Gentrification

This building was built as the Barteldes Seeds Warehouse in Denver Colorado.

Built in 1906, this building now features lofts.  The building is right on 16th Street, in what is now considered "lower downtown Denver".

Its interesting what the transition of this building tells us.  For one thing, the need for agricultural seed stock was so significant in this area that a warehouse dedicated to it was located right down town.  Having said that, this are of downtown Denver is only a block from the railroad, and there were other industrial buildings downtown, so perhaps its not as surprising as it might at first seem.  Like some other photos we put up of Salt Lake recently, the early 20th Century division between retail areas and industrial areas was slight. 

And I'm quite certain you can still get seeds in this region of Colorado, which in spite of the urban sprawl still features quite a bit of agriculture.

LoDo itself was pretty seedy some decades ago, but it's really turned around and is now a trendy urban area.  Hence, we see lofts in what was formerly a seed warehouse, something the builders of this building, over a century ago, would probably have found surprising.

Quite a bit of Denver history, all in one building.