Site Chosen for Telephone Building - Building Site History
The precise reasons Mountain States Telephone Company had for choosing 14th and Curtis as the site of its grand new building are unknown; it was likely a combination of factors, including the fact that the land may have been inexpensive, being a run-down area of town formerly known as skid row, and that it was very near to the central office the new building would replace (the old headquarters building at 1421 Champa).
What we do know for certain, however, is that the old central office was rapidly becoming too small to handle the telephone traffic that the growing Denver area and the entire Rocky Mountain region required, and that there was no way to install the new switches in the old building.
So Mountain States chose stock was majority-owned by AT&T, and which was part of the Bell System asked, or rather told, the city fathers that it required a new building, that it was going to build this building at 14th and Curtis, and that it would be the tallest building the city had seen thus far. All that was needed now were architectural plans and, of course, the construction itself.
Click here to continue learning about the 931 14th St. Historic Building and the local history of communications.