Colfax holds a sweet spot in history for its famous Beatnik references. It’s where Kerouac’s On the Road begins. It’s also the old stomping grounds of the Beatnik’s home-grown poet, Neal Cassady who graduated at perhaps the crown jewel of Colfax Avenue, East High School. But Denver’s first high school has never had a pool.
The U.S. Mint and the State Capitol hold their positions on this famous strip of land where in 1875, Denver’s first high school was built. In 1925, the old building was demolished and a new one was relocated on East 1600 City Park Esplanade. East High was designed by the native architect George Hebard Williamson who was an 1893 graduate of East High. Williamson would crown the new building with its high clock tower modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Denver is Proud of East High
East High has hatched some great personalities along with Neal Cassady. People like the famous actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., singer Judy Collins, Don Cheadle, Pam Grier and another famous artist, Hattie McDaniel, America’s first black Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actress in the epic film, Gone with the Wind. Jazz sensation, Dianne Reeves, Olympic gold medalist Jerome Bliffle, Earth, Wind and Fire’s Philip Bailey, 1998 Suicide Kings director Peter O’Fallon and comedian T.J. Miller all share an alumnus at East High. These are just a few of the greats that have come out of this amazing high school.
Bestowed as one of America’s top high schools in 1957, it was again selected as one of America’s Top Ten Schools in 1968. Newsweek in 2008 would again recognize East High as one of the country’s Top High Schools.
This year’s East High School Graduation Class of 2014 will be graduating on May 29 releasing to the world perhaps one or two more names to the already honorable list. And still, the graduating class of 2014 went to East High with no swimming pool.
On March 5th this year the Parks and Recreation Department held the first of three public hearings to gather ideas for the planned Central Denver Recreation Center that will be located at 16th and Josephine Street. The two-story building, to be completed in 2015, will replace the city dog park. A major concern was parking. The solution? When responses favored a pool for the rec center, East High’s long awaited pool was negotiated by way of sharing its parking lot. Who knows, maybe the Class of 2019 will graduate a great swimmer.
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