The museum at 1200 Broadway in downtown Denver has a new name that is actually an old one. After 14 years as the History Colorado Center, the four-story building has reverted to Colorado History Museum, the title it carried for a quarter century before the 2012 rebrand.
The switch applies only to the Denver building itself, not to its parent organization. As 9News reported, the name change to Colorado History Museum applies specifically to the flagship building, while the statewide 501(c)(3) non-profit and state agency continues to be called History Colorado and still oversees a network of 11 museums and historic sites across the state.
History Colorado President and CEO Dawn DiPrince framed the move as a fix for a long-running identity problem. According to Denverite, DiPrince called the return “wonderfully straightforward.” The outlet also described public confusion over what the building's name meant.
A Name With a 25-Year History of Its Own
The rebrand is less a fresh start than a homecoming. The facility operated under the name Colorado History Museum for 25 years, from 1987 until 2012, when it was renamed History Colorado Center upon moving to its current downtown Denver location, per the Denver Gazette.
That 2012 move came after the museum's former home, a 1977 building shared with state judicial offices, was demolished to make way for the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Complex, according to History Colorado. The replacement at 1200 Broadway, designed by David Tryba of Tryba Architects, is a 200,000-square-foot facility that opened following a $110.8 million construction effort, as detailed by American Builders Quarterly.
A Long-Running Institution
History Colorado is a 147-year-old institution.
Today, History Colorado stewards approximately 15 million artifacts, photographs, and archival resources in the state's official collection, supporting educational outreach and programming across 11 museums and historic sites statewide, according to figures from History Colorado itself. The Denver flagship is the most visible of those sites, but it is one node in a much larger statewide network.
What Visitors Will Find Inside
Inside the rebranded building, visitors can explore the museum's exhibitions. The museum also houses the Civil War statue “On Guard,” the predecessor to the new bronze Chief Black Kettle statue unveiled at the History Colorado Center on Indigenous Peoples' Day, which will eventually stand on the Capitol grounds.
For families, there's a practical upside to the renamed museum: general admission is free every day for all youth aged 18 and under, according to CBS News.
The Colorado History Museum has also recently hosted traveling exhibitions, including a temporary display of founding-era historic documents covered in Hoodline's report on the Freedom Plane touching down in Denver this past spring. With the name settled, the building's role as a hub for both permanent collections and visiting shows continues under its restored, decades-old identity.
