DENVER — As the Denver7 Team settles into our new home in the Historic Five Points Neighborhood, we spent the afternoon with some of the folks who know Five Points best.
"This is our extended family. That's what I love about Welton Street. Growing up here when everything was Black-owned, everyone pretty much knew everybody. It's just like you go down to the barber shop, you go to the shoeshine, you go to Minerva's hats, you go to the gift store. So everyone was really well connected," said Fathima Dickerson, co-owner of the Welton Street Cafe, a long-time Five Points Staple.
She's in the midst of working to re-open the restaurant at its new location at 29th and Welton.
"When you think about what life brings, the only thing that's permanent about life is change," she said.
There's been an incredible amount of change since the early days of one of Denver's oldest neighborhoods.
Watch Denver7's Special on Five Points and its history in the video below:
"When Black people were moving to Denver, they were really only allowed to live in one neighborhood, which was, the neighborhood that I'm sitting in right now, the historic Five Points neighborhood," said Norman Harris, executive director of the Five Points Business Improvement District. "So what you got was a concentration of, not only African-American people, but the culture and traditions that they brought along with them."
That legacy is honored through cultural events like the annual Juneteenth Celebration, murals that pay tribute to neighborhood legends, and, of course, the businesses.
"There's businesses like the one that we're sitting in, which is a Black-owned brewery (Spangalang), one of the few Black-owned breweries in the state. But, along with the cultural piece of it, there is a rhythm to Five Points that I think is unique," said Harris.
Dickerson agreed.
"The new Five Points, it's a new space, it's a new beginning. It's a new opportunity. When you see a vacancy here, there's potential here, there's potential there," she said.
It's potential that business owners and longtime Five Points residents hope that Denver city leaders will start to recognize.
"I sincerely believe this is Denver's most beautiful neighborhood. You come down and you understand that you're in a place that's different. From the architecture to the people that you run into. This is really a destination that, I believe our city needs to re-prioritize and start to wrap its arms around," said Harris.
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