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Barry Matchett shows Annita Andrick, of the Penrose Archives, a plat of
University Park
House at 2111 S. St. Paul Street
Unidentified House in University Park Subdivision
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Collection
Overview
Creator: Matchett, Barry - Interviewer
Title: University Park oral history collection
Inclusive Dates: 1986
Size: 50 sound cassettes (18 hr. 38 min.)
Processed By: Finding aid and Web
version prepared by Marcia Kehl July 2002; revised October 2003
The University of Denver moved to its University
Park campus in the 1890s. The area was platted and became the University
Park Subdivision in 1892. The current boundaries of the University Park
neighborhood are Highway I-25 on the north, Yale Avenue on the south,
University Boulevard on the west, and Colorado Boulevard on the east.
University Park School was built in 1893 at the corner of East Iliff Avenue
and South St. Paul Street as part of the Arapahoe County School District.
In 1894 the Chamberlin Observatory was dedicated at Observatory Park,
at the corner of East Warren Avenue and South Fillmore Street. The neighborhood
grew, with a contingent of professors and administrators associated with
the University sharing the neighborhood with other residents. Fraternity
and sorority houses dotted the landscape. University Park Methodist Church,
located at South University Boulevard and East Warren Avenue, became a
fixture of the neighborhood.
By 1986 the University Park neighborhood was considered one of Denver's
venerable historic neighborhoods, full of stately homes and mature trees.
In that year, 14-year-old Barry Matchett elected to earn an Eagle Scout
badge by completing an oral history project with some of the older residents
of the area. He collected fifty oral histories on cassette tapes. The
subjects discussed ranged from the trolley which served the area to area
grocery stores. The close-knit feeling of community in the area was reflected
in reminiscences about Christmas and Fourth of July celebrations.
Barry Matchett donated his cassette tapes to the University of Denver
Archives so that they would be available for research. In an article in
the Denver Post, he explained how much fun he had collecting
the tapes, and that it was much more fun than learning facts from a history
book. He hoped that his work would be useful to others wanting to learn
about the history of University Park. |
