Montclair

Montclair is a quaint neighborhood with a few architectural surprises. Many don’t know that it is the home of one of Denver’s Castles. The Richthofen Castle. Richthofen Castle was begun in 1883 and completed in 1887, and modeled on the original Richthofen Castle in Germany. I try to show it to my friends whenever we are nearby. I am surprised that more people don’t know about it. Anyway, the Montclair neighborhood has a great mix of different style properties. Victorian, Queen Anne , Bungalows, Cottages, Tudor and modern Ranch-style houses. The Neighborhood is quiet and family friendly. There are neighborhood restaurants and parks nearby. Supermarkets are less than 5 minutes away. I would recommend this neighborhood to anyone who likes the older charm. It has a similar feel to its neighbor, Park Hill.

I bought a home here in the late 80's. Selling that place a couple of years later was one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. It's value has since QUADRUPLED. And it was a fantastic house, one of the wonderful brick bungalows of this neighborhood, with enormous trees in the yard. But I'm still near this neighborhood (in adjoining Hale) and have a friend who rents a house here. This is a wonderful place to live.

Actually, I can't help but think of Montclair in two parts, because Monaco makes a distinct dividing line. It is a busy thoroughfare, but is also a gorgeous green parkway lined with stunning (and expensive) brick homes. 6th Avenue fits the same description. The areas west and east of Monaco are somewhat distinct from each other.

East of Monaco, there are some amazing huge homes among much cheaper places. This stretch of Colfax is still rough, with cheap hotels, tough bars, etc. Some of the surrounding blocks reflect this depressed feel, but there are many nice places as well. It's a block-by-block kind of place.

West of Monaco, the stretch of Colfax that used to be a very scary place after dark has been refurbished. The little shopping area for this neighborhood lies along Krameria between 13th and Colfax. On Krameria, there are two grocery stores right across the street from each other. Safeway shoppers head east, and King Soopers shoppers go to the little strip mall to the west. There is also an amazing floral greenhouse that has been here forever, a long-standing Jewish deli that is one of the area's secret foodie spots, and some little neighborhood bars. These bars have a comfortably "divey" feel, but are actually very safe and friendly.

All of these neighborhood places on both Krameria and Colfax lend some variety to the more standard drugstores and fast food places that also operate here. The housing is beautiful, and there is a variety of price ranges. There are the high-priced brick mansions along the parkways that I mentioned, and the single-family bungalows that are in the 200-300k range. But renters can also find deals on houses and duplex or 4-plex units, so it's not out of an average person's price range.

Not only is Montclair a great neighborhood in and of itself, but it's also an easy hop to City Park, and downtown, so it doesn't feel cut off in any way. This is far enough east that the parking, cost, and crowding issues that affect areas closer to downtown are mitigated, but there is easy access to everything. The fantastic medical facilities of Rose and National Jewish hospitals are close by, but don't interfere with the traffic of the neighborhood.

This is an all-around wonderful place to live. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Much like the Hale neighborhood, which it borders to the west, Montclair appeals to middle-class or well-to-do residents that want a neighborhood that is still fairly close to the center of the city, but quiet. And they get what they want. There’s a good quality of life in this neighborhood, visually inspired by the big trees and the mellow mix of housing from the late 1800s through recent decades. There’s a grocery store in the heart of the neighborhood, along with a couple of shopping plazas offering some eateries and small shops. As mentioned in my review on Hale, this particular stretch of Colfax Avenue to the north could use some investment and growth in order to provide more of a destination for residents and have a more inviting feel. In contrast, you will never find a dilapidated building near Monaco or 6th Avenue, where many elegant, historic homes are gathered.

Montclair is a neighborhood that values its history and, in fact, it was getting some areas recognized as a historic district that helped the neighborhood to pull through the urban decay of the 1970s. One of the most notable historic buildings is the Richthofen Castle. If the name Richthofen sounds familiar, it’s the surname of the Red Baron – it was his uncle who founded Montclair as an alternative to the rowdy and dirty city of Denver. Richthofen suffered from tuberculosis, as did many residents who were drawn to Denver in the late 1800s. After building his own castle, he opened a sanitarium in 1898, and promoted Montclair as the answer for Coloradans and new arrivals who suffered from poor health. For this reason, there are many “tuberculosis houses” (distinguished by their enclosed, large-windowed “sleeping porches” on the upper stories) in Montclair. After operating for a few years, the sanitarium was converted to an insane asylum. Unsurprisingly, the building is often reported to be haunted, as are many sites in the neighborhood.