While the name "Five Points" is often applied to the greater neighborhood to the northeast of Downtown, Five Points is also widely known as the busy retail, restaurant and services corridor on Welton Street. Since Five Points' founding in the 1860s as one of Denver's first residential suburbs, this area around Welton Street has evolved into a vibrant mixed-use district that today offers a direct link to Downtown Denver via RTD's light rail line.
The Five Points area got its name early this century from the city's tramway company, who used the nickname because their street car signs were not big enough to list all of the street names at this end-of-the-line stop. RTD's light rail line connects Five Points with Downtown via Welton Street, which bustles with 75 businesses, including restaurants, cafes, boutique shops, barber shops, salons and other retailers. A bank, radio station and bottled water distributor also have Welton Street addresses. Welton Street is the only predominantly African-American owned commercial strip in the country.
This commercial district was a requisite stop for the world's premier African-American jazz musicians--including Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, and countless others--who stopped in Denver on their way between midwest and west coast tours to play in Five Points clubs and performance halls. Many of them stayed at the historic Rossonian Hotel, which still stands today.
Five Points features many cultural amenities, including the Black American West Museum, the brand new Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, Brother JeffÕs Cultural Center & CafŽ, Roundtree Art Center and the nationally-recognized Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble studios. Five Points' Juneteenth celebration--an annual parade and festival commemorating the day in 1865 when African-Americans in Texas first heard word of the Emancipation Proclamation--is one of the biggest such festivals in America, attracting upwards of 120,000 people over four days each year.
New housing developments are popping up in Five Points, including Downing Street Station at 29th & Downing and The Point at 26th & Washington. Both have great connections to Downtown Denver via light rail.
General Boundaries: Park Avenue, Downing Street, Stout Street, Tremont Place. Note: The boundaries between the Curtis Park, Five Points and Ballpark neighborhoods overlap. Census tract authorities apply the name "Five Points" to all three areas, while other authorities call the entire area "Curtis Park."
Population: 3,600
Download a Neighborhood Fact Sheet: Five Points PDF
Visit these links to learn more about the Five Points neighborhood:
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