Cheesman Park, Denver

Cheesman Park is an urban park and neighborhood. In the late nineteenth century, the land that is now Cheesman Park was Prospect Hill Cemetery, which also included the land that is now the Denver Botanical Gardens and Congress Park further east. The long-disused cemetery was converted to a park which opened in 1907 after city planners felt it would provide an amenity to new residents as land development moved east of the central city. The park was originally named for the U.S. Congress who gave permission to change the cemetery to a park and was renamed Cheesman Park in honor of Denver pioneer Walter Cheesman whose family donated the Neoclassical pavilion on the eastern side of the park in his honor shortly after his death.