Open and Close

Any Denver local will know the name “Olinger” well, from the several coined mortuary locations peppered throughout the city. Even one renowned location in the Lower Highlands was transformed into the bustling restaurant and rooftop bar scene, “Linger Eatuaries,” with its unmistakable neon sign illuminating the night sky.

In the early 1920’s, that very same George Olinger founded the Bonnie Brae neighborhood in Denver, affectionately named in the Gaelic phrase, “Pleasant Hill.” He commissioned landscape architect S. R. DeBoer to construct the characteristic serpentine, tree-lined roads that helped forge its architecturally distinct reputation.

This continued over the next 70 years, and by the late 1980s, the desire for more spacious housing developments ushered in a period of new residential design, growing beyond the existing pitched-roof Tudor style homes. Jean Day Maschinot, president of Bonnie Brae Travel, recounts how it initially set the tone for social tensions that persist to this day.

“Bonnie Brae continues to balance growth with preservation, maintaining its status as one of Denver’s most treasured and desirable neighborhoods even with steep, premium-priced homes,” Maschinot says. Many original Bonnie Brae houses were scraped and replaced, often with much larger homes beside the smaller ones, thereby eliminating sunlight in those former residences, she says. To some neighbors’ lament, demolition continued, and the fears of loss of character steeped in the community, she says.

Those fears of the unknown soon became well documented by Denver historian and long-time Bonnie Brae resident, Dan Danbom. He recalled a once-flourishing neighborhood business presence wiped out by a fire in the ’80s, while changes to the residential side only persisted. Since then, few of the beloved, landmark businesses have survived.

“It’s undergoing what I would call a super gentrification,” Danbom says. “Technically, as far as businesses in the area go, Bonnie Brae Conoco is the only one [still standing]. It’s on its third generation, and even it’s up for sale now.”

A Changing Landscape

He notes how significantly the businesses along South University Boulevard have changed due to rising property taxes, an effect of the area’s valuation assessments on custom luxury home builds, and the expiration of tax relief programs like the Gallagher Amendment. It imposed a brake on residential taxes until the early 2020s, when it was repealed.

Directly across Bonnie Brae Ice Cream, the area’s most charming and classically preserved namesake business, a luxury apartment high-rise, Akin, is being erected. “It will be the only multi-family residence in Bonnie Brae,” says Danbom. “There aren’t even any duplexes here as far as I know.” He confirmed with Conoco owner and operator, Ken Wilson, that the construction site for the Akin apartment homes was raided by ICE agents in early October.

The incident may serve as a reflection of changes some longtime residents have witnessed over 40+ years of urban development: The working-class individuals, those uplifting and quite literally building what will cater to the area’s wealthy, modernized clientele, are the ones suffering from so-called growing pains.

This widening economic gap was one of many reasons for the commercial shifts that contributed to the closure of Bonnie Brae Tavern, a local landmark hub that buzzed with business, but lost steam as generations cycled out of the neighborhood. It created an atmosphere Danbom describes as “the quality of a public square, where everyone knew everyone.” Once considered a “third-space” for both the blue-collar community members and multi-millionaires alike, economic challenges overpowered its working-class owners, Carl and Sue Dire, since opening in 1934.

Danbom worked closely with the Dires for an essay on its closure in 2022. He wondered why it wasn’t the recipient of any government support offered to many historic businesses in the District 6 today, through initiatives like The Denver Legacy Business Program. It seeks to “celebrate and accelerate support” for businesses granted ‘Legacy Status,’ according to the Denver government website. But this opportunity didn’t arise in time to save the Tavern, no matter how cherished it was.

“I’ll put it this way,” Danbom says, “If the Tavern wasn’t historic, then there were no historic structures in Bonnie Brae.”

Still Serving the Community

Today, he argues that changes to the character of the neighborhood endure, and for better or worse, affect the neighborhood’s social fabric. “I think it’s a lot different now,” says Danbom, “but it’s the same virtually everywhere in Denver. It’s not just physical or architectural, but social. Suddenly you’ve got a tech executive who lives next to someone who owns a dry-cleaner. When you have newcomers who are much more affluent than those who’ve lived there for years, I think there’s a natural tension.”

Still, not every local or independent business has been undermined by the area’s development. Bonnie Brae Ice Cream has operated for the last 40 years off the corner of South University Boulevard and East Ohio Avenue, with enough success that their only adaptations to the historic storefront were to accommodate more customers than ever before.

Adrian Simon, director of operations at Bonnie Brae Ice Cream, disagreed with some of the negative criticism of the changing times. “All of the shops on the street are independent businesses, and we serve the people,” says Simon. “Maybe it’s a different clientele than it was 20 or 30 years ago, but we serve the neighborhood as small businesses.”

That sentiment, Simon says, is part of the lifeblood and identity of their establishments. She stood behind the idea that while some of the neighborhood’s locale may appear more modern, the heart and integrity behind locally-owned businesses serving its immediate community members is robust, alive, and well.

She also says the anecdotes she hears from businesses and residents are more positive or neutral than anything else. “We’re all committed to that neighborhood feel. Between us and the newer storefronts, we’re focused on serving the neighborhood as much as possible, because that’s really our bread and butter.”

As of October 2026, efforts by local government and city-planning officials extend a helping hand to those historic businesses that residents want to see strengthened amid modern developments in the Bonnie Brae area. The Denver Legacy Business Program, supported by the District 6 Councilman, Paul Kashmann, accepted applications for businesses to receive legacy status through September. It would afford those accepted support in marketing and branding, resource referrals, networking, and promotion in their business registry.

Kashmann had gone on record in 2020 surrounding the talks of Bonnie Brae Tavern’s closure, telling Denverite that he expected the University Boulevard strip to “pop” earlier than it had in comparison to the nearby residential developments. He addressed how the discomfort associated with novelty could feel jarring to some, but shared interest in seeing how other local businesses would respond to the inertia surging throughout the neighborhood.

Despite conflicting opinions on what is an invigorating, albeit polarizing, conversation about the future of the Bonnie Brae area, the ever-changing communities are acutely aware of how it impacts their own lives. Key players continue seeking harmony between the preservation of beloved institutions and the excitement around the booming development seen today.