While the name “Five Points” is often applied to the greater neighborhood to the northeast of Downtown, Five Points is more widely known as the busy retail, restaurant and services corridor on Welton Street. Since Five Points’ founding in the 1860s as one of Denver’s first residential suburbs, this area around Welton Street has evolved into a vibrant mixed-use district that today offers a direct link to Downtown Denver via RTD’s light rail line.

The Five Points area got its name early this century from the city’s tramway company, who used the nickname because their street car signs were not big enough to list all of the street names at this end-of-the-line stop. RTD’s light rail line connects Five Points with Downtown via Welton Street, which bustles with 75 businesses, including restaurants, cafes, boutique shops, barber shops, salons and other retailers. A bank, radio station, bottled water distributor and a busy Denver motor vehicle licensing office also have Welton Street addresses.

Five Points features many cultural amenities, including the Black American West Museum, Five Points Media Center, Roundtree Art Center and the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble studios. Five Points’ Juneteenth celebration–an annual parade and festival commemorating the day in 1865 when African-Americans in Texas first heard word of the Emancipation Proclamation–is one of the biggest such festivals in America, attracting upwards of 120,000 people over four days each year. The Five Points neighborhood is dominated by Victorian architecture and old world charm. Minutes from Downtown the Five Points is as convenient as it is historic.

If you like Five Points, you will also like Curtis Park, Whittier, Capital Hill and Uptown.

General Boundaries: Broadway to the West, Downing Street to the East, 23rd Avenue to the South, 38th Street to the North