Wooden plaque with engraved text and graphics marking Denver’s Historic Chinatown is mounted on a brick wall along a city sidewalk. Reflections of buildings appear in the window beside it.
A historical marker near 1620 Wazee Street in Denver details the anti-Chinese race riot that occurred Oct. 31, 1880, nearby. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

Denver’s Chinatown isn’t obvious.

In the late 1800s, Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. to work on the transcontinental railroad ended up in the area now known as Lower Downtown. From 1870 to 1890, the Chinese population in Denver swelled from four to just under 1,000. 

But Denver’s first race riot broke out in the heart of Chinatown on Oct. 31, 1880, and those Chinatown businesses never bounced back. What little remained of the once thriving corridor was wiped out in the 1960s by Denver’s Skyline Urban Renewal Project. There are historic markers at 1620 Wazee St. and 1890 Lawrence St.

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Denver’s Chinatown

Wazee St, Denver, CO 80202, USA (39.751239, -105.000013)
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State History