Do You Know This Building?
Answers: 1.c) Denver; 2.c) 1912; 3.c) hotel and jazz club A wedge of land at a five corner intersection east of downtown Denver’s commercial center dictated the triangular plan and corner entrance of this three story brick building. Constructed in 1912, the neon signs and glass block door surrounds reflect 1930s changes superimposed on the Renaissance Revival building. Named after the owner of the Baxter Cigar Company, the Baxter Hotel would become the physical, social and commercial center of the Five Points community. 
Five Points is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. By 1890, purportedly the world’s longest cable car line, the Welton Street route, ran through this neighborhood. The area adopted its name from the streetcar designation which avoided the cumbersome alternative (Washington Street, 26th Avenue, 27th Avenue, Welton Street). The 1920s saw a transition to a black majority in the Five Points area. Between 1930 and 1950, Five Points developed into a largely self-contained community with services and commercial establishments catering to African-Americans as well as other ethnic groups in the area. As the jazz phenomenon of the late 1930s spread in popularity across the country, Five Points became the place for jazz in Denver. The building acquired the name Rossonian in 1929 after Mr. A.W.L. Ross. Ross managed the building along with a small group of black men who worked as railroad porters and waiters. The Rossonian gained its reputation for “authentic” jazz largely because of the big name black musicians who were drawn to Five Points. Jazz greats such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole and George Shearing stayed at the hotel and entertained in the lounge between their major Denver engagements or enroute to other cities. Despite their national stature, these jazz musicians played at white-owned and managed hotels that refused them lodging. The shows at the Rossonian Lounge were often staged after these major African-American entertainers finished their scheduled performances at the same Denver hotels that were unwilling to offer them lodging. After World War II, the city made strides towards reducing racial segregation. The need for alternative lodging at the Rossonian lessened and the lounge drew fewer big name musicians. While the hotel continued to be a center for jazz performances, the quality of the acts and the facilities deteriorated. The building was sold for back taxes in 1960 and remained under-utilized and poorly maintained until an extensive rehabilitation project in the early 1990s. One of the most important jazz clubs between St. Louis and Los Angeles from the late 1930s to the early 1960s, the Rossonian Hotel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. |
