This was the guidebook for the 4th annual League of Women Voters neighborhood tour.  Published on the verge of the 1980’s energy/oil boom, it was also the beginning of organized historic preservation in Denver.  Included on the tour was the Auraria Higher Education Center’s Ninth Street Park, and Zeckendorf Plaza., I. M. Pei’s lovely hyperbolic paraboloid.  The 16th Street mall was still just a proposal, as was a lot of Denver’s current skyline.

F784.D44 E37 1978

A guide for enjoying Denver on the cheap.  Some of the suggestions include watching rabbits on the east-west runways of Stapleton Airport, performances of the Brico Orchestra in City Park, touring the Fort Saint Vrain Nuclear Power Plant, and riding in the Security Life glass elevator.  Along with art, culture and education there are chapters on human services, support agencies, and organizations and clubs.  In many ways, this is much less a tourist guide, than a handbook for residents.  The introduction says “Denver offers many opportunities to break away from routines and explore new horizons.”   Also includes “Twelve months of suggestions.”

F784.D43 K36 1980

The back cover blurb claims “You’ll find leading art consultants, interior decorators, jewelry designers and craftspeople…where to get 24-carat bathroom fixtures or who can create a lush tropical environment…where to go for funky fashions or haute couture…who to call when you need a limo to impress…a carousel ostrich, a brass elephant, trimmings for a Hallowe’en tree, a wild Amazon woman to sing birthday greetings…who can dash over with a bouquet of custom balloons, or put you in a hot-air-filled one to soar the skies.”  This is worth perusal simply for the period-piece photographs which accompany each entry.  Think big hair, big collars, big deals.

F784.D43 L3 1981

UCDHSC-DD Professor Tom Noel sets the tone for this specialized walking guide in the introduction: “This guidebook is good medicine, especially for those of us still mourning lost landmarks.”  (At the time, the glass-walled Security Life elevator remains in service.) The author explores the building interiors, including the public art, as well as commenting on the architecture.  Although many of the sites were new at the time, some are already gone – for instance, the Terracentre, the greenhouse looking building with green-tinted windows which fronted on Speer Boulevard. Cover art by G. Carr.

NA735.D38 M34 1985

Fodor’s began publishing a Colorado title around 1981 – before that Colorado was part of its Rocky Mountain West guidebooks covering Utah to North Dakota.  This edition is written by local writers and experts and covers the state in six chapters: Facts at your fingertips; An Introduction to Colorado; Denver and Environs; Ski and summer resorts; Northwest Colorado; and Southern Colorado.  There is no rating system: however, dining and lodging establishments are described from Super Deluxe to Inexpensive.  Denver’s Buckhorn Exchange is listed both as a museum and as a restaurant (Expensive).  No photographs.

F774.3 .F63 1986

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