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Now a Denver Landmark

On Monday, June 1, Denver City Council voted unanimously to designate the Harris-Cousins House at 3535 E. 26th Ave. Pkwy. as an official Denver landmark, ensuring the stories held within it are preserved for generations to come.

Built in 1958 for Frank and Nora Harris, the Ranch Style home at 3535 E. 26th Ave. Pkwy. has long been a landmark in Denver’s North City Park neighborhood in every sense but the official one. Now that has changed. On April 21, the Landmark Preservation Commission had unanimously recommended the Harris-Cousins House for designation, setting the stage for the Council’s vote. Historic Denver is proud to have supported this effort, connecting current owner Dr. Renee Cousins-King with historian Ron Sladek, who researched and wrote the application.

The Harris and Cousins Families

The Harris-Cousins House takes its name from the two families whose combined legacy gives the property its historic significance. Frank Harris was Denver’s first recognized Black landscape architect, building a successful horticulture and landscape design firm over four decades whose clients ranged from private residences to the National Jewish Hospital and Colorado Women’s College. Nora managed the claims department at the American Woodmen Association, a vital fraternal organization that provided Black Americans access to life insurance and mortgages when mainstream lenders routinely turned them away and later served on the board of the Denver NAACP chapter.

When the Harrises built their home in 1958, they were among the first Black families to move into North City Park, a neighborhood that had been effectively closed to Black residents through redlining, restrictive covenants, and discriminatory lending practices for decades. Frank designed the landscaping himself, and the original lawns, trees, shrubs, and rock gardens remain intact today.

In 1966, the property passed to Charles and Dorothy Cousins. Charles was a towering figure in Denver’s Black community, an entrepreneur who ran multiple Five Points businesses including the legendary 715 Club, a founding board member of Colorado’s only Black-owned financial institution, the Equity Savings and Loan Association, and a civic leader appointed by Mayor McNichols to the board of the Denver Organizing Committee for the 1976 Winter Olympics. He became known as the “Godfather of Jazz” in Five Points for his support of musicians and was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2019.

Dorothy was his indispensable partner in business and an active volunteer with the American Red Cross, Friends of the Denver Public Library, and the Church of the Holy Redeemer. Charles ran his business empire from the kitchen table of this home until his death in 2009. Dr. Renee Cousins-King, daughter of Charles and Dorothy and 2022 Ann Love Award honoree, is the current owner.

Why This Designation Matters

At a time when other nearby homes of prominent African Americans from Denver’s past have been torn down, the Harris-Cousins House represents something increasingly rare: a place where the stories of Black professional achievement, civic leadership, and community building in Denver are still physically present and legible. Landmark designation ensures those stories will not be lost.

The Harris-Cousins House joins the Irving P. Andrews House at 2241-2243 N. York St., home and final law office of prominent civil rights attorney Irving P. Andrews, and the John Henderson House at 2600 Milwaukee St., designed by John Henderson, the first licensed African American architect in Colorado, among a growing number of northeast Denver landmarks that recognize the role African Americans played in shaping this city’s history.

Learn More

With the unanimous Council vote on Monday, June 1, the Harris-Cousins House is now an official Denver landmark. To read the full designation application, click here, and the Denver Landmark Preservation staff report, click here. For more information, visit the City’s historic designation page.