{"id":8356,"date":"2018-06-21T20:22:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T20:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com?p=3113405&amp;preview_id=3113405"},"modified":"2018-06-21T20:22:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T20:22:54","slug":"denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver tours: Are they still the best way to see the city\u2019s history, architecture, street art and more?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-187790\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"754\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Historic Denver docent Kevin Henderson leads a group on a tour of Denver\u2019s Capitol Hill mansions through the Denver Story Trek on June 16, 2018. The tour includes the Molly Brown House Museum, the Penn Garage, and others. (Kathryn Scott, Special to The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Neide Bollinger hurried toward the Molly Brown House Museum on a sweltering weekday this month, worried that she may have missed the start of a mid-morning walking tour on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got lost,\u201d she admitted after stopping in front of the mansion at 1340 Pennsylvania St., which looms large in Denver lore.<\/p>\n<p>Bollinger, 58, is no tourist. A <a href=\"http:\/\/howtolearnportuguesenow.com\/\">Brazilian native<\/a> with dual citizenship, she has lived in the Mile High City with her Colorado-native husband for 13 years, but never explored Capitol Hill on foot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned about this from my students who took it and loved it,\u201d she said after checking in with guide Leslie Wilson, who conducts the 2-mile \u201cIf These Walls Could Talk\u201d walking tour on behalf on <a href=\"https:\/\/historicdenver.org\/\">Historic Denver<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Tours aren\u2019t just for tourists, Wilson said. More than half of the people she leads are from within the city, while half learn about it from flyers, websites and other marketing resources such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.denver.org\/things-to-do\/tours\/\">denver.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI became a tour guide after taking one and being encouraged to start leading them,\u201d Wilson, 58, said as she tucked a binder of laminated historical photos and talking points under her arm.<\/p>\n<p>As Denver has grown in recent years \u2014 attracting not only new residents but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/06\/20\/denver-2017-tourism-statistics\/\">a record $6.5 billion in tourism revenue<\/a> last year, according to Visit Denver \u2014 the amount of cultural offerings has swollen. That includes the guided tours designed to take the guesswork (and, some would argue, adventure) out of exploring everything from public art, history and architecture to nature, food, craft beer and legal cannabis.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-187795\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"720\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Want to see where the beer magic happens? Take a brewery tour. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But even in the age of GPS and augmented reality, which allow for smartphone-driven solo tours of museums and neighborhoods, guided tours still play a vital role in building loyalty and understanding of the city, industry professionals say. And as they evolve to reflect the diverse, increasingly niche culture around them, Denver has rediscovered something more rich and complex about itself \u2014 other than the Old West tales of a fortune and lawlessness that form its historic identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spend a lot of time training docents to tailor tours to their guests\u2019 interests,\u201d said Alison Salutz, director of community programs at Historic Denver. \u201cWe want guests to feel like they got what they wanted in the end, whether they have a particular interest in art or architecture or whatever. And I think there\u2019s something unique about having that live person in front of you. They\u2019re your ambassador to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Historic Denver <a href=\"https:\/\/historicdenver.org\/tours-events\/walking-tours\/\">offers four tours<\/a> of central Denver neighborhoods, including Capitol Hill, Lower Downtown, Larimer Street and the 16th Street Mall, as well as \u201cspecialty tours\u201d of the Five Points and Quality Hill neighborhoods. Each are $15 per person and can last an hour to two hours.<\/p>\n<p>While the city has recently <a href=\"https:\/\/denverite.com\/2018\/06\/18\/after-denvers-crackdown-weed-bus-companies-gear-up-for-a-fight\/\">cracked down<\/a> on marijuana-bus tours, where participants openly consume cannabis while checking out grow operations and retail shops, others have sprouted up to compete for tourists\u2019 time and attention.<\/p>\n<p>Visit Denver, the city\u2019s convention and visitors bureau, promotes unique and offbeat tours <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denver.org\/things-to-do\/tours\">on its website<\/a>\u00a0that include urban scavenger hunts, graffiti tours, food and craft-beer crawls, and more, often on miniature forms of transportation that eschew hop-on\/hop-off buses or luxury coaches for smaller, more trendy (and, yes, very tourist-looking) tuk-tuks, Segways, scooters and motorcycle sidecars.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-185587\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"720\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Looking at two huge pieces commissed by Birdcap (left) and Casey Kawaguchi (right) on Sunday, May 20, 2018 in Denver\u2019s RiNo neighborhood. (Sierra Voss, Special to the Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theknow.denverpost.com\/2018\/05\/29\/denver-street-art-tours-rino-santa-fe-downtown\/185370\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>MORE:\u00a0Denver street art tours turn neighborhoods into open-air galleries ripe for exploration<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some of the most popular tours, including the Colorado State Capitol, Coors Brewery Tour (in Golden), Denver U.S. Mint and Hammond\u2019s Candy Factory, are free. Also free are various public art and architecture tours offered by the city via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsandvenuesdenver.com\/public-art\/denver-public-art-tours\">Denver Arts &amp; Venues<\/a>, which manages marquee public art sculptures such as \u201cthe big blue bear\u201d outside the Colorado Convention Center.<\/p>\n<p>Outside of Denver, gold mines, caves, graves and kayaks all beckon. But if you\u2019re looking for the Mile High City equivalent of New Orleans\u2019 famous cemetery or voodoo-museum tours, stick to the urban core, professionals say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVisitors are always looking for the local side of their visit, and there\u2019s a growing awareness that even if you are a local, there are always new things to explore,\u201d said Jayne Buck, vice president of tourism for Visit Denver, which reported 31.7 million visitors to the city last year, the 12th consecutive year of record growth. \u201cNo one wants to go to the tired tourist places. They want to learn something about the history of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So what, exactly, can we learn through a traditional walking tour?<\/p>\n<p>For one, the story of Denver is still the story of the West. Driven by opportunity, desperation and the pioneer spirit, people from all over the world came here in the mid-to-late 1800s to build families and fortunes, drawn in part by the discovery of gold at what\u2019s now Denver\u2019s Confluence Park, and in part by the resource-rich mountain territories and the legends they spurred.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWilliam Lang was actually a self-taught architect,\u201d said Historic Denver\u2019s Wilson, one of 20 volunteers who train for weeks at a time to work for the nonprofit organization. \u201cThe poor guy built this (the Molly Brown House) in 1889 but sold it five years later to J.J. and Margaret Brown \u2014 who wasn\u2019t known as Molly until the (1964) Disney movie.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Another lesson: Denver is a far different place than it used to be, but\u00a0<span>some things never change.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-187789\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"736\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Keating Mansion, (now the Capitol Hill Mansion Bed and Breakfast) is one stop as Historic Denver docent Kevin Henderson leads a group on a tour of Denver\u2019s Capitol Hill mansions through the Denver Story Trek on June 16, 2018 in Denver. ( Kathryn Scott, Special to The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span>On the Capitol Hill walking tour, the twisting histories of the homes and their owners reflect subjects that could be ripped from today\u2019s headlines: water shortages, push-button electric cars (the Fritchle, which was manufactured on Colfax Avenue and driven by Molly Brown), sanatoriums founded on \u201cclean living\u201d principals (fasting, exercise, etc.), high-society intrigue (murder, infidelity, heists), and social justice (naming buildings on Sherman Street\u2019s art deco Poet\u2019s Row after abolitionists) all get their due.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Why are downtown streets on a diagonal, while the rest of the city is on a north-south\/east-west grid? Hint: It has something to do with where gold was discovered, but also how the owner and founder of the Brown Palace Hotel decided to donate his tracts of nearby land to form the surrounding neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p>Then, as now, Denver is a blend of influences and styles, some more apparent than others. From the original American Indian residents to Spanish Colonial settlers \u2014 descendants of whom still populate the region hundreds of years later \u2014 to European settlers, prospectors and entrepreneurs, Denver has always been more of beehive than a melting pot.<\/p>\n<p>White male entrepreneurs and cowboys have always been celebrated for their accomplishments (good or ill), but it\u2019s only been in recent years that the contributions of everyone else have been given anything like equal footing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBuffalo Bill Cody was rumored to have paid everyone in his show the same amount, except for Annie Oakley,\u201d Wilson said as she stopped in front of what is now the Belmont Buckingham apartment complex at 11th Avenue and Sherman Street, a former dirt lot that hosted Bill\u2019s Wild West entertainment shows. \u201cA reporter asked him why he did that and he said, \u201cWell, I have to pay everybody the same because they all have guns. I pay Annie more because she\u2019s a better shot.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"figure wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-179778\" src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/denver-tours-are-they-still-the-best-way-to-see-the-citys-history-architecture-street-art-and-more-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"761\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margaret Evans casting, left, inside the library of the Byers-Evans House Museum March 16, 2018. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The history of Denver now includes places like the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2014\/12\/12\/museum-founder-celebrates-blacks-in-the-west-colorado-celebrates-him\/\">Black American West Museum<\/a>\u00a0in Five Points and, as of March, the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2018\/03\/21\/center-for-colorado-womens-history\/\">Center for Colorado Women\u2019s History<\/a>, located inside the Golden Triangle\u2019s Byers-Evans House Museum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe love to hear about other people and their stories, so any tour guide who can weave those authentic stories in brings both the buildings and the past to life,\u201d said Historic Denver\u2019s Salutz.<\/p>\n<p>Historic Denver has only been offering its walking tours since 2014, when they attracted 435 people. Last year, the number increased to 1,711, a trend that officials would like to continue.<\/p>\n<p>Brazilian native Bollinger is already planning on taking another one after the Capitol Hill tour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so embarassed but \u2026 am I supposed to tip you?\u201d she asked Wilson after the tour. (She would be forgiven for thinking so, since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverfreewalkingtours.com\/\">some free tours<\/a> encourage it.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBut feel free to donate to Historic Denver, and give us a good rating on TripAdvisor, where lots of other people hear about us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>Amid record tourism and a crackdown on weed buses, a look at if guided tours are still worth taking. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7369,7877,5062,52,7878,6811,7879,2435,6957,7523,4995,77,9,7880,5019,7881,1,3,7882,7072,6923,2035,7883,7884,61,1736],"tags":[7373,7885,5063,2632,7886,6816,7887,2436,6960,7526,4996,2655,7888,5022,7889,7890,7073,6924,4603,7891,7892],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}