Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf
Satellite photos courtesy Google Earth.
Edited by David Barth 1 April 2014. Surface photos by David Barth.
There are conflicting stories of what this foundation represents.
- 1. One theory is that it is the foundation of the first house built in
Lakewood, Colorado.
- 2. Another theory is that it was an attempt to utilize vacant land inside the cloverleaf to make
a rest stop. Although that idea lends credence to the curbs around the foundations, it may not explain the well-designed and built steps. Perhaps there were picnic tables long ago. However, there are no
signs of a safety fence between the highest point in the cloverleaf and Wadsworth
Boulevard, which is a fairly steep hill.
- 3. A third theory is that when the U.S. Government decided to build an ordinance plant at what is
now the Federal Center, bounded by Alameda, Colfax, Kipling, and Union/Sims, a person purchased land
on the northwest corner of 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard and built a house. He knew that 6th
Avenue would have to be widened to handle the larger volume of traffic between the Ordinance Plant,
Denver and the suburbs between them. The State of Colorado had to purchase his house and land for the
widening and to build a cloverleaf at that location, and, as the story goes, he profited.
The story comes from the book, "Lakewood-Colorado, An
Illustrated Biography," published in 1994 by a group of authors. It states that in the 1860s,
Valentine Devinny and his brother, George, moved to Colorado from Stark County, Ohio and farmed
adjacent properties between West Sixth Avenue and West Alameda Avenue and from Wadsworth
Boulevard west Garrison Street.
Valentine was born in 1834. In 1861 he married Adelia Keyes in Leavenworth, Kansas.
In 1904 he wrote a book, "Tales of a Pioneer," about the human migration
across the Midwest during the 1860s. Some people pushed handcarts containing their possessions; others
rode on wagons pulled by oxen, horses, or cows; and many people walked. Traveling together for
protection, they covered 15 to 20 miles a day, following the Forty-niner's trail along the Platte
River. Men hunted wild game along the way, and meals were cooked over fires of willow brush and buffalo
chips.
In Colorado, Valentine's farm was 160 acres extending from West Sixth to West First Avenues. On what became the
southwest leaf of the West Sixth Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard cloverleaf, in the 1860s he built a
small wooden house where he lived until his red brick home on what was to become the northwest leaf of the cloverleaf was
completed. It had a turret that was a landmark for many years. The foundation and some steps of that
house could still be seen on the northwest leaf in 2014. The house was torn down in 1942 to make way for the
widening of West Sixth Avenue in preparation for moving goods and people between Denver and the new
Ordinance Plant that eventually became the Denver Federal Center.
Valentine was a horticulturist and beekeeper. He grafted many varieties of apples to trees in his 10-
acre orchard. When he came to Colorado, he brought with him sweet clover for his future bee colonies,
planting it along the banks of his farm's irrigation ditches. He had a cider press and many people
went to his farm to pick apples and make their own apple juice using his press.
William F. Cody (who became Buffalo Bill) had been a pupil of Valentine Devinny when Devinny was a
schoolteacher, before Cody became famous as the fastest Pony Express rider and then started his Wild
West Show that toured the U.S. and Europe. Local area residents enjoyed visiting the Devinny house
when Buffalo Bill was Devinny's guest, which was often. Buffalo Bill wrote the Preface to Devinny's book, praising his old schoolmaster's accounts of transforming the West.
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
| Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf. |
 |
Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf.
Satellite photo courtesy Google Earth. |
 |
Foundation at 6th Avenue and Wadsworth Cloverleaf.
Satellite photo courtesy Google Earth. |
| LAKEWOOD HISTORICAL SOCIETY SITES |
|---|
NUMBER
KEY | IDENTIFICATION | ADDRESS | YEAR
BUILT | REGISTRY |
|---|
| 1 | Cason Howell House | 1575 Kipling Street | 1874 | State Registry |
| 2 | Washington Heights School | 6375 West First Street | 1889 | State Registry |
| 3 | Stone House | 2900 South Estes Street | 1886 | National Registry |
| 4 | Peterson House | 801 South Yarrow | 1880 | National Registry |
| 5 | Davies Chuck Wagon Diner | 9495 West Colfax Avenue | 1957 | National Registry |
| 6 | Schupp House | 1275 Ames Street | 1908 | |
| 7 | Ward House | 2261 Estes Street | 1928 | |
| 8 | WWII Memorial Monument | 7655 West 10th Street | 1947 | |
| 9 | Golden Hill Cemetery - Hill | 12000 West Colfax Avenue | 1908 | National Registry |
| 10 | Mercy Grove House | 1980 Garland Street | 1935 | |
| 11 | Cline House | 7020 West 13th Street | 1939 | |
| 12 | Rose Cottage | 1800 Dover Street | 1918 | |
| 13 | Panoramic Park | 12655 West Colfax Avenue | 1961 | |
| 14 | Addenbrooke Fireplace | 9100 West Center Avenue | 1953 | |
| 15 | Isaac Solomon Synagogue | 1600 Pierce Street | 1904 | |
| 16 | Schnell Farm | 3113 South Wadsworth Boulevard | 1888 | National Registry |
| 17 | O'Kane House | 6795 West First Street | 1897 | |
| 18 | Kellogg House | 2080 Klein Street | 1888 | |
| 19 | Everett Farm | 300 South Garrison Street | 1922 | |
| 20 | Denver & Intermountain Car 25 | 500 Kipling Street (Federal Center) | 1911 | State Registry |
| 21 | Mile High Church | 9079 West Alameda Avenue | 1973 | |
| 22 | Heavenly Paradise House | 975 Reed Street | 1952 | |
| A | Building 710 (Federal Center) | 10000 West Alameda Avenue | 1960 | National Registry |
| B | FEMA Building | 10000 West Alameda Avenue | 1969 | National Registry |
| C | JCRS Historic District | 1900 Pierce Street | 1900 | National Registry |
| D | Bonfil-Stanton Outbuildings | 797 South Wadsworth Boulevard | 1920 | State Registry |
| E | Country Club Garden Apartments | 1160 Pierce Street | 1962 | State Registry |