Robert W. Speer

Robert W. Speer

Robert Walter Speer (1855–1918) was elected the mayor of Denver, Colorado three times. He served two four-year terms in office from 1904 to 1912. He died from pneumonia on May 14, 1918, while halfway through a third term in office that had started in 1916.

Biography

Speer was born in Mount Union, Pennsylvania, on December 1, 1855. He married Kate Thrush, his childhood sweetheart, in 1882.^[1]

As an adherent of the City Beautiful movement, Speer initiated several projects that added new landmarks, updated existing facilities, or improved the city's landscape including:

• City Auditorium, site of the 1908 Democratic National Convention
• The Civic Center
• Denver Mountain Parks
• The Denver Zoo expansion from 1906 to 1918.
• Denver Museum of Nature and Science
• The paving and graveling of many of the city's remaining dirt streets
• An urban forestry program that eventually distributed 110,000 free shade trees to city residents^[2][3]

Speer was the first mayor of Denver to die while serving in office. Speer Boulevard in Denver is named in his honor.^[4] He is buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver.

Notes

References

• Goodstein, Phil (1995). Denver Streets: Names, Numbers, Locations, Logic (2nd Revised Edition ed.). Denver, CO: New Social Publications. ISBN 0-9622169-3-3. 
• Johnson, Charles A. (1969). Denver's Mayor Speer. Denver, CO: Green Mountain Press. 
• Noel, Thomas Jacob (1997). Mile High City: An Illustrated History of Denver. Denver, CO: A. B. Hirschfeld Press. ISBN 1-886483-10-8. 
• "Robert W. Speer, Mayor of Denver, Is Dead: Cathedral Bells Toll as Flags are Placed at Half Mast in Memory". Rocky Mountain News: pp. 1, 3. 15 May 1918. 
• Eaton, Raymond A. (15 May 1918). "Speer was Man of Great Vision; Had Many Ideas for Better City". Rocky Mountain News: p. 3. 
• "Speer Always Worked For a City Beautiful; Plans Had Just Begun". Rocky Mountain News: p. 3. 15 May 1918. 
• "Some Things Denver Owes to Speer". Rocky Mountain News: p. 3. 15 May 1918. 

External links

• Robert W. Speer at Find a Grave

v t e Mayors of Denver, Colorado Moore Cook Steck Brendlinger Clark DeLano Clayton Stiles Harper Bates Case Barker Buckingham Stiles Sopris Morris Routt Bates Lee Londoner Rogers VanHom McMurry Johnson Wright Speer Arnold Perkins Sharpley Speer Mills Bailey Stapleton Begole Stapleton Newton Nicholson Batterton Currigan McNichols Peña Webb Hickenlooper Vidal Hancock

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