Denver Neighborhoods - Historic Hilltop

“Yesterday’s camel” was the first known resident of Hilltop. Known in Latin as Camelops hesternus, this grass-eating, single-humped animal lived in the area more than 10,000 years ago. More modern residents found the fossilized remains in 1936 while laying a new drain pipe. Another camel was found at 100 Cherry a few years later. Mammoth bones have also been unearthed in the area.

Approximately 10,000 years later, after the completion of the High Line Canal in 1885, developer Milo Smith platted the Eastern Capitol Hill subdivision, which he named after the fashionable Denver suburb more than a mile to its west. Another pair of developers –DuBois and Malone – mapped the top third of present Hilltop six years later. However, like Smith, they did not make a formal connection between districts, and as a result, every street between Third and Fourth Avenues has an awkward jag. Developer John Leet, who lived on the western edge of Cranmer Park, likewise failed to make things fit. His 1896 diary records the frustration of land development: “8 years of Leetsdale… Instead of a fortune it has brought me bankruptcy.”

George Ernest Cranmer, Denver’s Manager of Improvements and Parks from 1935-47, loved the Mountain View crest that gave Hilltop its name. He recalled riding up with his wife Jean on horseback to watch the sunsets, enjoying it so much that they decided to build a house there. A shrewd financial mind also lay behind the decision: he knew that the city had already spent $20,000 for park land in the area, and property values would likely rise with the park. So in 1916, he bought the hilltop, built his 22-room Mediterranean mansion at its apex, and awaited neighborhood growth.

In 1924, there were only 42 homes in the neighborhood, in part because of inaccessible public transport. But the advent of the automobile and the relocation of the University of Colorado School of Medicine to the area assured Hilltop’s fortune. By 1938, 376 households had been established; double that existed by 1950. So many medical professionals moved into the area it became known colloquially as “Pill Hill.”

With Lowry Air Force Base nearby, neighborhood children grew used to the roar of airplane engines. But on December 3, 1951, a B-29 bomber failed to make the landing strip, ripping through five houses at 1st and Eudora and exploding in a ball of fire at Bayaud. The Denver Post reported the ground “strewn with splintered houses, hot electric wires, and chunks of tin and scrap from the fuselage. In seconds, the entire area was a sheet of flames.” Eight crewmen died and several residents were injured. By 1960, low-altitude flights had been rerouted to Buckley Field, so the sound of nearby aircraft was no longer heard on Hilltop.

Although the delicious soda fountain (Aylard’s Pharmacy), great bookshop (Tumbleweed), and colonial revival Texaco station are no longer around, you can still visit Mountain View Park and look over the Hilltop that grew up much as George Cranmer had designed.

July 2008 Market Statistics

In metro Denver closed sales in July were 5,123 compared with 4,980 in July 2007, a 2.9% gain. The average selling price for the period was $262,224 compared to an average in July 2007 of $289,294, a percentage drop of 9.4. The median sale price for single-family homes was $229,200 compared with $255,000 in July 2007, for a drop of 10.1%. 969 condos and townhomes sold in July 2008, compared with 1,081 for the same period in 2007, a drop of 10.4%. Median prices for condos in July 2008 were $149,000 compared with $158,000 in July 2008, a drop of 5.7%. For single family houses, condos and townhomes the average number of days a house was on the market in July 2008 was 98, and in July 2007 was 95. The list to sale ratio was 97% in 2008 versus 98% in 2007. 25,673 houses are currently on the market and interest rates are still low. It’s a great time to buy in the Denver real estate market, but if you’re a seller you may want to wait till conditions improve.

Check out the current Market Conditions Report for further analysis.