Updated at 7:23 p.m. on Jan. 24, 2025.
Dana Crawford, a developer whose work helped preserve historic structures in Denver and other Colorado cities, has died at the age of 93.
Her passing was noted Friday by a number of the organizations and institutions she worked with across the state.
Historic Denver, which Crawford helped found, called her a true leader and visionary in the work of preservation.
“From saving Larimer Square to redeveloping Union Station, Dana shaped the Denver we know today,” the group wrote in a Facebook post. “It’s no understatement to say that without Dana Crawford’s influence and drive to reimagine and reuse historic buildings, our city would be a very different place.”
While Crawford is perhaps best known for her work in Denver, in recent years she had been involved in everything from the revival of downtown Trinidad to preserving the Argo Mill in Idaho Springs.
“I’m attracted to beautiful places, and, a lot of times, they happen to be places that have been ignored,” Crawford told CPR’s Colorado Matters in 2015. “When I go around the country on consulting jobs and I get to the towns, I always say, ‘Take me to your pigeons and your pensioners,’ and then I find the beautiful buildings."
Crawford made her name with the restoration of one of the oldest blocks in Denver, helping turn it into Larimer Square, a process that started in 1963.
“I’d been looking for quite some time since I had moved to Denver for… a place where we could mark the history of the community and would be a wonderful gathering place for a lot of people, from all walks of life, all incomes and all backgrounds, to celebrate the city together,” she later recalled.
“I did drive by the 1400 block, and I was quite fascinated by the architecture. I began to do some research about it, and found that it was in fact the block where everything started.”
Crawford’s restoration came at a time when lower downtown had suffered decades of decay and demolition.
She saved the block from the Denver Urban Renewal Authority’s wrecking ball — there were plans to level the area and route a highway through it — and remade it as a destination for suburban shoppers and diners.
“She was up against all of the — and I hate to say it this way, but — the old, white businessmen and that guard who were in charge of Denver in the 60s and the 70s,” said Susan Powers, president of the real estate company Urban Ventures, on Friday.
“She took them on and she won, and I'm proud of her for that.”
She met Crawford when Powers became director of DURA in 1987. Crawford first saw Powers as a bit of an adversary because of DURA’s previous efforts to demolish much of downtown.
“There were historic theaters that were torn down and a lot of things that were unfortunately lost,” Powers said. “So that was her experience.”
According to Powers, a catalyst for change was Federico Peña, who was elected Denver mayor in 1983 and embraced preservation in a way that Crawford had championed for years. That ushered in new leadership, including Powers, and a new vision for DURA that also bonded Powers and Crawford.
Their work together included preserving the historic Denver Dry Goods Company Building and an attempt to save the Central Bank Building near 15th and Arapahoe, which is now an empty parking lot.
“It wasn't torn down without a fight,” Powers said. “Dana and I and a bunch of other people formed a human chain around the building to try and keep the demolition equipment from taking it down.”
Crawford went on to lead the redevelopment of other parts of Lodo, most notably Union Station, where the Crawford Hotel bears her name.
“She was a very strong woman, a great role model for many people, including myself,” Powers said. “Dana was feisty. She had a very strong presence [and] a great sense of humor. When she walked into a room and she spoke, it carried a lot of weight.”
At the same time that she made her career updating historic buildings to serve present needs, Crawford could also have harsh words for the state of modern development. She was critical of the pace and quality of building in Denver in recent years.
“Growth and change always bring difficulty,” she said in the 2015 interview. “We’re just building a plywood city that 15 years from now isn’t going to hold up.”
More recently, Crawford advocated in Trinidad, in Southern Colorado, and had a lasting impact, according to Suzanne Magnuson, co-president of the Fox West Theatre Alliance and co-owner of the Trinidad Lounge.
"She came down and saw that there was a lot of work to be done in historic preservation in this little town,” Magnuson said.
“Dana had the foresight to recognize that Trinidad is rich with buildings that instead of getting torn down when a lot of the cities were doing that, that things got preserved.”
She took a particular interest in the Fox West Theatre, which Magnuson described as “a gorgeous double balcony theater that has an incredible, rich history. It's stunning to see and it was such a big push and passion of hers to work towards getting that theater open."
The theater posted a statement online Friday describing Crawford as a source of “passion, leadership, vision, and guidance.”
Magnuson said Crawford convinced her to relocate to Trinidad, where Magnuson and her husband have worked to breathe new life into the community through the Trinidad Lounge.
The historic bar reopened in 2021 after a nearly decade-long closure, as part of a broader effort to cultivate Trinidad as a cultural hub and a destination for touring bands traveling between Denver, Texas and the West Coast.
Magnuson noted Crawford’s character, saying she nicknamed Crawford "the dragon lady."
"I met Dana [when she was] 89 and you don't always have the expectation from a person that's in advanced age that they're just gonna come in with little quips and jokes," Magnuson recalled. "We were at a meeting once that was a preservation meeting where there was a gentleman that she was not particularly fond of. I think that they worked well together, but they could tell there was tension and she pretended to be asleep. And it was the funniest little slight that I had ever seen."
As the Fox West Theatre’s restoration continues, Magnuson and the Alliance hope to honor Crawford’s legacy by completing the project in her name.
Crawford was born in 1931 in Salina, Kan. She got a graduate degree in business administration from Radcliffe College. She said she fell in love with Boston and its historic character during her time there, inspiration she brought with her when she moved to Denver. She met her husband, a geologist, in Colorado and raised four sons.
Gratitude for Crawford’s contributions in Colorado have also come from those outside of the development community. The Girl Scouts of Colorado wrote of her passing that it had “lost a role model and champion for girls,” commending the way Crawford could get people to believe in her vision and make it a reality.
“I’ll remember her fondly,” said Magnuson. “She is really just unforgettable and her legacy speaks for itself.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CPR’s Ryan Warner contributed reporting to this story.
