A treasure trove of Colfax Avenue artifacts heading permanently to History Colorado

Jonny Barber s colorful Colfax Museum archive at last has a permanent home after years of challenges that have drained its founder s materials including floods and a fire that nearly destroyed its former building History Colorado the state s largest historical institution established this week that Barber has donated his massive collection of neon signs matchbooks and menus photographs letters and other ephemera from Colfax Avenue s long diverse history DENVER CO - OCTOBER This is an embroidered house keeper's patch from the s from the Bugs Bunny Motel It is part of the collection of items from the Colfax Museum Helen H Richardson The Denver Post We are absolutely thrilled to be getting this into the collection commented Rachael Storm head of curatorial services and curator of Business Industry at History Colorado It s something I ve had my eye on for a long time Stretching from the open spaces east of Aurora to the foothills of Golden Colfax has hosted presidents and addicts celebrities and prostitutes occasionally in the same venues at its hotels bars restaurants clubs theaters retail shops and residences Barber disclosed But he fears its history has been forgotten so he decided to turn his passion project into a resolution to the complication Barber a musician writer and former Elvis impersonator has been building his collection which consists of thousands of items since and in the past eight years has attempted to exhibit it independently at various locations Those efforts have often failed as Barber s spots fell through due to rising rents and emergencies such as a fire at the first location that nearly burned down the building and several floods at a location in Lakewood it occupied just before the pandemic It s just been one biblical calamity after the next Barber explained It s like What s next Where s the locust Lately storage of the collection which Barber at one point tried to sell for has become a burden he revealed If something happens to me it just goes away So it makes sense to house it at an institution that s going to outlive me Trying to do my own museum would take millions of dollars and if I had a million dollars I don t know if I d spend it on a museum History Colorado Center as of now honors Barber s collection in its Colorado Stories temporary exhibit and Barber has exhibited other pieces at Denver International Airport where he curated a Colfax history show on Concourse A The exhibits underline how Colfax has influenced the entire city and not just the east-west corridor that takes it through the heart of downtown Denver In the history of Colfax we can see changes in the way we move the way we socialize the way we communicate with each other and the means by which machinery foodways commerce and statehood flex grow and adapt to each other Storm stated via email I live one block off Colfax and with the new rapid transit going in we are seeing how transportation and solutions in which people want to and need to move are affecting the approaches we build communities through bars and restaurants engage in commerce banking shopping for pleasure picking up prescriptions and move through the city At inches tall inches wide and ft deep the Casa Bonita Quintet prototype is the holy grail of the Colfax Museum collection noted founder Jonny Barber Provided by Jonny Barber Barber will be happy to move his floor-to-ceiling bins out of his house and into the trucks History Colorado plans to send on Nov which also happens to be the day Barber turns Until then he s furiously cataloging every item from the branded ashtrays and art deco fixtures of nightclubs past to a prototype for a Chuck E Cheese-style animatronic band at Casa Bonita which he calls the holy grail of the collection At inches tall the toy-sized Item was driven out to Colorado from its Kansas-based owner who didn t trust shipping companies to handle it delicately Barber reported The Casa Bonita Quintet as they re called on the face of the kick drum consists of forest animals playing piano and strumming a banjo and other instruments The half-circle curtains around the stage still open and it s even wired for sound Barber is also giving away his latest book Colfax Avenue East to West as a PDF at colfaxavenue org The -page photo-packed tome which he hopes to give away physical copies of at the official opening of any upcoming History Colorado exhibit is written coffee table-style with readers flipping to any page and reading a self-contained narrative His book also covers Schuyler Colfax the street s namesake who served as vice president under Ulysses S Grant from to Barber explained it s the perfect time to look back given not only the BRT Transit project that s at the moment disrupting blocks-long stretches of Colfax but the upcoming anniversaries of the legendary roadways that brought travelers tourists and hopeful residents into the west during the early and mid- th century such as Trail a k a Colfax and Path Barber even has a replica dinosaur footprint from a Colfax Avenue discovery as well as a major dig that turned up Indigenous artifacts What eventually became Colfax Avenue has been used since before recorded history he disclosed My narrative is mostly a pop-culture one although it s major to note the street is named after a staunch abolitionist who voted to ratify the th Amendment which ended slavery in Colfax used to be a dusty western stretch too with Barber researching stories of Wyatt Earp Bat Masterton and Doc Holiday congregating at Colfax Avenue and Broadway and Masterson getting run out of a town by a rival Land owners including Brown Palace namesake Henry C Brown benefited from Colfax s growth because it increased the value of surrounding properties Colfax is undergoing surgery again and it s really causing a lot of business problems and woes declared Barber citing closures that have been attributed to decreased traffic as part of BRT lane and sidewalk closures This is one way to change 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