The Mysterious Elevated Doorway at the Tattered Cover

The offices of Historic Denver, Inc., where I am interning, are located in The Tattered Cover Book Store. While walking to the office one day I noticed a peculiar site. On the 16 Street side of the building is a doorway. Nothing unusually about that, except this doorway is on the second level. Intrigued about the story behind this elevated doorway, I did some research, and this is what I found.

The Tattered Cover is located in the Chester S. Morey Mercantile Building, a designated historic landmark and a part of the Lower Downtown Historic District. This building was erected in 1896 at a cost of $75,000, and was considered to be the largest, most elegant operation of its kind in the West. This was typical of a time when warehousers wanted prestigious buildings as they often combined storage and production with showrooms and corporate offices. The Morey Mercantile Building was considered by many to be one of the jewels of “Warehouse Row,” as Wynkoop Street was often called, and was the first notable warehouse to be built after the 1893 silver crash.

Chester Stephen Morey was an eye-witness to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and became a traveling grocery salesman. According to the Historic Marker in front of the building, he “came to Colorado in May 1872 to recover from what was probably tuberculosis. While recovering he started a cattle business in southern Colorado. In 1875, once again in good health, he established in Denver the sales headquarters of a Chicago-based wholesale grocery business: Sprague, Warner & Company. In 1884, Morey founded what became one of the largest mercantile businesses in the West at the turn of the century.”

The structure included a spice grinding mill, roasting plant, extract laboratory and print shop. In addition to manufacturing and selling all manner of food products, Morey sold brooms, writing tablets, matches, snuff, chewing tobacco, and cigars. Morey Merchantile grew into an empire, becoming the largest wholesaler in the Rocky Mountain region until its sale to Continental Foods in 1956.

The Lee Building

In 1907, Chester Stephen Morey acquired the Lee Building across the alley to give him room for his rapidly expanding business. Alterations were made, including the construction of an enclosed walkway to connect with the Morey Mercantile Building at the second-floor level; it is still used today. On the first floor Morey installed sales offices for his Solitaire brand of food products and on the second floor were a battery of cooks to test recipes that were later published in a popular cookbook, The Solitaire High Altitude Cookbook. In 1928 “The Solitaire Cowboys” premiered on KOA radio to promote the company’s products. Douglas Fairbanks worked at the Morey as an office boy before being fired for sliding down an elevator rope in the presence of Mr. Morey, who forbade such unsafe activities. Fairbanks went on to study acting locally and ended up in Hollywood. His older brother remained at the Morey for his entire career and was visited there on numerous occasions by Douglas and his wife Mary Pickford.

Morey became heavily involved in the local sugar beet industry and is known as one of the chief pioneers of the sugar beet industry in Colorado.

The double-wide alley with the walk walk above it.

From The LoDo District – Virtual Tour of Lodo site: “Of special note is the double-wide alley off 16th Street. Many of the businesses had storefronts along the alley for retail sales, along with loading docks for easy access to railcars. Both railroad tracks and cobblestones are still visible in places. A short walkway bridged the second-story entrance to the old 16th Street Viaduct” (demolished in 1994). The entrance was not part of the original building but was installed after the viaduct was built.

This circa 1935 picture shows the Henry Lee Building on the left. The 16th Street Viaduct rises past the Morey Mercantile Building. You can also barely make out the old elevated doorway into the Morey Building. Mystery solved!

In 1937 the Morey Company bought out local rival J.S. Brown Mercantile. The Morey Mercantile was a thriving concern until 1956 when it was finally sold and divested.

In the mid-1990′s, after a long period of decline, the Morey building was purchased and restored by John Hickenlooper of the Wynkoop Brewing Company, Joyce Meskis of the Tattered Cover Book Store, and other new owners. With the help of Del Norte Neighborhood Development Corp., a nonprofit corporation working in housing development, the owners used a $100,000 State Historic Fund (SHF) grant and $806,944 in matching funds to remove paint, soot, and other pollutants from the brick buildings; replaced damaged bricks; restore sills and other parts of historic windows; and revive historic storefronts and entrances. The original stairway and cashier’s cage still remain. Recent users now include the Tattered Cover Book Store, Dixon’s Restaurant, low-income lofts, Historic Denver, Inc., the alley-access Wines Off Wynkoop shop, offices of the Wynkoop Brewing Company, and others.

“C.S. Morey Mercantile Company” remains cut in stone above the second-story door on 16th Street.

Chester S. Morey Mercantile Building
1528 16th Street
Architectural style: Twentieth-Century Commercial
Built: 1896
Architects: Aaron Gove and Thomas F. Walsh
Cost: $75,000

Downtown Historic District, Historic Denver Inc, LoDo Chester S. Morey Mercantile Building, Henry Lee Building, Tattered Cover Book Store