South Denver, Colorado
South Denver was an incorporated city in Colorado incorporated in 1886 and annexed by Denver in 1894. Covering almost 12 square miles that included the former site of Montana City, the South Denver community was established by James Fleming in 1881 as an alcohol-free community. Potato farmer Rufus "Potato" Clark led a group which donated land to allow the University of Denver to relocate to the area and escape the "moral and environmental pollution" of Denver. Incorporated as a town to enable the community to enforce vice laws, its anti-alcohol regulations surviving the city's dissolution. John Evans, the former Colorado governor, contributed to the community's development by fostering the establishment of the two Methodist-organized subdivisions of University Park Colony and Evanston. Under duress from the 1893 Silver Panic, South Denver became one of many communities absorbed by Denver during the 1890s. Portions of the townsite now comprises the Denver neighborhoods of University and University Park. History In 1881, James Fleming established the South Denver community to serve as a "dry" Denver suburb. Fleming, a young man who had made his wealth in the Pennsylvanian oil industry, sold much of what he owned in the area to permit the community to have transportation and residential development. In the center of the land he kept, Fleming constructed a Queen Anne-style home at 1520 Grant Street. Though the area that comprised the area known as "South Denver" or the "South Side" was poorly defined in the 20 years following the 1860 establishment of Denver, the community of South Denver's formal boundaries were Alameda and Yale Avenues to the north and south respectively and Colorado Boulevard to the South Platte River from east to west. In all, the community's almost 12-square-mile area made it the largest of Denver's suburbs. South Denver included the former site of Montana City, a community established during 1858 Pikes Peak Gold Rush and the first settlement in the Denver area. A municipal incorporation effort was organized by Fleming, Rufus Clark, and Avery Gallup in early 1886 in response to the saloons, dance halls, and gambling establishments near a racetrack Denver's Overland Park, to allow the area to legally enforce anti-vice laws. With help from others, the group created a petition and approached the 150 residents of the area in search of the 30 votes needed to establish the community. The effort was backed by nonresident property owners William A. H. Loveland and Theodore C. Henry, both owners of the Denver Circle Real Estate Company, and Charles L. McIntosh on behalf of interests in the Denver Circle Railroad Company. However, a pro-legal alcohol lobby known as the "liquor element" and 13 nonresident landowners moved against incorporation. Forty signers filed the relevant documents in Arapahoe County court on June 16, 1886. Clark and four other men were appointed commissioners by the court to clerk the incorporation election to occur six weeks later. Saloon keeper Joe Lowe and other anti-prohibitionists campaigned against the incorporation effort but lost the July 31 election, which