid the stability of a thriving neighborhood.”

HISTORY

Up through the Pikes Peak gold rush of the 1850’s, the Congress Park area was Native American land. By 1860, however, the young City of Denver, only two miles to the west, had rapidly grown to a population of 5,000, with six men to every woman.

As the first stagecoaches were arriving in Denver in the late 1850’s,William Larimer, one of the city’s founders, sited the park-like Mount Prospect Cemetery on a prominent hill to reinforce the image of Denver as a refined city. The area the cemetery encompassed evolved over the next 100 years into present-day Cheesman Park, the Morgan Addition, Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver Water Board Reservoirs, and Congress Park, for which the neighborhood is named.

The coming of the railroad through Denver in 1870 paralleled another sudden surge in growth. Between1880 and 1890 the city’s population boomed from over 35,000 to nearly 107,000. Through the 1880’s,Denver’s air was so polluted because of unpaved roads, coal and wood furnaces, smelting and otherindustries that wealthy residents looked to the outskirts of Denver, such as Capitol Hill, for cleaner air andreclaimed mountain views.With the expansion of public transit, including cable cars, to Colfax Avenue in the late 1880’s and early 1890’s, the eastern reaches of Capitol Hill became more accessible to the middle class. Because Colfax was the main route downtown, homes were first built along its corridor to the north (now City Park South neighborhood) and to the south (now Congress Park neighborhood). Between 1887 and 1888, the neighborhood was completely platted into more than ten subdivisions of various sizes. On March 11, 1889, the area was incorporated into Denver as part of a larger annexation by the city.

Many of the neighborhood’s historic structures were built in the next decade. Examples are:

During World War I and into the 1920’s, the park was the home of the City Nursery and had the largest VICTORY Garden in the City. A portion of the park was converted to playing fields during the 1930’s through a WPA project which also built the terraced walls and planted the trees. It was known as Victory Park up until its rededication as Congress Park in 1949. A landmark to the neighborhood, the 1939 candy-striped smokestack at “Signal Hill” north of the park was a primary structure at Denver’s emergency alert system facilities which expanded in 1993 to become the city’s Combined Communication Center.

Congress Park’s neighborhood commercial centers, always convenient to the neighborhood pedestrian,
have also evolved over the years not only in response to the growth of the neighborhood but also due to the changes in modes of mass transportation. Horse-drawn streetcars carried downtown commuters along both Colfax and 12th Avenues in the 1900’s.Around street car stops such as 12th and Madison, merchants’ small businesses flourished and these centers are still thriving, although the horses have been replaced over time by trolleys (1920-30), then electric buses (1940’s) and today’s (starting in 1956) diesel buses.

Congress Park’s continued prosperity as a residential neighborhood is tied directly to its ability to maintain the very factors that created its stable history: a close-in neighborhood of quiet tree-lined streets, parks, stable housing stock and pedestrian-oriented neighborhood shopping.

The Park

Congress Park is located at 9th Ave. and Elizabeth Street. Amenities include an outdoor swimming pool with children's wading pool and bathhouse, 8 tennis courts, 2 informal softball fields, 1 soccer field, 1 playground, 2 parking lots, 1 covered picnic area by playground, basketball court, several picnic benches throughout the park, and restroom facilities. Artworks in Congress Park include: Parked Perspectives, 1991 Susan Cooper; Water Friends at Play, 1991 Julie Burrington; and Flame of Compassion, 1994 Ross Barrable.

Congress and Cheesman were once one park known as Congress Park. The name came from the Act of Congress that converted Denver’s former cemeteries from Federal to City ownership. The main western part of the park would be renamed in honor of Denver water baron Walter S. Cheesman

.In 1858, General William Larimer jumped the claim of the St. Charles Town Company and established his own town he called Denver. (Claim jumping was a socially acceptable means of acquiring property at the time; especially since the land in question legally belonged to the Arapaho Indians.) While Larimer promoted his town by claiming it had the world’s healthiest climate, he realized his claim had limits, and it would eventually need a cemetery. One November morning, he and his son staked out a cemetery on the site of the present Cheesman and Congress Parks.

The first burial was likely that of a quiet man who died a natural death. Most prefer the story of John Stoefel, a German immigrant who pursued his brother-in-law from the east to avenge an unknown act. On April 7, 1859, the pursued’s body was found near present day Arvada. After confessing, Stoefel was tried and convicted by a "people’s jury". A cottonwood located near the present Tenth Street and Cherry Creek facilitated the traditional penalty of the day. Cemetery owner Larimer used the wagon that had provided Stoefel with his last earthly support to transport him to his final resting place.

Larimer named the site Prospect Hill Cemetery, although he often referred to it as Mount Prospect. It was informally known as Bone Yard, Boot Hill and after an incident occurring in March of 1860, Jack O’Neil’s Ranch.

Professional gambler Jack O’Neil was popular, handsome and very Irish. In a billiard saloon, he quarreled with a less than creditable Mormon named Rooker. O’Neill suggested the argument be settled by both being locked in a dark room with bowie knives. Rooker refused, so O’Neil questioned his pedigree and that of several of his family members. Several days later, O’Neil was walking down Ferry Street. A door of the Western Saloon provided cover for Rooker as he used a shotgun to settle the argument in his favor. Fleeing, but eventually returning; he was tried and acquitted. The Rocky Mountain News publicized the injustice. O’Neil being buried in Larimer’s cemetery, led it to being called Jack O’Neil’s Ranch.

Larimer eventually left Denver for other pursuits; and Prospect Hill was claimed by an undertaker named Walley. A report claims he buried 626 persons by 1866; including "12 Hebrew and 67 Roman Catholics".

In 1872, the legal ownership of the cemetery was determined by the United States Congress to be the United States of America; by right of an 1860 treaty with the Arapaho. They offered to sell the land for $1.25 per acre. Denver’s Mayor Bates produced the money; and the city was legally in the cemetery business.

The present day Cheesman Park was the Protestant portion of the cemetery. After legally acquiring title, Mayor Bates sold forty acres in what is now the middle of Congress Park to the founder of Denver’s archdiocese, Father Machebeuf, in behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. Named Mount Calvary Cemetery, it was eventually sold back for the present Congress Park in 1950.

In 1875, the north twenty acres were sold to the Hebrew Burial Society. A portion was leased "forever" to the Denver Water Company for use as a reservoir site. The reservoirs remain, and the rest of the site was returned to Denver in 1910.

Just south of the Hebrew Cemetery, was Denver’s 1881 pest house. Here, Denver’s victims of small pox were quarantined and unattended until nearly 1900.

A small section was allotted to Denver’s early Chinese population; a sizable group living in an area called "Hop Alley", on the west of downtown Denver. They had been the early railroad crews. When the cemetery was abandoned, and disinterring became necessary, the Chinese community went about the task with much ceremony. Their remains were cleaned, packed in sawdust and shipped back to China.

The remaining south twenty acres was used as the city tree and shrub nursery until 1930; when a WPA project converted it to an addition for Congress Park.

By 1890, the cemetery was falling into disuse. As the town grew east, real estate developers determined a park would add more to property values than an unused cemetery. Senator Teller persuaded the United States Congress to allow the cemetery use be converted to a park. In recognition, Denver named it Congress Park.

Families were asked to remove the remains of their departed to other cemeteries. For those unclaimed, a contract was given to a local undertaker named McGovern. He was paid $1.90 for each box he delivered to Riverside Cemetery. In the enterprising spirit of early Denver, he often found it necessary to use up to three boxes for each grave. The Denver Republican became upset at this practice; resulting in his contract being terminated. Although the work was not complete, the contract was never replaced.

In 1894, a three-board fence partially encircled the park site, and grading and leveling were underway. By 1898, German landscape architect and civil engineer Reinhard Scheutze completed the plan for what is now Cheesman Park. Eventually completed after his 1910 death, the completion fell to Denver’s landscape architect S.R. DeBoer. The plan essentially remains intact today; the only changes being to meet changing traffic patterns. It is an essential component of Denver’s Park and Parkways Historic Nomination.

In Scheutze’ plan were provisions for a pavilion. In 1909, Gladys Cheesman-Evans, and her mother, Mrs. Walter S Cheesman, donated a pavilion in memory of Mrs. Cheesman’s late husband; Denver pioneer and water baron, Walter Cheesman. The donation was conditional that the park’s name be changed from Congress to Cheesman.

Cheesman, the Congress Park of yesterday, is separated from today’s Congress Park by a residential community. The selling of this area by the city in the late 19th century prompted a City Council Ordinance which has prevented Denver from selling park land since.

Taken from: DenverGov