Setting
Baker covers 955 acres about one mile south of Denver Civic Center. Its general boundaries are West 6th Avenue to the north, Broadway to the east, West Mississippi Avenue to the south, and the South Platte River to the west.
Historic District and Landmarks
A 150-acre historic district sits in the neighborhood’s northeast corner, covering about 30 blocks with irregular edges. Denver designated the Baker Historic District in 2000, with criteria that included historical residents, architectural styles, and buildings designed by prominent architects from a period of significance spanning 1873 to 1937.
Much of the same area had been listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 as the South Side–Baker Historic District. Baker also includes three individual Denver Historic Landmark buildings: the Coyle/Chase House at 532 West 4th Avenue, the 1st and Broadway Building at 101–115 North Broadway, and Fire Station No. 11 at 40 West 2nd Avenue.
Early History
In the summer of 1857, a group described as “John Smith and his Mexicans” worked placer gold near a seasonal stream flowing into the South Platte River. The place became known as the Mexican Diggings and is thought to be the first non-native settlement in what is now Denver.
James Beckwourth settled near the Mexican Diggings in 1859, and William and Elizabeth Byers homesteaded nearby riverfront land the same year. Baker’s first subdivision was platted along Santa Fe Drive south of West Sixth Avenue in 1872, and residential construction expanded in the 1880s.
Neighborhood Character
Baker includes industrial, residential, and commercial areas. Land along I-25 has an industrial character, Broadway is largely lined with retail and offices, and the residential core lies north of Alameda Avenue between Santa Fe Drive and Broadway.
The neighborhood contains hundreds of nineteenth-century brick houses and 39 buildings by architect William Lang. More than 80 percent of Baker had been developed by 1900. In 2020, Baker had 6,192 residents from varied racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Parks, Transit, and Redevelopment
Phil Milstein Park is the largest park within Baker, while Dailey Park and Hector M. Flores Park sit within the residential area. Baker is served by several bus lines and by Alameda station and I-25 & Broadway station.
South of Alameda Avenue at Broadway, a large retail center is undergoing mixed-use redevelopment as Broadway Park. South of I-25, the former Gates Rubber factory complex is the site of a redevelopment project, and a Denver Summit FC stadium received final Denver City Council approval in December 2025 for that still-undeveloped site.
What it is like
Baker is in the inner southwest corner of Denver, bounded by West 6th Avenue, West Mississippi Avenue, the South Platte River and Broadway Street. Formerly called “South Side” or “South Broadway,” it has historic buildings and homes, including middle-class Queen Anne houses, and the Baker Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Sources: Baker, Denver (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA); history.denverlibrary.org