The historical D&F Tower.
The Bell Tower.
Steps to the Bell Tower.
View From the tower.
Lannie Garrett belts out a song.
Story & Photos By Stan Wawer
I visited the D&F Tower, one of Denver’s historic landmarks, last night. That this was my first visit to this National Register of Historic Places is quite amazing. After all, it’s not like this was my first time in downtown Denver. My daughter lives about 20 miles from the site and I now spend about three months of the year in Colorado. I have walked around downtown Denver more than hundred times.
D&F Tower was built in 1911 and designed by architect F.G. Sterner. The tower, once the tallest structure west of the Mississippi at 393 feet in height, is of Italian Renaissance style and constructed of brick, stone and terra cotta. If it wasn’t at the corner of Arapahoe Street and the 16th Street Mall, you might mistake it for The Campanile (St. Mark’s Bell Tower) at the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, which was so magnificently described in Dan Brown’s latest novel, “Inferno.”
It opened in 1911 as the fashionable Daniels and Fisher Department Store and the crown jewel of the Denver skyline until it fell into ruin in the 1950s. In those years, visitors to the 20th floor were able to see 200 miles in any direction. You can still see a long way from the bell tower on the 21st floor, but much of the view is obstructed by the surrounding taller buildings. However, it is still an imposing site.
The clock tower, with its clock faces on all four sides, lights up the Denver skyline nightly. A two-and-a-half-ton bell occupies the top two floors of the building, above the observation deck.
The top five floors are rented out for special events (www.clocktowerevents.com). The tower’s basement level hosts “the coolest room in town, Lannie’s Clocktower Caberet (www.lannies.com). Right now, soul singer De Thomas sings the songs of Sam Cooke and Stevie Wonder Friday nights and Lannie Garrett stars in Screen Gems, a tribute to the movies, on Saturday nights. I’m here to tell you, this lady can sing, and, she can make you laugh.
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