South & SE Denver -- PHOTO TOUR (Aurora, Littleton: apartments, houses)

[vegaspilgrim]

Here's just a short sampling of south and southeast Denver, with a little bit of Englewood and Aurora thrown in. In my opinion, this area is one of the best parts of the city of Denver to live in. It's basically an old, mature suburb, but still very nicely kept up, still a solid overall community. There were a bunch of other sites in the area I wanted to see again but I just didn't have the time.

Okay, this one is actually on Havana in Aurora, but close enough. The Stampede is a long standing country western bar/ dance club.


The brand new Parker & Iliff Tokyo Joe's. One of the best local area chains.


Kennedy golf course:


Here's the Havana-Hampden curve, with the driving range and the dam in the background:


The mini-golf at Kennedy:


This place seems like it's gone through at least a half a dozen name changes over the years. Apparently now it's called "Sharky's."


Cool strip mall off Hampden:


This is NOT the "original Chubby's," despite the same name.


The old Marie Callendar's has now been turned into "Citron Bistro." Sounds pretty cool.


Tamarac Square, still alive and running after all these years.


I'd almost be willing to try this place just because of the unusual name:


Old high rise apartments off Hampden:


Here's where you go to see dollar movies (or more like $1.50-$2.00 with inflation):


Here's an example of how Tiffany Plaza has been reinvented. That's the Fresh Fish Company in the left corner. This is also the same shopping center with the Whole Foods.


I have no idea what Océ is, apparently something to do with printers.


One of the coolest car washes I've ever seen:


Here are some beautiful homes with great landscaping (and some shots of xeriscaping, my favorite subject) in Cherry Hills East. Some of these homes are almost identical looking to the homes in some of my favorite mid-century neighborhoods in Phoenix. These late 1950s and 1960s babies are going for 700k on up each.
























Here are a few shots of some of the new McMansions being built in the University Hills neighborhood, which is seeing a lot of scrapes lately. Whether that's a good or bad thing I'll leave up to you. One trend I'm noticing is a lot of Spanish/California/Southwestern style architecture in custom built homes like these around town.












Here's the Wellshire Inn:


Typical street scene of South Broadway through Englewood. They're currently working on a construction project of the medians which will make it look a lot more attractive.


Broadway & Belleview, really cool ski shop:


Here's a shot of the hill with Teikyo Loretto Heights in the far background:


Another hill taken from 285:

[WilliamPacker]

"Here are some beautiful homes with great landscaping (and some shots of xeriscaping, my favorite subject) in Cherry Hills East. Some of these homes are almost identical looking to the homes in some of my favorite mid-century neighborhoods in Phoenix. These late 1950s and 1960s babies are going for 700k on up each."


Yikes, I couldn't imagine paying that. Pretty much identical homes, further west, in the Centennial/Littleton area can be had for half of that.

[Triste_en_Tampa]

Vegaspilgrim, your recent suburban Denver photo threads have been immensely helpful to me. They allow one to get a good idea of what the Denver area really looks like. I must admit, I was somewhat surprised by how scrubby and "Southwest"-like the landscape appears. It looks quite exotic to a native Floridian. I'm also impressed by how green it is. I thought Colorado was brown 11.67 months out of the year! And there appears to be some topographic variation on the Front Range. I'd been led to believe that Denver was as flat as the Everglades. I really like the look of the xeriscaped lawns, the ones that appear to be using native grasses, rocks, and mulch(?). I've never been a fan of grass, however does one have to battle weeds all summer with a front yard like that?

Between your threads and DenverAztecs tours of the more urban areas of the city, I think I've seen so much of Denver that I wouldn't be surprised by much if I were to visit.

[CareFreeAZ]

Vegaspilgrim - If it wasn't for some of the larger trees in the pictures,I could swear a few of those houses could easily pass for a couple of neighborhoods I know in Phoenix.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by WilliamPacker

"Here are some beautiful homes with great landscaping (and some shots of xeriscaping, my favorite subject) in Cherry Hills East. Some of these homes are almost identical looking to the homes in some of my favorite mid-century neighborhoods in Phoenix. These late 1950s and 1960s babies are going for 700k on up each."


Yikes, I couldn't imagine paying that. Pretty much identical homes, further west, in the Centennial/Littleton area can be had for half of that.

You're right. Cherry Hills Village and Cherry Hills East has always been a very "exclusive" area of Denver. Of course, many of the families in that neighborhood have lived there for decades and bought their homes when it was much cheaper (but still relatively expensive compared to the rest of Denver).

Originally Posted by Triste_en_Tampa

Vegaspilgrim, your recent suburban Denver photo threads have been immensely helpful to me. They allow one to get a good idea of what the Denver area really looks like. I must admit, I was somewhat surprised by how scrubby and "Southwest"-like the landscape appears. It looks quite exotic to a native Floridian. I'm also impressed by how green it is. I thought Colorado was brown 11.67 months out of the year! And there appears to be some topographic variation on the Front Range. I'd been led to believe that Denver was as flat as the Everglades. I really like the look of the xeriscaped lawns, the ones that appear to be using native grasses, rocks, and mulch(?). I've never been a fan of grass, however does one have to battle weeds all summer with a front yard like that?

Between your threads and DenverAztecs tours of the more urban areas of the city, I think I've seen so much of Denver that I wouldn't be surprised by much if I were to visit.

Thanks for the kind words, Triste. If you haven't already seen it, I have a whole other thread I posted about two months ago for you to check out: Xeriscaping in Denver: Smoky Hill tour. Interesting to hear your observations. To me the problem with Denver is that the man-made landscape is not "xeric" enough; it's not in tune with the natural geography. I know very little about gardening though so I'm not the person to ask how to handle weeds, etc.

Originally Posted by CareFreeAZ

Vegaspilgrim - If it wasn't for some of the larger trees in the pictures,I could swear a few of those houses could easily pass for a couple of neighborhoods I know in Phoenix.

I know... that's why I like those neighborhoods. Overall I'm not a big fan of Phoenix, but after living there four years one thing I learned to like was the old 1950s/60s era neighborhoods-- especially Arcadia, northeast-central Phoenix and parts of south Scottsdale. There's something about the proportions of those old ranch homes that is just about perfect. Those homes are nice and wide and have big backyards; whereas most homes today are built on narrow lots that go back far with tiny backyards and where the entire front of the house is a garage that sticks out. The neighborhood I snapped a few pictures of in this tour was the area between TJ High School (Ivanhoe St I believe), Happy Canyon Rd, and Hampden. While there are tons of neighborhoods with ranch homes in Denver, most of them don't really look quite like the ones I've seen in Phoenix-- this one here though is VERY similar.

[dj32]

Vegas- love this post and I know where all these pics are! We just moved to around this area and love it down here!
As for Cherry Hills EAst (I think some of your pics where Mansfield Heights, Southmoor Park area- you can buy there for low 700s, in fact I know one o your pics is a listing that is right around 700), that will run you close to 1M+. This is a competitive area to get into, where I say "what buyers market?". It is virtually impossible to get in here, with many homes getting multiple offers within 1-2 days.
Anyway, great pics!!!!

[Moonwalkr]

Somehow the buyer's market mentality doesn't seem to catch on in this area, we bought a house on the market for 2 months but many houses in our neighborhood are being sold within first couple weeks or even before listing.