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Elephant Corral - #29
1444 Wazee Street
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Architectural style: Nineteenth-Century Commercial Built: 1902 Architect: Unknown |
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This site has been called the Elephant Corral ever since the first structure was built in 1858, the year Denver City was founded. This structure was a large corral and frame building made by Charles H. Blake and Andrew J. Williams of hewn cottonwood logs with a canvas roof. The hotel and saloon part of the Elephant Corral was known as Denver Hall. At the Elephant Corral, emigrants watered and fed their livestock, traded their prairie oxen for mountain mules, and bought, sold, and rented four-footed transportation. In the city's early days it was a favorite place for holding public meetings; in 1859, Horace Greeley was a guest. The building was destroyed in the great fire of 1863. A two-story brick warehouse was constructed in its place, with the second floor christened Union Hall, where dances were held and where the Colorado Military District had its headquarters. In 1888, John Thames bought the property, tore down the old buildings, and rebuilt much of what remains today, the oldest portion dating to 1902. As late as the 1930s, horses were traded here, and some claim that this site is the origin of the Western Stock Show. There are many stories about the reasons for the name Elephant Corral. Some say it comes from a similar place in Council Bluffs, Nebraska. Others claim it relates to a slogan of the gold rush days. It seems to have first appeared in the 1840s about the same time as the first appearance of elephants in circuses around the country. In the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia of 1902, a definition states: "To see or to show the elephant, to see or exhibit something strange or wonderful: especially to see for the first time." In 1976 the Elephant Corral was sold to John and Natasha Querrard, who developed the present renovation, completed early in 1981. The lower courtyard was newly added, and although the original building is still here, it is less visible behind the renovation. |
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