Community

Globeville was the nexus of Colorado’s economy in the early 1900’s. Agriculture, mining, cattle, and railroads led to the development of a thriving industrious neighborhood.

Today, the area is revitalizing — transforming from its historical roots to a burgeoning, vibrant community with the vision to maintain Globeville as a neighborhood rich with destinations that celebrate its history.

Born on the western banks of the South Platte River, in late 1860’s, it was originally home to farmers, trappers, homesteaders and entrepreneurs. Globeville was incorporated as a town in 1891 and subsequently annexed into Denver in 1902. Throughout the years it has been a “melting pot” of many cultures.  

Mineral wealth grew in Colorado and in 1885 the Globe Smelter and Refining Company was created to process metals Colorado. Between the late 1880s to the 1920s, immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia, traded the hardships they had known in the old country for new lives in an industrious town. 

They found jobs in the area’s smelters, foundries, brickyards, meatpacking plants and railroads and created institutions that would support each other: ethnic taverns, fraternal organizations, churches and religious schools. Everything important—family, jobs, church, school, and fraternal lodges—was within walking distance. People seldom left the neighborhood (or needed to) making Globeville a tightly knit, small town where everyone knew and cared for each other.

Globeville’s history as a home for immigrants has continued into the present. Over the past few decades, an increasing Latino or Hispanic population has moved into the Globeville neighborhood. The current mix of multi-generational residents and new immigrants continues the rich diversity that the Globeville neighborhood experienced in the past.