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I. The Land
We acknowledge that Indigenous peoples are the original stewards and inhabitants of the land that we work with today.
Denver was built on the ancestral lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute – among the 48 tribal nations historically tied to the land in what is now called Colorado.
We acknowledge their presence, their culture, their sovereignty, and their ongoing contributions to this landscape and this community. We also acknowledge their treatment at the hands of white settlers, and that exclusions and erasures of Indigenous people and their culture continue to this day.
Urban Land Conservancy was founded in 2003 in response to historic inequities and community displacement in the Denver metro area. With this land acknowledgement, ULC commits to continual work toward dismantling the legacies of oppression, and furthering our understanding and support for our Indigenous communities.
This campus resides in Denver’s thriving Park Hill neighborhood, although at the time the campus was built, Park Hill consisted of only one housing development, and the rest of the land was expansive plains and farmland. Over the next century, Park Hill grew into a bustling neighborhood with shaded boulevards, restaurants, stores and parks, and expanded to include North Park Hill and Northeast Park Hill.
After World War II, many Black families moved to Park Hill, and it became a national example of a racially integrated neighborhood. There is little information about the integration of the Colorado Women’s College, although we know that a woman named Henrietta Dove became the first Black student at Colorado Women’s College in 1951, three years before Brown v. Board of Education outlawed segregation in schools. Like much of Denver, gentrification has been heavily impacting the neighborhood since the 1990’s, which has driven up housing costs and displaced long-time residents. Urban Land Conservancy has a long history of working with the Park Hill Community; you can view ULC’s other properties in Park Hill here.
1890-1982
II. Colorado Women’s College (CWC)
In the 1880’s, less than 20 years after the Sand Creek Massacre, Denver’s population was growing quickly. Baptist Reverend Robert Cameron saw a need for an institute of higher education for the women of Colorado. He wanted to create what he called “The Vassar of the West” in the Denver area. In 1890, after the project was approved by the Rocky Mountain Baptist Association, construction began on a 20-acre site on the plains east of Denver. Treat Hall, the first and only building at this time, was designed by Frank H. Jackson and Betts in the Richardsonian Romanesque style.
At the time, only three other states—New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire— had colleges that were comparable to the new campus being built in Denver (Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith, respectively).
The Denver Evening Times reported of the new college:
“There are all over the union many narrow-chested and consumptively inclined girls, who have high aims, ambituos purposes, and an insatiable thirst for learning. to gratify these commendable longings in the damp climate of the east involved great risks and often certain death. In Colorado, however, the pursiut of learning might be made to run parrellel with the acquisition of health.”
An economic downturn in the mid 1890’s and a lack of funding meant that the college did not accept its first class of students until September of 1909. That year, 59 women made up the first class of the college, which grew to 178 students by 1914, as more and more young women were drawn to the Colorado sunshine to take courses in home and family, algebra, Latin, English, psychology, as well as to play sports, learn instruments, and otherwise socialize with other young women.
Due to increasing enrollment over the years, the campus kept expanding.
Key Additions
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1916
North Wing Treat Hall
Designed by Axtens
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1929
Foote Hall
Designed by Axtens
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1939
Porter Hall
Designed by Axtens
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1947
Pulliam & Mason Halls
Designed by Axtens
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1956
Curtis Hall
Designed by Axtens
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1962
Whatley Chapel & Dutton Hall
Designed by Stanley Morse
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1963
Campus Library
Designed by Victor Hornbein and Ed White
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1965
Dunklee Hall
Designed by Stanley Morse
“Being a new student at a new college….”
In 1967, the college’s name was changed to Temple Buell College after architect Temple Buell donated a large endowment to the school. Enrollment had reached its peak at over 1,000 students, and the college was offering both two and four year degree programs.
However, by 1972, the college’s enrollment was falling and it was facing financial issues. Temple Buell ceased his financial support and the college was renamed back to Colorado Women’s College.
Staff, alumni, students, and community members campaigned for years to solve CWC’s financial problems, but eventually it became clear that CWC could not continue as an independent institution.
1982-2000
III. University of Denver
In 1981, the leaders of Colorado Women’s College made the decision to merge the college with University of Denver (DU). DU accepted all of CWC’s existing students and established programs for women on its main campus in order to “carry forward Colorado Women’s College in a reorganized format”.
DU utilized the campus in Park Hill to support its graduate programs, including Sturm College of Law, which provided classes on the campus from 1982-2000.
2000-2021
IV. Johnson & Wales University
In 2000, Johnson & Wales University purchased the campus from University of Denver.
Johnson & Wales University (JWU) was founded as a school for business education in 1914 in Providence, Rhode Island, by Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales, and by the time it purchased the former CWC campus in Denver, it had evolved to offer many different programs across its campuses, and was especially known for providing culinary arts and hospitality education.
When JWU acquired the campus, many of the historic buildings on campus, including the main hall (formerly Treat Hall), had been shuttered for decades. Johnson & Wales restored many of the buildings on campus, including Treat Hall (which they renamed Centennial Hall) and Founder’s Hall in 2014.
“The carillion tower stands….”
Students at JWU could take classes in Arts & Sciences, Business, Food Innovation & Technology, Health & Wellness, and Hospitality Management.
As one of the only schools in the Front Range to offer culinary and hospitality education, Johnson & Wales quickly made an impact on the local hospitality scene. JWU alumni went on to start their own restaurants, make nationally respected culinary innovations, and otherwise contribute to the hospitality culture of the Front Range.
By 2020, changing dynamics of higher education and the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic required that JWU had to reorganize and “go in a new strategic direction” in order to preserve their ability to offer quality education.
That year, Johnson & Wales announced that they would be closing their Denver campus as well as their North Miami campus after the 2020-2021 school year.
“Johnson & Wales alumnis have set down roots….”
2021-Present
V. Mosaic Community Campus
The vision for a new community campus started with Dr. Anthony McWright, the Executive Principal of Denver School of the Arts (DSA), who, when he learned of Johnson & Wales’ closing, began thinking of ways to expand DSA to the campus and increase DSA’s capacity so that more students could access the incredible arts-focused education it provides. Dr. McWright and Denver Public Schools then engaged Denver Housing Authority and Urban Land Conservancy to help preserve the campus.
The vision for a new community campus started with Dr. Anthony McWright, the Executive Principal of Denver School of the Arts (DSA), who, when he learned of Johnson & Wales’ closing, began thinking of ways to expand DSA to the campus and increase DSA’s capacity so that more students could access the incredible arts-focused education it provides. Dr. McWright and Denver Public Schools then engaged Denver Housing Authority and Urban Land Conservancy to help preserve the campus.
On June 8, 2021, Urban Land Conservancy (ULC), Denver Public Schools (DPS), and Denver Housing Authority (DHA) finalized the purchase of the 25-acre campus.
“We understand that one of the primary reasons the University selected ULC was because of our ability to close the deal within a very tight timeframe,” said Aaron Miripol, ULC President & CEO. “We were able to close quickly due to our great partnerships with individuals and organizations in all sectors throughout the Metro Denver region and because ULC has access to a dedicated source of funding—the Metro Denver Impact Facility (MDIF)”.
“The speed at which this deal was put together and all the parties involved is definitely a deal ULC was built for,” said Erin Clark, ULC’s former VP of Master Site Development. “We do deals that have not been done before… We exist to do deals like this, which meet our mission for the last 18 years.”
A Tale of Two Cities
When Johnson & Wales closed their Denver campus in 2020, they also closed their Miami campus. Each campus sold in the summer of 2021 at comparable prices, but that’s where the similarities stop. The differences between the future of these campuses exemplifies the challenges and opportunities of urban preservation, adaptive reuse, and affordable development.
Denver Campus
Urban Land Conservancy, Denver Housing Authority, and Denver Public Schools bought the Denver campus with the express intention to increase education access, prevent displacement in the neighborhood, preserve the historic buildings, and provide community-serving spaces. By making use of the Metro Denver Impact Facility as well as grant funding, ULC, DHA, and DPS were able to compete against for-profit real estate companies. “We were one of three finalists and the only non-profit. The two competing bids were looking at redevelopment and possibly demolishing the campus. That became part of our motivation to make this thing work. We wanted to serve the community by preserving the campus,” said Angelle Fouther, former Communications Director at Urban Land Conservancy. Now, the campus is preserved, affordable to the schools and nonprofits who call Mosaic home, and open to the community.
News stories about the Denver campus:
Front Porch- New Life for Johnson & Wales Campus
Denverite- Here’s the latest on the historic Johnson and Wales University campus in South Park Hill
Miami Campus
The Miami campus was purchased by Property Markets Group, who subdivided the campus into twenty-eight parts and re-sold them to a variety of different owners for a high profit, in some cases more than doubling the price. Many of the parcels will be market-rate apartment buildings. There will also be K-5 education provided by Doral College on 8 acres of the campus, and the City of North Miami has leased JWU’s former recreation center.
News stories about the Miami campus:
PMG sells its last Johnson & Wales University property in $11M flip
The Related Group Plans to Build on a Parcel of the North Miami Campus of Johnson & Wales University
Property Sales Continue at Former JWU Campus
Comparing these two real estate cases shows that not only is it possible for nonprofits to leverage innovative funding strategies and strong partnerships to compete in a for-profit real estate market, it’s necessary to keep land affordable and communities strong.
Sources
Special thanks to Annie Levinsky of History Colorado, Jay Homstad of Historic Denver, and Angelle and Daryn Fouther of Kindred Communications for research help.
[email protected], D. H. (2021, June 9). Urban Land Conservancy buys former Johnson & Wales Campus. Denver Gazette. Retrieved May 3, 2023Denver Campus Unveils New Centennial Hall. Johnson & Wales University. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2023
.JWU’s new strategic direction. Johnson & Wales University. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2023
Johnson & Wales University – Denver, “Johnsonian-Denver 2002” (2002). Yearbooks. 81.
Mosaic Community Campus. Denver Housing Authority. (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2023
Turner, W. B. (1982). Colorado Women’s College, 1888-1982: The story of a dream. Walsworth Pub. Co.
