Fire House Car Wash - Denver, CO
Over the last few years, I've not driven down Colfax Avenue in Denver, and failed to admire the shell of the former Fire House Car Wash, at 1801 East Colfax.
Covered from ground to roof in colorful murals and graffiti, the gutted car wash building has become a Denver landmark of creative street murals. Combine that with typical urban decay, and that is right up my alley...
In addition to multiple drive-by pictures over the years, I've recently made two dedicated "park and walk around the property" missions to photograph the former Fire House. (Which was never a real firehouse...) First visit came on June 17, 2017, with the second on February 17, 2018. (Those dates are coincidental, not some intentionally weird 8 month plan...) My intent was to cover the changes to the artwork and property itself over time.
This would be the northwestern corner of the car wash property. I'm assuming Gamma and Graves are the original artists of the mural, or it's a reference from the artists... Oh, I really have no idea...
Across the street is a Taco Bell, that has not been open during either of my photo missions. I wont eat your food, but I will borrow your parking space for a project like this... And you just got some free advertising! So there!
Zooming out a bit... Backing the car wash to the north is a residential area. The houses are nice and old, but all lived in and busy. So no photographs there. It is a cool looking neighborhood though...
A better shot of a past car wash entrance door. The pavement leading up to it having been removed, I'm guessing there was something buried there, that needed to be unburied after it closed.
Through the broken glass above the boarded up bay doors, you can see daylight. That is because the roof has been ripped off the entire complex. While I'm still unable to find out an exact timeline on the car wash's closure and conversion into canvas, I do know that roof was taken down during an aborted renovation project at some point.
This Notice of Non-Responsibility was posted on the security fence surrounding the car wash. I'm no legal expert, but it reads like the owners are claiming that they are not responsible for this artwork, and will not pay to clean it up or cover it up.
I kind of hoped that BeAGoodPerson.com would lead to something profound, or at least some clues about who painted the building... Instead the address lead to a vaguely positive website advertising clothing.
I laud the city of Denver in trying to create a better environment for historic Colfax Avenue. After decades of being known for it's gang violence, drug trade and prostitution, Denver is cleaning up abandoned properties and growth is expanding east and west of Broadway.
While the Fire House Car Wash is hardly something that you'd imagine taking pride in, during my February 2018 photo sweep, I was approached by a man who should have terrified me. Instead, he struck up a conversation about some murals I should check out in another part of Colfax.
Stuff like this actually creates pride in your neighborhood, and goes a long way towards making a small part of life a little better. Albeit in a non-traditional way...
While researching the Fire House Car Wash, I found this image, taken by Jonathan Cohen. I took a screen capture from his webpage to show an image of the car wash while it was open.
I couldn't find any concrete dates as to when the Fire House Car Wash closed. The last review on Yelp came in April 2013. Like nearly every other Yelp review of the Fire House, it was overwhelmingly negative. Apparently, they will scuff your car and steal things out of it. That's a representative summary of what a lot of those damn yelpers said...
Front wall of the car wash. Door on the left side, windows in the middle, and storefront on the right. All covered up and nearly impossible to recognize from it's days as an open car wash.
Almost the same view in February 2018. The lot has been cleaned up, with the stray bricks all neatly stacked, blocking the door. A banner from the Kentro Group shows an ambitious project using the existing structure. Instead of going through the expense of building a new roof where one is missing, who wouldn't just tear the whole thing down and start over with a structure that better suits your needs?
I was a big fan of the naked women bodies with smiley face heads and machine guns, painted on the east walls. Unfortunately they'd been covered up by some crappy silver bubble tagging, at some point since January, 2016...
Now that more can be seen through the broken windows, you can see the inside of the closed up bay door. Or at least directly above it...
Obviously, people can easily get inside the building from multiple angles. So the inside was filled with tagging that could hardly be seen from the outside. Only through broken out pieces of painted over glass.
Tighter angle, looking into the window, over blue Pikachu's shoulder. From this access point, taggers have taken over the interior of the Fire House Car Wash. While the outside should not me messed with, the inside serves as a training ground for apprentice taggers. Very little could be seen of what was painted inside, but from what you could get through the missing window, it looked like I want to see more...
As I'd expected, I couldn't find a whole lot of information about the Fire House Car Wash. Just the three pictures I included and a bunch of negative Yelp reviews. I would imagine it will have to be demolished, despite the Kenta Group's Colfax Square dreams.
All the work involved in making that dream a reality vs knocking it over and building something that suits a new occupant's needs better, make little sense to keep it. This is basically some walls. No floor, no roof. Uneven lot. There's no way that what's left of this current structure ever sees another tenant...
Until then, it's a beautiful piece of decay that adds a great deal of character into an area already well known for it's character.
Covered from ground to roof in colorful murals and graffiti, the gutted car wash building has become a Denver landmark of creative street murals. Combine that with typical urban decay, and that is right up my alley...
In addition to multiple drive-by pictures over the years, I've recently made two dedicated "park and walk around the property" missions to photograph the former Fire House. (Which was never a real firehouse...) First visit came on June 17, 2017, with the second on February 17, 2018. (Those dates are coincidental, not some intentionally weird 8 month plan...) My intent was to cover the changes to the artwork and property itself over time.
As I walk around the building, I will note the date each picture was taken...
(June 17, 2017)
Across the street is a Taco Bell, that has not been open during either of my photo missions. I wont eat your food, but I will borrow your parking space for a project like this... And you just got some free advertising! So there!
(February 17, 2018)
I love this... The hand is one thing, but chiseling away the cement around the fingers brings this painting to a whole new level...
(February 17, 2018)
Zooming out a bit... Backing the car wash to the north is a residential area. The houses are nice and old, but all lived in and busy. So no photographs there. It is a cool looking neighborhood though...
(February 17, 2018)
A better shot of a past car wash entrance door. The pavement leading up to it having been removed, I'm guessing there was something buried there, that needed to be unburied after it closed.
Like some dead bodies?
(June 17, 2017)
I like how the old windows and doors were painted over as if they didn't matter...
(June 17, 2017)
Stepping back towards the southeast corner of the property...
(February 17, 2018)
Oh Snap!
(February 17, 2018)
The former bay doors are covered with simple grey painted plywood. Not very interesting...
(June 17, 2017)
Before they were painted grey, they had stuff on them!
S'up Javon the Unique?
(February 17, 2018)
(Date unknown)
Here is a photo of the open Firehouse Car Wash that I found online.
The bay door on the left side is the same door in the previous picture.
I do not know the date nor author of this photo...
(June 17, 2017)
I'm not really sure how any of that works...
(February 17, 2018)
It's nice when the entire class signs the yearbook!
(June 17, 2017)
The former Fire House Car Wash sign has been painted to look like a Neapolitan Ice Cream Bar.
Go ahead... See for yourself!
(February 17, 2018)
In addition to painting the sign Neapolitan flavored, they also glued a bunch of doll baby faces to it.
Well, all right then...
(February 17, 2018)
I really like the napping dog underneath the sign...
(June 17, 2017)
Let's go back in time and take a closer look...
(June 17, 2017)
Next to the Neapolitan Ice Cream Bar was a banner on the streetlight reading: Colfax Creates.
I laud the city of Denver in trying to create a better environment for historic Colfax Avenue. After decades of being known for it's gang violence, drug trade and prostitution, Denver is cleaning up abandoned properties and growth is expanding east and west of Broadway.
At the expense of old and historic buildings... The down side of gentrification...
While the Fire House Car Wash is hardly something that you'd imagine taking pride in, during my February 2018 photo sweep, I was approached by a man who should have terrified me. Instead, he struck up a conversation about some murals I should check out in another part of Colfax.
Stuff like this actually creates pride in your neighborhood, and goes a long way towards making a small part of life a little better. Albeit in a non-traditional way...
(February 17, 2018)
Another look across the lot at the far end of the car wash, from next to the Neapolitan Ice Cream Bar.
(February 17, 2018)
A wider angle of the bay doors...
(May 9, 2010)
(June 17, 2017)
This not the same angle, but taken from the same location, seven years later.
I couldn't find any concrete dates as to when the Fire House Car Wash closed. The last review on Yelp came in April 2013. Like nearly every other Yelp review of the Fire House, it was overwhelmingly negative. Apparently, they will scuff your car and steal things out of it. That's a representative summary of what a lot of those damn yelpers said...
(June 17, 2017)
(February 17, 2018)
Almost the same view in February 2018. The lot has been cleaned up, with the stray bricks all neatly stacked, blocking the door. A banner from the Kentro Group shows an ambitious project using the existing structure. Instead of going through the expense of building a new roof where one is missing, who wouldn't just tear the whole thing down and start over with a structure that better suits your needs?
(February 17, 2018)
Look! It can be divided into three awkward retail storefronts! With four parking spaces!
(February 17, 2018)
And we'll call this series of rectangle shaped stores on a rectangle shaped lot, Colfax Square!
*Please bring your own roof.
(June 17, 2017)
A better angle of the storefront.
(June 17, 2017)
Another angle of the storefront.
(February 17, 2018)
Hite has been covered, bricks have been cleaned up...
(January 24, 2016)
An obscured photo showing vastly different and Broncos themed mural on the storefront.
And the Taco Bell who lent me their parking lot!
(June 17, 2017)
(February 17, 2018)
And by a few weeks ago, the wall had been covered up again...
This time with a giant drippy Les Miserables head and more brokener windows. (Yes... I know...)
In case I wasn't clear...
(June 17, 2017)
Awesome...
(February 17, 2018)
Less awesome...
But art is subjective...
(February 17, 2018)
Now that more can be seen through the broken windows, you can see the inside of the closed up bay door. Or at least directly above it...
(February 17, 2018)
Obviously, people can easily get inside the building from multiple angles. So the inside was filled with tagging that could hardly be seen from the outside. Only through broken out pieces of painted over glass.
(February 17, 2018)
Hey, no one cleaned up these bricks yet...
(June 17, 2017)
Yo Colfax!!
(June 17, 2017)
Northeast wall of the Fire House Car Wash. The exit pavement has also been removed...
I'm starting to thing the entire floor of the car was is missing as well... Just a hunch...
(February 17, 2018)
Same thing... Months later...
(February 17, 2018)
Tighter angle, looking into the window, over blue Pikachu's shoulder. From this access point, taggers have taken over the interior of the Fire House Car Wash. While the outside should not me messed with, the inside serves as a training ground for apprentice taggers. Very little could be seen of what was painted inside, but from what you could get through the missing window, it looked like I want to see more...
(June 17, 2017)
For example... I'd kind of like to read what's written on the far wall...
(February 17, 2018)
Still can't read it, but more has appeared on the walls around it.
(June 17, 2017)
That looks kind of nice...
(February 17, 2018)
Here's a little more of it.
(February 17, 2018)
Looking directly across. This would have been the detail shop, according to the still open picture.
(February 17, 2018)
Slightly different angle shows entirely different paint!
(June 17, 2017)
Close up of the bay door, and up into the non-roof.
(June 17, 2017)
Painted fence, blocking off access to the house just north of the car wash.
(February 17, 2018)
Quick peek at the painting behind the car wash.
(February 17, 2018)
One last view of the boarded up store front.
(February 17, 2018)
And back across the waiting area in the front... Be A Good Person...
Park at Taco Bell, but do not eat there!
(Date unknown)
I doubt the special is still valid...
All the work involved in making that dream a reality vs knocking it over and building something that suits a new occupant's needs better, make little sense to keep it. This is basically some walls. No floor, no roof. Uneven lot. There's no way that what's left of this current structure ever sees another tenant...
Until then, it's a beautiful piece of decay that adds a great deal of character into an area already well known for it's character.
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