In the late 1980s as part of a redesign of 38th Avenue, city officials decided to demolish certain buildings along the south side of 38th Avenue just east of Teller to create additional off-street parking. However, behind the facade of one abandoned building lay one of the area’s most important historical structures: Wheat Ridge’s original post office building, opened in 1913. This historical treasure was concealed by a false front that extended over expansions to the east. Gray paint masked the charming early-century brickwork and windows.
Despite the Historical Society’s plea to save the building, the city council voted to demolish it. The facade was removed, and the original structure was sadly revealed in preparation for demolition. Residents supported getting rid of the ugly, useless building.
Undeterred, several members of the Wheat Ridge Historical Society met at the site before dawn on Memorial Day weekend 1989 with ladders, brushes, rollers, and buckets of red paint. Led by then-president Claudia Worth, the small group painted the bricks red, outlined the windows and door in white and labeled the front. The plan worked. With the “cute factor” increased, public opinion was swayed – and the building was saved. After 14 months of storage in a field while a place was prepared in the Historical Park, it was moved to its new home anchoring the park’s southwest corner at 46th and Robb St.
Fast forward 35 years, the building, which started life as a produce market in the northwest corner of postmaster-to-be Fred Bunger’s apple orchard, serves as a museum and emerging research library.
In a few days the Old Post Office will receive its next significant coat of paint at the Historical Society-sponsored May Festival on Saturday, May 10 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. However, this time instead of just a new coat of paint, noted sign painter Mark Oatis, who grew up in Wheat Ridge, will create an advertising mural on the building’s north wall that reflects the area’s agricultural history.
The Historical Park was once part of a 15-acre farm that specialized in Pascal celery. Pictured will be a wagon and team of horses next to a sign advertising Pascal Celery. In the driver’s seat sits a typical farmer, possibly Bert White, the celery farmer who actually lived first in the Soddy, then in the Red Brick House. The wagon pictured is part of the line of farm equipment sold by another pioneer farmer, Henry Lee, known as the “Father of Wheat Ridge.” Protruding out of the wagon’s back is a huge celery plant, an homage to a popular advertising technique of the early 1900s.
Mark Oatis will spend the first week of May creating the mural and be nearly finished by the May Festival. The event will include free tours of the five museums in the park. Attendees can also watch the artist at work and enjoy Maypole dancing, live music, lawn games, a puppet theater and an antique car show. Food and refreshments will be available for a charge.
