Denver Hose Company No. 1: Historic Landmark Could Become a Restaurant

A shiny new hotel will be built around one of Denver’s oldest landmarks, the Denver Hose Company No. 1, located at 20th Street and Chestnut Place.

Pending approval from the Denver Landmark Preservation Committee, the Hose Company No. 1 building will be restored into a restaurant. It's part of a redevelopment by architecture firm Jonathan Nathan Strohe and Boss Architects that will put a twelve-story Hilton Garden Inn behind the Hose building with 223 guest, banquet and meeting rooms, a fitness center and other amenities.

Built in 1882 for Denver’s the-volunteer fire eepartment, the 3,224-square-foot building served the neighborhood known as the Bottoms, which today is part of the Central Platte Valley. By 1922, it had been converted into a print shop and later a welding shop, a purpose it continued to serve until at least the 1980s.

The building’s architecture is representative of nineteenth-century industrial construction and has only been slightly modified. Most of its significant exterior features are intact.

“This project was designed to capture the essence of Denver’s rich history while celebrating a new era of economic development,” says Tobias Strohe, partner at Johnson Nathan Strohe. “Centrally located between Union Station and Coors Field, this hotel embodies the depth of movement from what was once an industrial railyard into a now thriving hub, serving as a gateway to the Central Platte Valley with easy access to I-25.”

Focus, which has owned the property for more than a decade, in 2011 was denied a request to demolish the Hose building, one of only a handful of historic structures remaining in the area west of Union Station. It was identified in the Central Platte Valley Plan as contributing significantly to the character of the area.

Project: Hose Company No. 1
Address: 20th Street and Chestnut Place
Developer: Jonathan Nathan Strohe and Boss Architects

This is the thirteenth in a series of stories about building projects around town. Read more about development in Denver on our Construction Watch page.