That US Bank by Gates Rubber - Denver, CO
My intentions were to have this story ready by June 1st, to commemorate the one year anniversary of Laura and I leaving Colorado. I wanted to feature what I considered the single most "Denver" landmark to me. The long closed and abandoned Gates Rubber Company campus. Which spread through three corners of a major intersection in town.
The US Bank that served me, both as a bank and a source of available parking, while I watched that landmark get slowly destroyed over the course of 10 months.
US Bank sat on the southeast corner of Broadway and Mississippi. That location made it a very convenient stop for ATM and other banking needs on my way to downtown Denver.
Gates Rubber Company once had large factories lining Broadway, both north and south of Mississippi Avenue. The northeast corner of the intersection housed another huge Gates complex. With the medical clinic and credit union, amongst other Gates related stuff, in this multiple block long complex. (That entire complex was demolished in late 2005.)
The southern building of Gates was demolished in 2007. I missed out on getting any pictures of it's demise. By the time I finally made it to Gates with a borrowed digital camera, in February 2008, the factory was just a small pile of concrete pieces left in it's own basement.
Which allowed a nice unobstructed view of the Gates north factory building, that hadn't been seen in decades.
Taken from the parking lot of US Bank, February, 2008. I really should have taken one step to my left before snapping this. Then the rusty blue US Bank sign pole wouldn't have been in the shot.
As the years went on, I paid little attention to the area. A large apartment building went up in place of the south Gates factory. Dominating an entire block, just as Gates once did. More large apartments were being built on the northeast corner of the Broadway and MIssissippi intersection, where Gates Clinic once stood. However, the main Gates factory, and largest building of the Gates campus, stood for years after. Avoiding demolition because no one wanted to tackle the huge project of actually getting rid of it. Made even worse by the toxic stew festering under the basement, that no one wanted to clean up.
Everything changed in November, 2013. I drove by the factory one afternoon on my way downtown. A shovel was tearing into the red brick office building attached to the front of the main facility.
I decided at that point that I would make a visit to Gates once a week until it was all gone. I wanted to document it's demise. Even though I never stepped foot inside any of the buildings, I had a real attachment to the place because it was the coolest abandoned building I'd seen in my life. And I saw it quite often since moving here in 1996.
Which provided parking in their side lot, across the alley from the drive-up teller window. Several rows of townhomes were being built across the street, as this whole area was being gentrified from industrial to residential. I didn't take many pictures of those going up. Much more interested in watching things get torn down...
On June 15, 2014, I drove Laura's car to take my Gates photos, instead of the traditional Escort. I don't remember doing that...
Here's a really crappy homemade panorama of the US Banks drive-up, taken from the parking lot across the alley. The two original photos were taken on November 28, 2013, and are some of the only pictures I have of US Bank while it was still open.
Demolition of Gates took place mainly on the north end of the property for the first few months. Meaning it was easier to park in the RTD Light Rail overflow lot for the best demolition photos. But I typically walked around the entire two blocks the factory took up each time I went there.
By late winter and early spring of 2014, work reached the front of the building facing Broadway. On April 6, 2014, I got this picture while standing at the corner of Broadway and Mississippi. Why I didn't wait for traffic to stop is beyond me...
One of the unexpected highlights of the Gates Demolition Photography Project, was finding trash that blew out of the factory as it was being destroyed. Amongst the papers I found on the Broadway and Mississippi sidewalks during this period, was this 1986 Gates Turkey Raffle form, signed by Carl T. Phipps. Other spit up Gates treasures included office memos, safety notices and purchase orders, ranging in dates from 1976 to 1982. And a golf ball that I dug out from under the demolition fence. Likely not a Gates original, but it looked like it been there for a long time.
Four Baggers and Foreclosures would like to extend our belated congratulations to Mr. Carl T. Phipps, in winning the Gates Turkey Raffle, 33 years ago this November. Hope it was delicious!
Demolition of Gates was completed in the fall of 2014. At that time, I stopped checking the property every week, and moved onto new targets in the Denver metro area.
I'll cover Gates in far greater detail at some point. After all, I took literally THOUSANDS of pictures of the place during it's demolition. Some of them are very worth sharing here...
The absence of the massive structure left a giant gap in the landscape. But at least you could see mountains from Broadway again! (I sure miss seeing mountains every day...)
As big of a gap that it left in the landscape, Gates also left a big hole in ground once it was gone. In the distance on the left, the old Gates water tower can be seen. It was saved from it's perch on the roof, and set aside for use in the planned future development. Hopes were that Gates water tower could somehow be incorporated in tying it's past to whatever this place would become.
Areas of this pit would fill up with really gross green water during rainstorms. I took this picture on March 22, 2015. Three years later, it looked pretty much the same. Although, just as we were getting ready to leave Colorado in May of 2018, the Gates site was showing signs of life.
These two Gates photos were taken as a small part of my 40th Birfday Solo Celebration Extravaganza. Which was celebrated by driving around Denver, taking pictures of stuff that other people drive by without thinking about. Gates was once again included, because the facilitator of parking during my Gates missions had itself recently closed...
US Bank's big blue drive through sign was now covered by a different shade of blue. But if you looked close, it still said US Bank underneath.
View of US Bank from the south, with the newer East of Gates apartments behind it. The bank had a very bank look to it. That looks like a bank. Not a 7-11 or a sushi bar...
I found out the bank had closed a few weeks earlier, while driving up Broadway on my way downtown. So it seemed like the perfect first target for my 40th birfday abandoned building photo tour of the Denver metro area. I parked in the adjacent lot across the alley. This time it was because I didn't want my car to get in the picture, not because I was concerned about a possible towing...
This was the only sign of it's kind on the bank. With the bright early morning sun at my back, I had a tough time getting the sign without the glass reflecting. Though I should have tried to get one without my shadow hands. Maybe I did and couldn't. I do not remember.
Inside the drive up window. There's a safe on the floor, a left behind power strip and a buncha US Bank related papers tacked to the bulletin board.
So whomever left this behind, your kid made this for you out of love! And you couldn't even give the poor gingerbread man the dignity of a proper death? Leaving him to hang attached to a wall that's about to come tumbling down. Poor little guy unable to do anything but smile as his world falls around him. A single metal spike through the forehead ensuring he cannot escape his fate.
US Mail Depository Box had no closure notice, though it was tagged by a local hooligan. I don't know if mail service was continued after US Bank closed this location, but this mailbox stayed on the alley curb through the building's demise.
Windows on the north side of the bank. The shades were pulled inside, so I couldn't get any interior pictures through them. On the right, a removed US Bank logo has left behind a dingy label scar on the brick.
That's the street address that would put you at US Bank. A classy address number plaque was attached high up on the wall, noting it's location.
Turning into the main lot, here's a small xeriscaped rocky yard in front of the bank. The main entrance is in the middle, behind the big tree.
Here's that entrance! With a couple of ashtray/garbage cans and a ridiculously small bicycle rack. Like any bike thief couldn't just pick that up and throw it in their truck, with a chained bike attached to it...
The drive-up window and night depository box got nice, professionally printed "We're closed!" signs. The front door of the bank got this weak excuse for a sign. Complete with ripped three hole punch holes, inaccurate information and poor grammar.
US Bank's new location, about a block and a half south of the old one. The new bank featured no drive-up window, and just a small parking lot to the south. While I liked the re-use of an empty store front, I wasn't a big fan of the on sidewalk ATM. I was kind of leery making a withdrawal with the typical south Broadway pedestrians lurking behind me.
Unlike the ATM at the old bank, which was locked up in the bank entrance. You had to use your ATM card to first gain access to the building before you could get that $80 cash, on your way to Dave's house...
This US Bank had an addition built onto the front of the building at some point. The entrance opened up to several hallways, before getting back to the bank lobby and teller windows.
On June 20, 2015, I returned to the familiar across the alley parking lot, to see what was going on. The familiar look of red tape has started appearing on parts of the building to represent asbestos clean-up was taking place. From this point it looks like the asbestos was contained only in the drive-up window intercom speakers...
Inside the drive-up window, the door has been removed so you can almost see into the bank lobby. There's the safe, and I would presume, the gingerbread man, still head stabbed to the bulletin board on the left. Just outside of this shot.
Red tape X's adorn the exterior doors to the main entrance. One of the cigarette butt pots have been moved inside the foyer. Maybe it was cold?
A long conference room filled up the front of the bank. The main entrance would have been on the right of this picture, where you would have needed to walk around the corner to access it.
An uncovered window on the west side of the bank offers up a peek at the main lobby in the process of being gutted. The walls in the middle represent where the tellers would have been. A center island for filling out deposit and withdrawal slips sits in front.
Another cheesy panorama shows the lobby a little better. Teller windows at the far left. Super reflective center island, then some offices with the sheetrock removed on the right.
Two weeks later, a large dumpster was placed in front of the drive up window. The area apartment dwellers have already started dumping their unwanted mattresses on the property. I like how they tried to hide them from Broadway's view by putting them all behind the dumpster. Apparently they could drag the mattresses down to the bank, but couldn't possibly lift them up to put them inside.
The dumped apartment trash has been brought inside the lobby to keep it warm. More of the walls inside the bank are being stripped of their sheetrock.
This guy chose the US Bank for his own personal camp grounds. I saw his blanket wearing car parked in front of the bank every time I stopped by for photos, from May through July of 2015. Were I more outgoing I would have knocked on his window and asked his why he chose such a scenic location to set up temporary residence. Instead, I just avoided his car. Until I decided that I needed a picture of it.
Behind his car, that boarded up building was last known as Gutterpup Vintage Clothing. It too was about to be demolished.
The demolition fence was put up around US Bank (and Gutterpup and the stores next to East Asia Garden, down the block) in the first week of August, 2015. The blue US Bank sign by the drive-up exit was excluded from the fence, and found itself quickly tagged.
Taggers even hit the exit sign... Makes you wonder if it's better to be included in the safety of behind the fence, or left to fend for yourself with the local ruffians of South Broadway?
Actually, this door on the southwest corner of the building, lead into a tiny room with a small ledge for filling out bank stuff, with an ATM behind it. You accessed the room with your ATM card, just as you did the foyer. An obviously newer addition to the building, by the mismatching brick and roof. I didn't mention this part of the bank until now, because I didn't get any complete pictures of it before the fence went up.
The small ledge inside the ATM room that I mentioned a little bit ago. Given the levels of dust on the ledge, I wondered if it had even been opened in the last 2 and a half years. There is a print of of someone's recent bank account history left behind. Which is just funny to me. An empty burger box from Wienerschnitzel, of unknown vintage sits opposite. I'm painting a mental picture of a construction worker using this as his personal lunch break office each day. Rightfully pissing US Bank off to the point where they locked the doors permanently one afternoon, just as soon as he left...
Directly south of US Bank sat Gutterpup. When I took this photo on June 8, 2014, the thrift store specializing in vintage clothing had probably been closed for less than a year. Within months of this photo, the doors and windows were completely boarded up.
Next door is Tim's Remolding, consisting of a garage and a lot filled with vehicles and small construction equipment.
Bordering Tim's to the south was a set of stores anchored by THConnect and East Asia Garden. Last year I wrote an awesome story about this building, that you should totally go read after you finish reading this! This picture was taken on September 23, 2015. Meaning they outlived US Bank!
But stop for a minute and reflect. Can you imagine the horror that poor cut out paper gingerbread man had to endure, watching his home falls before his forever open eyes? The metal spike driven through his head, guaranteeing he cannot flee his horrifying fate. After enduring the trauma of watching the drive up fall before him, it would still be several days of the building falling around him, before he would finally be crushed to death under hundreds of pounds of cement.
Given the obvious pending doom for US Bank, I drove back up the next day (August 24th). I figured that serious demolition would have started. And it did.
I parked on Broadway and took this shot of the bank, looking over the grave of Gutterpup. The front third of the bank had already been torn off. Revealing what I'd suspected, it was a newer addition to the existing building.
By the following weekend (August 30, 2015), US Bank was mostly gone. Except for the sign, the parking lot and several piles of building.
Littering the former drive up bank lanes were several safe deposit boxes. I kinda woulda liked to have had one for The Archives...
Northeast corner of US Bank. The angled brick planters are still intact, some of the canopy bases as well. On the far right is the bank vault. And in the middle is the burial mound of the Paper Cut Out Gingerbread Man.
I returned a week later (September 5, 2015), and the first thing I noticed was the big blue US Bank sign at the drive up exit, was just a mask that the previous sign was wearing. This is all that remained of it.
Over the last week, they were able to remove the vault from the bank. The slowest and most out in the open bank heist in history... And look, there's THConnect in the distance!
Looking northwest from the alley. Two years ago I'd be looking at US Bank with Gates behind it. On September 5, 2015, I could see all the way to the mountains. That seemed sad and weird to me.
For all intents and purposes, the property had been cleared by September 15th. But in the background, THConnect and East Asia Gardens survive!
US Bank was completely gone. But before I end this story, there are a couple of other loose ends in this part of town that I'd like to cover.
Here's Gates, looking west at the Broadway and Mississippi intersection, in September 2003. Crappy 35mm camera and the sun make this picture suck. But it's the only one I have that shows both Gates factories and the second and third floor walkway across Mississippi between them.
Around this time, Gates was ceasing all remaining operations at the site. Which in 2003 still included the Gates Clinic and Gates Credit Union (now renamed New Horizons Credit Union).
Dr. Zona is now practicing in New Jersey. I don't know how long he practiced at the Gates Clinic, but he did my root canal in September of 1998. His bio on Jackson Dental Professionals website credit him as co-founder of Broadway South Dental Group. He later co-founded the Jackson Dental Health Professionals. I remember the dental work I had done by him going very smoothly.
The Gates Clinic was a large multi-leveled that ran east for two blocks along Mississippi Avenue. In addition to dentists, it housed a fairly full scale medical complex. They could handle labs, x-rays, rehabilitation, emergency care and other medical stuff, all on site. This was set up for employees of the Gates factory while it was still running. But in it's later years was a bit more accessible to the public.
The second floor balcony in the middle of these apartments is roughly where Dr. Zona fixed my bad toof...
I was tipped off about the Gates dentist by my sister, who worked for Gates Credit Union. Once taking the job, she had me open an account there, making me eligible to use the services offered at the Gates Clinic. After she moved on to another job, Gates Credit Union changed their name to New Horizons. Since Gates wasn't a thing around here anymore, why keep the name?
Every other Friday morning for several years, I leaned against that circular planter, smoking cigarettes and reading the newspaper. Waiting for 8 am, when the credit union opened so I could deposit my paycheck. Just as US Bank was convenient in it's location, the credit union 2 blocks east was just as handy. (My job was less than a mile to the west of here.) New Horizons closed this location in 2004.
The Gates Clinic was closed around that time as well. In the fall of 2005, the entire complex was demolished. I took a few pictures of the buildings in half destroyed form, but the film was accidentally exposed and ruined. Specifically remember getting a picture of the credit union, with the taller half on the right side of this picture completely gone. You could see inside, with a great view of the old bank vault. Which looked a lot nicer than the exposed one at US Bank...
Just as everything else in the former Gates complex, this land was eventually converted into apartments and condos.
Denver's goal of cramming thousands of people into the four corners of the Broadway and Mississippi intersection was becoming reality. The southwest corner apartments opened in 2010. The northeast corner apartments opened in 2014. The southeast corner has just been cleared for construction of more of this.
And Gates itself with soon birth the biggest conglomeration of luxury condo-partments of the four corners at this intersection...
While it doesn't make sense to cram all those people into one small area, and not provide them with any services, a token Sprouts natural grocery store was built. Have some kale and shut up, Millennials! Sprouts's vegetable section is roughly where the medical area of the Gates Clinic once was.
In early October 2015, US Bank was fully removed from it's former address. Supplies for the new apartments were already starting to pile up on site, as construction on the entire block was set to begin.
By November 2015, US Bank, Gutterpup, THC Connect and East Asia Garden were all gone. With the last two surviving the block wide genocide the longest. That building was demolished in October 2015.
The garage last used by Tim's Remodeling was spared from demolition for a while longer. The building and grounds around it were used as a staging area for the upcoming apartment complex. Which was started to the south and quickly spread north. I'm not sure when the garage was finally flattened, but Tim's was also gone by late 2017.
One last peek south down Broadway, on July 13, 2014. US Bank was still open back then, and OH MY GOD!!! Foreigner and Styx are coming to Fiddler's Green Amphitheater!
I really wish this picture wasn't blurry. Someone was apparently so mad about the bank being gone that they had to smash a VHS copy of the Pauly Shore cinema classic, Son In Law.
Along with a widening and dramatic fixing of the long terrible Broadway and Mississippi intersection, all of these new apartments, combined with the nearby RTD Light Rail hub, gave this once decayed and rotting area a complete re-birth. It looks a lot nicer.. But I prefer what it was 20 years ago a whole lot more...
This next picture, taken May 13, 2018, was the last picture I took of the former Gates area, before I moved out of state.
I didn't notice it until I started writing this story, but that tall tree in the photo was saved from the entrance to US Bank! It's also doubtful they will be kept with the final design of the property, but the angle red brick planters are still there as well!
As far as the main Gates property goes, when I left Denver there were signs that work was about to begin on redeveloping the land. Plans were for more densely packed residential, with light retail to be built on the former rubber factory. This would all tie-in with the RTD Light Rail Hub built on the north end of the Gates property.
There were few things more iconic to Denver in my mind and memories of my time there, than the giant abandoned factory. It was one thing to watch it slowly get destroyed over the course of a year's time. And I was okay with seeing it's former home as a blank canvas.
However, seeing another cluster of these generic modern apartments plopped on top of what used to be my favorite abandoned property for over 15 years, would really depress me...
Which I'm doing here by proxy...
The US Bank that served me, both as a bank and a source of available parking, while I watched that landmark get slowly destroyed over the course of 10 months.
US Bank sat on the southeast corner of Broadway and Mississippi. That location made it a very convenient stop for ATM and other banking needs on my way to downtown Denver.
Gates Rubber Company once had large factories lining Broadway, both north and south of Mississippi Avenue. The northeast corner of the intersection housed another huge Gates complex. With the medical clinic and credit union, amongst other Gates related stuff, in this multiple block long complex. (That entire complex was demolished in late 2005.)
The southern building of Gates was demolished in 2007. I missed out on getting any pictures of it's demise. By the time I finally made it to Gates with a borrowed digital camera, in February 2008, the factory was just a small pile of concrete pieces left in it's own basement.
Which allowed a nice unobstructed view of the Gates north factory building, that hadn't been seen in decades.
Taken from the parking lot of US Bank, February, 2008. I really should have taken one step to my left before snapping this. Then the rusty blue US Bank sign pole wouldn't have been in the shot.
As the years went on, I paid little attention to the area. A large apartment building went up in place of the south Gates factory. Dominating an entire block, just as Gates once did. More large apartments were being built on the northeast corner of the Broadway and MIssissippi intersection, where Gates Clinic once stood. However, the main Gates factory, and largest building of the Gates campus, stood for years after. Avoiding demolition because no one wanted to tackle the huge project of actually getting rid of it. Made even worse by the toxic stew festering under the basement, that no one wanted to clean up.
Everything changed in November, 2013. I drove by the factory one afternoon on my way downtown. A shovel was tearing into the red brick office building attached to the front of the main facility.
Gates was finally coming down.
I decided at that point that I would make a visit to Gates once a week until it was all gone. I wanted to document it's demise. Even though I never stepped foot inside any of the buildings, I had a real attachment to the place because it was the coolest abandoned building I'd seen in my life. And I saw it quite often since moving here in 1996.
Gates represented Denver to me in a lot of ways...
And US Bank was located across the street from it.
On June 15, 2014, I drove Laura's car to take my Gates photos, instead of the traditional Escort. I don't remember doing that...
Here's a really crappy homemade panorama of the US Banks drive-up, taken from the parking lot across the alley. The two original photos were taken on November 28, 2013, and are some of the only pictures I have of US Bank while it was still open.
Demolition of Gates took place mainly on the north end of the property for the first few months. Meaning it was easier to park in the RTD Light Rail overflow lot for the best demolition photos. But I typically walked around the entire two blocks the factory took up each time I went there.
By late winter and early spring of 2014, work reached the front of the building facing Broadway. On April 6, 2014, I got this picture while standing at the corner of Broadway and Mississippi. Why I didn't wait for traffic to stop is beyond me...
Gates was now disappearing fast. On June 8, 2014, this was all that was left. Picture taken from the same corner.
A month later, on July 6, 2014, Gates was down to just this small sliver of a building.
One of the unexpected highlights of the Gates Demolition Photography Project, was finding trash that blew out of the factory as it was being destroyed. Amongst the papers I found on the Broadway and Mississippi sidewalks during this period, was this 1986 Gates Turkey Raffle form, signed by Carl T. Phipps. Other spit up Gates treasures included office memos, safety notices and purchase orders, ranging in dates from 1976 to 1982. And a golf ball that I dug out from under the demolition fence. Likely not a Gates original, but it looked like it been there for a long time.
Four Baggers and Foreclosures would like to extend our belated congratulations to Mr. Carl T. Phipps, in winning the Gates Turkey Raffle, 33 years ago this November. Hope it was delicious!
Demolition of Gates was completed in the fall of 2014. At that time, I stopped checking the property every week, and moved onto new targets in the Denver metro area.
I'll cover Gates in far greater detail at some point. After all, I took literally THOUSANDS of pictures of the place during it's demolition. Some of them are very worth sharing here...
The absence of the massive structure left a giant gap in the landscape. But at least you could see mountains from Broadway again! (I sure miss seeing mountains every day...)
As big of a gap that it left in the landscape, Gates also left a big hole in ground once it was gone. In the distance on the left, the old Gates water tower can be seen. It was saved from it's perch on the roof, and set aside for use in the planned future development. Hopes were that Gates water tower could somehow be incorporated in tying it's past to whatever this place would become.
Areas of this pit would fill up with really gross green water during rainstorms. I took this picture on March 22, 2015. Three years later, it looked pretty much the same. Although, just as we were getting ready to leave Colorado in May of 2018, the Gates site was showing signs of life.
I just wasn't going to be around to see it...
These two Gates photos were taken as a small part of my 40th Birfday Solo Celebration Extravaganza. Which was celebrated by driving around Denver, taking pictures of stuff that other people drive by without thinking about. Gates was once again included, because the facilitator of parking during my Gates missions had itself recently closed...
And now I had a reason to pay attention to this place again!
View of US Bank from the south, with the newer East of Gates apartments behind it. The bank had a very bank look to it. That looks like a bank. Not a 7-11 or a sushi bar...
I found out the bank had closed a few weeks earlier, while driving up Broadway on my way downtown. So it seemed like the perfect first target for my 40th birfday abandoned building photo tour of the Denver metro area. I parked in the adjacent lot across the alley. This time it was because I didn't want my car to get in the picture, not because I was concerned about a possible towing...
The drive-up window on March 22, 2015.
Intercom and openey extenda-drawer thingy.
I'm not sure what they are really called, and I'm sure it's not that.
Inside the drive up window. There's a safe on the floor, a left behind power strip and a buncha US Bank related papers tacked to the bulletin board.
Something really bothered me about this picture.
Let me zoom in and enhance "Crime Drama" style!
This child's drawing of a gingerbread man (maybe?) was left tacked to the bulletin board in the doomed bank.
So whomever left this behind, your kid made this for you out of love! And you couldn't even give the poor gingerbread man the dignity of a proper death? Leaving him to hang attached to a wall that's about to come tumbling down. Poor little guy unable to do anything but smile as his world falls around him. A single metal spike through the forehead ensuring he cannot escape his fate.
Some people just don't care...
Approaching the drive up window.
I guess I'm not permitted in the drive-up area. Well, I'm not ready to leave yet!
Oh! I have to go to the lobby! Well, as much as I would have liked to, the doors were locked. Fine, I'll stay outside then. There's more to see out here anyways.
Night Depository Box's closure notice was similar to the one on the drive-up window, about the bank itself.
US Mail Depository Box had no closure notice, though it was tagged by a local hooligan. I don't know if mail service was continued after US Bank closed this location, but this mailbox stayed on the alley curb through the building's demise.
Joke's on you sign! I turned left to exit the bank nearly every time I left here!
Northwest corner of the bank, with dueling label scars. The one on the north wins handily.
1100 South Broadway Avenue, Denver, CO.
That's the street address that would put you at US Bank. A classy address number plaque was attached high up on the wall, noting it's location.
Looking south from the bank, down Broadway, and some other buildings I will mention later.
Here's that entrance! With a couple of ashtray/garbage cans and a ridiculously small bicycle rack. Like any bike thief couldn't just pick that up and throw it in their truck, with a chained bike attached to it...
The drive-up window and night depository box got nice, professionally printed "We're closed!" signs. The front door of the bank got this weak excuse for a sign. Complete with ripped three hole punch holes, inaccurate information and poor grammar.
Professional!
US Bank's new location, about a block and a half south of the old one. The new bank featured no drive-up window, and just a small parking lot to the south. While I liked the re-use of an empty store front, I wasn't a big fan of the on sidewalk ATM. I was kind of leery making a withdrawal with the typical south Broadway pedestrians lurking behind me.
Unlike the ATM at the old bank, which was locked up in the bank entrance. You had to use your ATM card to first gain access to the building before you could get that $80 cash, on your way to Dave's house...
But the ATM was now gone. Leaving a giant rectangular hole in the wall.
And my ATM card wouldn't grant me entrance to the foyer anymore...
This was a good enough introductory set of closed bank photos. So I left and decided to check back in a few months.
On June 20, 2015, I returned to the familiar across the alley parking lot, to see what was going on. The familiar look of red tape has started appearing on parts of the building to represent asbestos clean-up was taking place. From this point it looks like the asbestos was contained only in the drive-up window intercom speakers...
Inside the drive-up window, the door has been removed so you can almost see into the bank lobby. There's the safe, and I would presume, the gingerbread man, still head stabbed to the bulletin board on the left. Just outside of this shot.
Red tape X's adorn the exterior doors to the main entrance. One of the cigarette butt pots have been moved inside the foyer. Maybe it was cold?
A long conference room filled up the front of the bank. The main entrance would have been on the right of this picture, where you would have needed to walk around the corner to access it.
An uncovered window on the west side of the bank offers up a peek at the main lobby in the process of being gutted. The walls in the middle represent where the tellers would have been. A center island for filling out deposit and withdrawal slips sits in front.
Another cheesy panorama shows the lobby a little better. Teller windows at the far left. Super reflective center island, then some offices with the sheetrock removed on the right.
Yup, US Bank's days are clearly numbered...
Well, they are heavy...
More red tape appeared over the emergency door at the drive up, before my next photography visit on July 18, 2015.
Electricity has been cut off to the building as well.
The entrance is still looking okay, but getting worse.
Someone needs to take the garbage out that is already out.
The front conference room is starting to look pretty trashed.
As is the main bank lobby...
Frequency of tagging has picked up as well.
Though it was still mainly contained to the signs and not the bank building itself.
This guy chose the US Bank for his own personal camp grounds. I saw his blanket wearing car parked in front of the bank every time I stopped by for photos, from May through July of 2015. Were I more outgoing I would have knocked on his window and asked his why he chose such a scenic location to set up temporary residence. Instead, I just avoided his car. Until I decided that I needed a picture of it.
Behind his car, that boarded up building was last known as Gutterpup Vintage Clothing. It too was about to be demolished.
The demolition fence was put up around US Bank (and Gutterpup and the stores next to East Asia Garden, down the block) in the first week of August, 2015. The blue US Bank sign by the drive-up exit was excluded from the fence, and found itself quickly tagged.
Also left out of the fence party was the US Postal Service. Which remained untagged...
Fenced in Drive-up windows!
Fenced in dying bushes!
Fenced in dying bushes from a different angle!
Fenced in... Uh.. Whatever that is...
Actually, this door on the southwest corner of the building, lead into a tiny room with a small ledge for filling out bank stuff, with an ATM behind it. You accessed the room with your ATM card, just as you did the foyer. An obviously newer addition to the building, by the mismatching brick and roof. I didn't mention this part of the bank until now, because I didn't get any complete pictures of it before the fence went up.
For no good reason...
US Bank closed this ATM in honor of Mr. Rux turning 37.
And I guess it's not a foyer, it's a vestibule...
All my best to you and yours...
And he stole the pen!
So there you have US Bank on August 8, 2015. Locked up in detention so it can't escape.
From the southeast.
Next door is Tim's Remolding, consisting of a garage and a lot filled with vehicles and small construction equipment.
Bordering Tim's to the south was a set of stores anchored by THConnect and East Asia Garden. Last year I wrote an awesome story about this building, that you should totally go read after you finish reading this! This picture was taken on September 23, 2015. Meaning they outlived US Bank!
Oops! Spoiler alert!
When I stopped by US Bank on August 23, 2015, I saw that Gutterpup had just been put to sleep.
Reduced to a fairly small pile of concrete.
Note the shovel aimed menacingly at US Bank...
Looking northward at the building, I saw the drive up window canopy was the first to go...
Some of the sidewalk and parking lot already chewed on.
And some poor color choice tagging on the wall.
What a fantastic mess!
But stop for a minute and reflect. Can you imagine the horror that poor cut out paper gingerbread man had to endure, watching his home falls before his forever open eyes? The metal spike driven through his head, guaranteeing he cannot flee his horrifying fate. After enduring the trauma of watching the drive up fall before him, it would still be several days of the building falling around him, before he would finally be crushed to death under hundreds of pounds of cement.
While the selfish father or mother works comfortably in the shiny new US Bank down the street...
Monsters!
Here's the drive up from the north.
I parked on Broadway and took this shot of the bank, looking over the grave of Gutterpup. The front third of the bank had already been torn off. Revealing what I'd suspected, it was a newer addition to the existing building.
A clearer view of the original exterior wall.
Nice size pile of steel for recycling piled up at the former entrance.
With the big tree standing (and living) defiantly behind it.
Front end and canopy removed, the bank is rather unrecognizable.
Looks like US Bank had a chewy caramel center.
Original entrance.
Drive up window. Hang in there Paper Cut Out Gingerbread Man, it'll all be over soon...
Zoom out!
US Bank with Tim's Remodeling's garage behind it.
The north wall.
The north wall part two.
Goodbye US Bank!
A piece of sidewalk in front of the bank was stamped 1967. I could see this bank being around that long.
Littering the former drive up bank lanes were several safe deposit boxes. I kinda woulda liked to have had one for The Archives...
The drive up itself, August 30, 2015.
Moment of silence please.
Scraped northern third of the bank...
But about that vault!
Yeah, that appears to be fairly strong...
I like how it looks as if they had to put some hefty effort into even opening the door.
A little bit of brick left behind.
Are they really keeping the trees and planters?
And the vault?
Over the last week, they were able to remove the vault from the bank. The slowest and most out in the open bank heist in history... And look, there's THConnect in the distance!
From the looks of that re-bar, they had to twist the vault off it's foundation.
Good job Hyundai shovel!
A week later, they raked!
For all intents and purposes, the property had been cleared by September 15th. But in the background, THConnect and East Asia Gardens survive!
And I guess they are keeping the tree and brick planters?
So let's go a bit further back in time!
Around this time, Gates was ceasing all remaining operations at the site. Which in 2003 still included the Gates Clinic and Gates Credit Union (now renamed New Horizons Credit Union).
Robert J. Zona D.D.S.
Dr. Zona is now practicing in New Jersey. I don't know how long he practiced at the Gates Clinic, but he did my root canal in September of 1998. His bio on Jackson Dental Professionals website credit him as co-founder of Broadway South Dental Group. He later co-founded the Jackson Dental Health Professionals. I remember the dental work I had done by him going very smoothly.
The Gates Clinic was a large multi-leveled that ran east for two blocks along Mississippi Avenue. In addition to dentists, it housed a fairly full scale medical complex. They could handle labs, x-rays, rehabilitation, emergency care and other medical stuff, all on site. This was set up for employees of the Gates factory while it was still running. But in it's later years was a bit more accessible to the public.
The second floor balcony in the middle of these apartments is roughly where Dr. Zona fixed my bad toof...
I was tipped off about the Gates dentist by my sister, who worked for Gates Credit Union. Once taking the job, she had me open an account there, making me eligible to use the services offered at the Gates Clinic. After she moved on to another job, Gates Credit Union changed their name to New Horizons. Since Gates wasn't a thing around here anymore, why keep the name?
Every other Friday morning for several years, I leaned against that circular planter, smoking cigarettes and reading the newspaper. Waiting for 8 am, when the credit union opened so I could deposit my paycheck. Just as US Bank was convenient in it's location, the credit union 2 blocks east was just as handy. (My job was less than a mile to the west of here.) New Horizons closed this location in 2004.
The Gates Clinic was closed around that time as well. In the fall of 2005, the entire complex was demolished. I took a few pictures of the buildings in half destroyed form, but the film was accidentally exposed and ruined. Specifically remember getting a picture of the credit union, with the taller half on the right side of this picture completely gone. You could see inside, with a great view of the old bank vault. Which looked a lot nicer than the exposed one at US Bank...
Wish I could have developed those pictures...
Denver's goal of cramming thousands of people into the four corners of the Broadway and Mississippi intersection was becoming reality. The southwest corner apartments opened in 2010. The northeast corner apartments opened in 2014. The southeast corner has just been cleared for construction of more of this.
And Gates itself with soon birth the biggest conglomeration of luxury condo-partments of the four corners at this intersection...
While it doesn't make sense to cram all those people into one small area, and not provide them with any services, a token Sprouts natural grocery store was built. Have some kale and shut up, Millennials! Sprouts's vegetable section is roughly where the medical area of the Gates Clinic once was.
Sprouts even advertised their pending arrival with a banner on US Bank's demolition fence.
Show some respect for the dead Sprouts!
By November 2015, US Bank, Gutterpup, THC Connect and East Asia Garden were all gone. With the last two surviving the block wide genocide the longest. That building was demolished in October 2015.
The garage last used by Tim's Remodeling was spared from demolition for a while longer. The building and grounds around it were used as a staging area for the upcoming apartment complex. Which was started to the south and quickly spread north. I'm not sure when the garage was finally flattened, but Tim's was also gone by late 2017.
One last peek south down Broadway, on July 13, 2014. US Bank was still open back then, and OH MY GOD!!! Foreigner and Styx are coming to Fiddler's Green Amphitheater!
Oh wait... Guess I'm about 5 years too late for this show now...
Drat!
This next photo was taken on October 31, 2015.
Halloween!
Along with a widening and dramatic fixing of the long terrible Broadway and Mississippi intersection, all of these new apartments, combined with the nearby RTD Light Rail hub, gave this once decayed and rotting area a complete re-birth. It looks a lot nicer.. But I prefer what it was 20 years ago a whole lot more...
This next picture, taken May 13, 2018, was the last picture I took of the former Gates area, before I moved out of state.
I didn't notice it until I started writing this story, but that tall tree in the photo was saved from the entrance to US Bank! It's also doubtful they will be kept with the final design of the property, but the angle red brick planters are still there as well!
(Alley parking lot at US Bank, also Halloween 2015)
As far as the main Gates property goes, when I left Denver there were signs that work was about to begin on redeveloping the land. Plans were for more densely packed residential, with light retail to be built on the former rubber factory. This would all tie-in with the RTD Light Rail Hub built on the north end of the Gates property.
I was gone before anything construction-wise began there, which is probably good.
This is how I want to remember Gates:
February 9, 2008
There were few things more iconic to Denver in my mind and memories of my time there, than the giant abandoned factory. It was one thing to watch it slowly get destroyed over the course of a year's time. And I was okay with seeing it's former home as a blank canvas.
However, seeing another cluster of these generic modern apartments plopped on top of what used to be my favorite abandoned property for over 15 years, would really depress me...
But I really like that they kept that tree!
Gates and the big yellow tower thing will always stick in my memories my grandpa worked there and gates credit union was my first bank thanks for sharing I wondered what happened to it
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