This mysterious structure, not easily viewable from Quebec Street, was originally built as a barn/carriage house, back in 1911. Sadly, it is all that remains of the grand house that once stood on the SW corner of Colfax and Quebec Street. The drawing on the right provides an idea of what the structure may have originally looked like as a carriage house.
After commercialization found its way to Colfax (1920s/30s), this carriage house (used as a residence for many years) had a second life as The Carriage House Ice Cream Parlor. What once may have been a Denver landmark, catering to people at the Poplar Street Loop Station as they waited to take the streetcar to downtown Denver, now sits hidden from view behind some dilapidated 1940s era shops, at Colfax and Quebec.
1457 Quebec has been through a lot of changes over the last 106 years. From it's original purpose as a barn/carriage house, to personal residence, ice cream parlor, even place of worship for a short time, and now finally as a decaying storage facility. Despite the long succession of shopkeeper tenants who have drastically remodeled the interior, the exterior still retains its gable roof and chimney. The chimney is the only part of the structure that hasn’t been covered in paint, displaying the original reddish-orange bricks that were so typical in residential construction of that era.
