Two storey brick buildings line a light rail street on Welton, and the Rossonian corner was redressed as a malt shop for Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead.
What Five Points looks like
Two storey brick commercial buildings line Welton Street, with shops at street level and cornices along the roofline. A light rail line runs down the median, with a platform at the stop where four streets meet. Ground floor storefronts continue for several blocks before the street turns residential.
The Rossonian building holds the triangular corner at Welton and 27th, a Beaux Arts brick block from 1912. Its top floor has a bracketed cornice and an angled prow facing the intersection, with arched window heads on the ground floor storefronts below. The building has stood empty since 1998, its street level windows covered.
The blocks behind Welton Street are Curtis Park, rows of Victorian houses that date from 1879 to 1891. Brick and wood frame houses stand close together behind iron fences and small yards, with bay windows, gabled roofs and covered porches on the two storey ones. On Arapahoe Street a red brick Italianate house has a full width porch with turned columns and a bracketed roofline.
Two blocks north on California Street, a two storey brick house has the number 3091 over its own covered porch, its ground floor now a small museum. The Blair-Caldwell library sits at Welton and 24th, a modern brick building with tall street level windows. Farther west on Larimer Street, the 1891 shows a red brick facade with arched window heads and a dentilled cornice at the roofline.
Shot in Five Points
For Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, the production dressed the as an old fashioned ice cream shop for interior scenes. The corner entrance and ground floor windows used for the dressing are the same ones visible from Welton Street today.
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, 1995
The Rossonian Hotel
The hotel was redressed as an old fashioned ice cream shop for the film. The building is the same triangular brick corner at Welton and 27th, empty since 1998 but otherwise unchanged from the outside.
What Five Points can double for
Sweet Auburn in Atlanta, Georgia
Auburn Avenue has brick commercial buildings from the same era, including the three storey Atlanta Life building at 140 Auburn. The scale and cornice lines are close to Welton Street's. Auburn Avenue has no light rail today, so a shot that leans on Welton Street's median tracks needs them framed out or added. Try searching Auburn Avenue commercial buildings now.
Central-Alameda in Los Angeles, California
The Dunbar Hotel on Central Avenue was Los Angeles's own Black owned hotel and jazz club, built in 1928 with a brick facade and a corner entrance much like the Rossonian's. Both hotels anchor a street corner rather than a mid block lot. The Dunbar leans Spanish Revival with stucco and tile trim, which shows up close on the facade even though the massing reads similarly from across the street. Try searching Dunbar Hotel Central Avenue now.
35th Street has Victorian era brick commercial buildings from the same period, including the Sunset Cafe building at 315 East 35th Street, a 1909 garage converted into a jazz club. The block scale and window proportions are close to Welton Street's. Chicago's brick runs darker and the buildings step taller toward State Street, so a wide shot needs a tighter frame to hold the match. Try searching brick commercial buildings now.
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