COLUMNS & COFFEE: EAST HIGH AND CITY PARK ESPLANADE

SATURDAY MAY 9, 2026
8:30 am GATHER & COFFEE
9:30 am TOUR 
GATHER
St Mark's Coffee House 
2019 E 17th Ave
Denver, CO 80206
REGISTER HERE
$20 Members, $25 General, Free for Students
Registration is Required, Space is Limited!

Join the ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter for a special Columns & Coffee tour of the City Park Esplanade and East High School—an exploration of architecture, landscape, and civic vision within one of Denver’s most compelling City Beautiful ensembles. This behind-the-scenes experience includes rare access to East High School’s interior spaces and its iconic tower, offering sweeping views across City Park and the city beyond.
Our morning begins along the City Park Esplanade, where Denver’s early 20th-century planners united landscape and architecture into a coherent urban framework. The Sullivan Gateway (1917), designed by architect Edward H. Bennett with sculpture by Leo Lentelli, marks a monumental threshold into the park, while the nearby Thatcher Memorial Fountain (1918) by Lorado Taft demonstrates how sculpture enriched civic space with allegorical meaning.
We then move to East High School, completed in 1925 and designed by George Hebard Williamson, a distinguished public building purposefully sited as a visual terminus along 16th Street within the city grid and set alongside the parkway promenade. Conceived as both school and civic landmark, it reflects a broader vision in which public institutions were integrated into a legible and inspiring urban composition. Inside, we will explore the building’s architecture before ascending the tower for a rare vantage point over City Park and the Rocky Mountain horizon.
East High School is Denver's oldest high school, and last year in 2025, it celebrated two milestones- its 150th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of the construction of the current building located on Denver's City Park Esplanade. Denver native Dr. Marcia Tremmel Goldstein co-chaired these festivities and authored the nomination which earned the school the designation as a Denver City Landmark.  She graduated from East High School in 1969, and holds an A.B. from Metropolitan State University of Denver, an M.A. from the University of Colorado Denver, and a Ph.D in American History from the University of Colorado Boulder.  She is a co-founder of the East High Tower History Museum and the East Alumni Heritage Hall, both of which will be included in the upcoming tour.  
This program is part of the ICAA’s ongoing mission to promote the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism, and the allied arts, offering insight into how thoughtful design can elevate public life and connect the city to its natural setting.

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Host or Publisher Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Rocky Mountain Chapter