Whittier Neighborhood Highlights

Whittier is a historic Denver neighborhood northeast of downtown, adjacent to Five Points and west of City Park. The neighborhood is predominantly single-family homes of tree-lined streets. Most of the homes were built in the early 20th century as Denver’s population continued to expand eastward from Downtown Denver’s first “suburban” neighborhoods of Capitol Hill and Curtis Park. Early residents of this neighborhood, first registered in 1868, included the University of Denver founder Alfred Case and early Denver attorney Jacob Downing, who is also credited with promoting Denver’s park system. Carpenters, bricklayers and metal workers also settled in Whittier, building Victorian, traditional Denver Square and Queen Anne-style homes.

Convenient access is available to retail, restaurants and services in Five Points and Uptown. City Park, one of Denver’s biggest parks, and City Park Golf Course lie just east of Whittier. One of the most prominent landmarks in Wittier is St. Ignatius Loyola Church on the corner of 23rd & York Street in the neighborhood’s southwest corner. The Gothic red brick church was completed in 1924 with twin bell towers. It was a prominent middle class congregation with more than 1.100 parishioner families in 1940. St. Ignatius Loyola has played an important role in bringing about racial integration in Denver and the neighborhood west of the City Park. In 1996, Loyola church was placed on both the National and Colorado State Registers of Historic Places.