My uncle's old map of Denver had a weird extra street that doesn't exist

I was helping my uncle clean out his garage in Colorado and found a city map from 1987. It showed a small street called 'Cedar Loop' right off Colfax Avenue. I got curious and drove over there last weekend, but it's just a solid brick wall behind a parking lot now. I asked at the local library and the archivist said that street was on some plans but never actually built. The weird part is my uncle swears he delivered newspapers on that street as a kid in the 1950s. So one side says it's a simple map error or a scrapped project, but the other side wonders if it was built and then erased or covered up on purpose. Has anyone else found a 'ghost street' on an old map that people remember but isn't there anymore?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren63811d ago

Used to think old maps were just wrong sometimes, like a printing mistake. But my grandpa told me a similar story about a shortcut behind his old shop that vanished. He described the cracked pavement and a specific fire hydrant so clearly, stuff you wouldn't just make up. Now I wonder how many little places got paved over or walled off and we just forgot. Your uncle remembering delivering papers there is the kind of detail that makes it feel real.

rubyk2611d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, the fire hydrant was still there? That's the part that really gets me. It means the whole street scene got erased but that one piece stayed. How does a city even do that without anyone noticing?

sage_green11d ago

Yeah, the "paved over or walled off and we just forgot" part is what gets me too. In my experience, asking older neighbors about specific spots sometimes jogs their memory. I had luck with showing people old photos from the library's online archive.