DENVER — A Denver woman is working to open a museum dedicated to the untold stories of South Denver — and she needs the community's help to make it happen.
Brittany Spinner, president and co-founder of the South Denver Historic Museum, lives in Washington Park West and has spent years digging into the history of the area.
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"I would go to the libraries, I would go to our different historical organizations with some evidence of hey, this happened or that happened, and nobody really had looked into a lot of this stuff," Spinner said.
What she found surprised her. The area has a rich and largely undocumented past, full of everyday people who shaped the neighborhood.
"We just found this plethora of knowledge of all these doers and dreamers and entrepreneurs that like really dug into this area and built the space with their own hands," Spinner said.
Along the way, Spinner uncovered a fun historical footnote: the area was once a fully incorporated town called South Denver, which existed from 1886 to 1894.
Spinner said she believes she has found the perfect location to bring all of those stories together — a historic house on Lincoln Street constructed in 1893, which she believes was one of the last buildings built before the town of South Denver was absorbed into the city.
"It likely was one of the very last buildings to be built when the town was still the town of South Denver," Spinner said.
The house is currently derelict and boarded up, and there are significant hurdles to clear before it can open as a museum. The organization is actively working to make that happen and has backup plans if an alternate location becomes necessary.
The South Denver Historic Museum is a registered nonprofit. The organization still needs to raise approximately $1.3 million to give the museum a permanent home.
"It's a story that we need to tell, but it also needs to be built by us, a lot of times funded by us too, and really pushed for and created by us," Spinner said.
She encourages anyone who wants to get involved is welcome — even if that just means showing up to help.
"If we get this off the ground, if you want to come help paint and help out that way, we're excited for that too," Spinner said.
For Spinner, the effort comes down to something simple.
"If we don't tell these stories, they get lost," Spinner said.
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