Little holdout house in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood now a historic landmark
Alley houses were early forms of affordable housing that used to be common -- a handful were built in the blocks around the Currie/Dryer Cottage -- but have gradually disappeared.
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A small holdout house in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood will be preserved as a rare example of a bygone era after a unanimous City Council vote this month to name the 115-year-old home a historic landmark.
Families from all backgrounds have called the Currie/Dryer Cottage at 4450 N. Tennyson St. home since it was built by Canadian immigrant and carpenter Arthur Wellington Currie in 1909, according to city records.
Currie built the house — along with a larger bungalow next door — but sold the property to Joseph and Josephine Dryer in 1913 after Currie’s wife died.
The Dryers lived in the bungalow and rented the alley house to immigrants, widows, blue-collar workers, young families and seniors, continuing to be involved in the community despite the threatening presence of the local Ku Klux Klan, landmark preservation city planner Abigail Christman said.
“This little cottage is now one of the rare surviving residential properties from that time period,” Christman said at a Dec. 9 City Council meeting.
Alley houses were early forms of affordable housing that used to be common — a handful were built in the blocks around the Currie/Dryer Cottage — but have gradually disappeared. Most of that stretch of Tennyson is now occupied by multi-story apartment buildings.
“My house may not be the biggest and might not be the most glamorous, but I think its best features are its history and that it is one last rare example of an alley house in Denver,” said owner Daphne Salone, who spoke at the council meeting.
The previous owner split the bungalow and alley house into separate lots, and when Salone bought the house 2006, she couldn’t afford to buy both, she told city officials. The bungalow is now owned by a real estate agency.
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