Historic Denver elementary school finds new life as café, beer garden

On the corner of 11th Street and Acoma Street in Denver, inside an old classroom of the former Evans Elementary School, bartenders are learning some new tricks. 

It's a soft service day inside what is known as the Schoolyard Cafe. No arithmetic courses here, but you're likely to find a focus on mixology. Instead of social studies, think social spaces.

The school, built in 1904 and out of operation for decades, is slated to re-open on April 21 as a retail and food space.

"We have something really special here and we want to make sure that we keep it," said Casey Kirk, the Operations Director for City Streets' Beer Garden Division. He formerly worked at the Lowry Beer Garden, and the adaptive reuse that allowed that space to become popular in Aurora. 

Now, he and his development partners have been working on a similar project at Evans.

"From where it began to where it is now, it's really gone on a journey and fortunate to be a part of it," Kirk said.

The first businesses inside the building are a beer garden, located inside the former site of the school cafeteria and boiler room, and a café that has window side service. On nice days, there is seating outside and green spaces on the side of Acoma Street that can be rented out for special events. Eventually, Kirk said, the building will have an event space on the second floor for weddings and major gatherings, while other classrooms will eventually become retail spots of their own. He said an added benefit is that so much of the building has been left intact despite decades of disuse. 

"We still have so many original fixtures, the ceilings, the hardwood floors, the copper railing and the grand entrances," he said. "It's kind of an untouched gem in that aspect."

Business owners around the area are excited as City Streets worked to engage the community on what they wanted out of the site. Among the asks, Kirk said, were communal spaces and that the building would be accessible to everyone within the community.

Golden Triangle has seen substantial development in recent years, with multiple high-rise apartment projects being built in the area adjacent to the Evans plot. But Kirk contended that City Streets wanted to be deliberative about their build and that altering the school in any way was a nonstarter. 

"We weren't just gonna force our way in," he said. "We want the neighborhood to be able to come and enjoy it, to walk through the first and second floor."

As Denver has grown over the decades, a recent trend of building preservation towards adaptive reuse has started to catch on. Kirk and others in the neighborhood see the historical landmark, Evans School, as a relic of old Denver and something that should be preserved. 

"Once you lose it, it never comes back," concluded Kirk. "You can't recreate a 1904 building. We wanna preserve what we have."