* * * Kelli Lanphere - Selling Denver's Top Neighborhoods Since 1984 * * *

Denver Entertainment

In 1935, the world’s first “cheeseburger” came off the grill at Louis Ballast’s Humpty Dumpty drive-in restaurant in Denver. The restaurant is gone now, but a small memorial to this historic dining event can be found at 2776 North Speer Blvd., in the parking lot of Key Bank.

The dome of the State Capitol in Denver is covered with 200 ounces of 24K gold. But the real priceless material is inside the building, where the wainscoting is made of Colorado onyx, a rare stone found near Beulah, Colorado. The entire world’s supply was used in this building and no more has ever been found.

Denver City Parks Department grows 240,000 flowers a year in their own greenhouse and plants them in 506 flowerbeds throughout the city. That’s over seven acres of flowers that, if laid out end to end, would stretch for 56 miles (90 km).

Denver is a popular setting for many authors, with at least 25 novels where the action takes place in the Mile High City, including Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan and Jack Kerouac’s classic, On the Road.

One of the best sports towns in the country, Denver is home to eight professional sports teams, including the Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets, and Avalanche. Denver is the only city in America to open three new stadiums in 10 years.

A few of the famous people who attended high school in Denver include Golda Meir, a future Israeli prime minister, who attended North High School, and Douglas Fairbanks, who was expelled from East High School before attaining fame as one of the biggest silent movie stars of all time. Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Academy Award for her performance in “Gone with the Wind,” also attended East High School.