Regal Gateway Into City Park Is Getting a Facelift

Just over a year after the work started, the $1 million first phase of the restoration of Sullivan Gateway at City Park is wrapping up.

The first phase of the restoration included refurbishing both the east and west lion-head fountains to include new mechanical and electrical work for operation and rehabilitation of the historical terra cotta wall adjacent to the fountains, says Jeru Parikh, project manager for the Sullivan Gateway restoration. The first phase of the work was paid for by a $200,000 History Colorado grant and the Denver Parks and Recreation capital improvement fund.

Built in 1917, Sullivan Gateway marks the south entry of the City Park Esplanade, part of the City Beautiful Parkway Historic District. The Gateway includes two 300-foot terra cotta walls with two forty-foot tall freestanding sculptures atop Doric columns that represent early Colorado agriculture and mining endeavors. It was listed on Colorado Preservation Inc.'s list of endangered places in 2013.

Noted New York artist Leo Lintelli created the sculptures in the Sullivan Gateway, which was built with $35,000 donated by Denver banker John Clarke Mitchell in honor of his friend and colleague Dennis Sullivan.

The city has started work on the $1.8 million second phase of the project, which was funded by the city and will be completed this fall.

Parks and Recreation has not yet identified a funding source for the final phase. The project will be among those on the list to be funded by a general obligation bond issue that will go before voters in November.

“Phase three will probably go through a grant cycle and get a grant from the State Historical Fund,” Parikh says.