CURRENT ISSUES

A Whittier Landmark

Built in 1902 in Denver’s Whittier neighborhood, the Foursquare home at 2329 N. Gaylord St. has been at the center of some of the most significant chapters in Denver’s political history. On May 5, the Landmark Preservation Commission unanimously recommended the Webb House for landmark designation, with a City Council hearing scheduled for June 22. Historic Denver is proud to have partnered with History Colorado in preparing the application, and we are grateful to Wellington and Wilma Webb for bringing us into this work. What makes this designation especially meaningful is that the Webbs brought us into this work themselves. It is relatively rare for the people whose lives give a property its historic significance to be the ones seeking its protection, and that choice says everything about who Wellington and Wilma Webb are.

Mayor Wellington Webb and the Honorable Wilma Webb

Wellington and Wilma Webb purchased the home in 1971, the year they married and combined two families, and it has served as their primary residence ever since. From this home, Wellington launched a distinguished public career that included service in the Colorado House of Representatives, the Colorado State Senate, and as Denver City Auditor before culminating in his election in 1991 as Denver’s first African American mayor. He served three terms, overseeing a transformative period that included completion of Denver International Airport, the opening of Coors Field, and the creation of the Denver Health Medical Authority. He hosted Pope John Paul II for World Youth Day in 1993, received France’s Legion of Merit for co-hosting the G8 Summit in 1997, and went on to serve as a U.S. representative to the 64th United Nations General Assembly. Wellington is the only mayor in U.S. history to serve as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Conference of Democratic Mayors, and the National Conference of Mayors.

Wilma’s career represents an equally significant legacy. Serving six terms in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1980 to 1993, she was the first woman and first African American woman to represent House District 8, as well as the first Black woman to serve on the powerful Joint Budget Committee. She championed the legislation establishing Colorado’s state holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a years-long battle that required four attempts before her bill passed in 1984. As the first Chairwoman of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission, she created Denver’s annual “Marade,” a combined march and parade that has grown into one of the largest celebrations of Dr. King’s legacy in the nation. From 1997 to 2000, she served as Region VIII Chief Administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor, appointed by President Clinton, becoming the first woman to hold that position.

Together, the Webbs were instrumental in creating the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library in Five Points, the only African American research library of its kind between Detroit and Oakland. The Wilma J. Webb Archives Research and Reading Room remains a centerpiece of that institution today. Wellington and Wilma still call the Gaylord Street home their residence.

A Home at the Heart of a Movement

When the Webbs purchased their home on N. Gaylord Street in 1971, they were settling at the eastern edge of Whittier, a neighborhood that had been shaped for decades by redlining, restrictive covenants, and discriminatory lending practices. The informal race line that had once run along Downing Street had been pushed eastward block by block through Whittier, and the area east of York Street had become known as “Struggle Hill,” a name that captured both the resistance Black residents faced and their determination to claim space in the city.

The home quickly became far more than a residence. It served as a hub for political organizing, coalition-building, and community leadership across decades of public service. Civic and political figures from across the state and nation passed through its doors. Wilma hosted Jimmy Carter’s aunt at the Gaylord Street home during the 1976 presidential debates. In December 1990, Wellington, Wilma, and a group of advisors gathered in the living room to discuss a seemingly long-shot mayoral run that would make history.

Why This Designation Matters

What strikes us most about this property is how it sits at the intersection of two threads running through Denver’s history: the long struggle for African American political representation in this city, and the physical neighborhoods where that struggle was waged and won.

The Webb 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, the John Henderson House at 2600 Milwaukee St., designed by John Henderson, the first licensed African American architect in Colorado, and the Harris-Cousins House at 3535 E. 26th Ave. Pkwy., home of landscape architect Frank Harris and civic leader Charles Cousins, among a growing number of northeast Denver landmarks that recognize the role African Americans played in shaping this city’s history.

Get Involved

The City Council hearing is scheduled for Monday, June 22. 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.

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