District No. 1 may have been organized first, but District No. 2 was the first to have a school building. A large room was rented in a building at 16th and Market Streets which was called “Mr. Bayaud’s Room”. The school, known as Bayaud School, opened on December 10, 1862 and lasted until the spring of 1864. The following year the school was not opened for one very simple reason – no money.

Tax receipts were not enough to keep the school going but on May 10, 1866, the district was financially able to rent space in a brick building at 18th and Larimer Streets, site of the Windsor Hotel then owned by J.H. Kehler. This became the Kehler School. A month earlier a German school was started on the northeast corner of 14th and Curtis Streets. It was taken over by the district in February of 1868 and functioned as a public school until 1870.

In the beginning, both black and white students attended school in the rented school space, but in 1868, people in the district requested separate schools and rental space was found to house the black students in a building at 16th and Market Streets. The school moved February 2, 1869 to the African Baptist Church on Arapahoe between 21st and 22nd Streets. A later move was made to the African M. E. Church at 19th and Stout Streets and school continued there for the black students until the new Arapahoe School was completed in 1872.

Denver was growing rapidly, plus a steadily increasing number of students, which meant the district had to locate rental space for schools. The old Colorado Seminary at 14th and Arapahoe Streets was rented in the summer of 1870 and students from the Kehler School were moved to that site; the Kehler Building was no longer used.

It was not surprising that the number of students in the district surpassed the available room and the district had to look for additional rental space. Available space was found in the basement of the First Baptist Church on the northeast corner of 16th and Curtis Streets. Since the church had only finished the basement, it was known as the Baptist Dugout. The basement was leased on January 11, 1872 and with this space the district now had three rented buildings – Kehler School (at the Colorado Seminary), the school for the Blacks and the Baptist Dugout. This arrangement would last through the spring of 1873 and change in the fall with the opening of the new Arapahoe School.

History

October 3, 1859

District No. 1

District No. 2

District No. 17

District No. 21

District No. 98

DPS District No. 1