The area that includes Platt Park was incorporated as the Town of South Denver in 1886. Previous to the incorporation, “scandalous” saloons and road houses operated without regard to “decency” upsetting the families living in the area. Incorporation allowed nuisance regulations to be established as the law and enforced.

John Evan’s dominant Denver Tramway Company expanded its trolley car line along Pearl Street in the early 1900s allowing convenient access north to the Downtown areas of Denver. People looking to get out of the congestion of the city began to move to more rural Platt Park. With the influx of population, neighborhood businesses including grocers, diners, barber shops, and general stores, began to open along South Pearl Street.

Many of the South Pearl Street businesses shuttered their doors following the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. The completion of Interstate-25 in the late 1950s intersected the original South Pearl Street business corridor reducing it in length. The 1960s and 1970s saw the growth of large-box retails resulting in the closing of many neighborhood businesses.

During the mid-1970s, artisans were attracted to the South Pearl Street business district lured by vacant buildings with low-rents. The Old South Pearl Merchants Association was formed in 1978 and sponsored an annual street fair. It was successful in securing city grants to install old fashioned street lamps and nostalgic brick pavers in the area.

Today, Old South Pearl Street has a mix of charming shops, cafes, coffee houses and restaurants. A RTD light rail station is conveniently located nearby on East Louisiana Street for city folks to visit Old South Pearl Street or for Platt Park residents to visit Downtown.

The business district along South Broadway has also enjoyed a renaissance as “Antique Row”. Here you will find a concentration of several hundred antique dealers sharing cooperative space and operating individual stores.    

As you drive through the mature-tree-lined streets of the Platt Park neighborhood, you will find turn-of-the-century red-bricked Victorians as well as more modest Bungalows. As a Platt Park resident, you can walk to the annual music festival, street fair, first Friday year-around art walk and seasonal Farmers’ Market.