Historic endpoints of U.S. Highway 285 in Denver

1936 was a year of big changes for western US highways. Among other things, that's when the designation "US 285" was given to the same basic route that the highway follows today: southwest from Denver, then through central Colorado, New Mexico, and west Texas. Perhaps one of the biggest changes since 1936 is that US 285 was routed into central Denver then - whereas later it became sort of a bypass around the city.

The shot below is looking east on Alameda. Broadway is the cross street; it is now one-way southbound, but it ran both ways when it served as US 85 - and when US 285 ended here:

me, Aug. 2006

The photo below is looking the opposite direction (west on Alameda). The cars stopped at the light are about to enter what was once the beginning of southbound US 285:

me, Aug. 2005

From there, the route went about two miles west, to the five-way intersection of Knox Court and Morrison Road. Then 285 was routed southwest for about 1.5 miles on Morrison, to another five-point intersection: that of Sheridan Boulevard and Mississippi Avenue. From there it was west on Mississippi for a mile to Pierce Street; south for a mile to Jewell Aveune; west for a half-mile to Wadsworth Boulevard; and south for a half-mile to Morrison Road (same name, different segment). Today CO hwy. 8 begins there; it follows Morrison Rd west to the town of Morrison, and then heads south to its junction with modern US 285 near the mouth of Turkey Creek Canyon. I believe today's CO 8 follows what was the original route of US 285 - except for the part that skirts around the maximum pool area of the more recently-constructed Bear Creek Reservoir.

In 1959, when the "Valley Highway" (today's I-25) was completed through Denver, US 85-87 traffic was removed from Broadway and instead redirected along the new freeway. So the US 285 designation was truncated by about a half-mile, such that it ended at the "new US 85-87". The photo below is looking east on Alameda:

me, Aug. 2006

I-25 runs underneath Alameda, right below the camera. Access to I-25 is to the right on Kalamath Street (which is the southbound counterpart to Santa Fe Dr). The photo below is looking west on Alameda:

me, Aug. 2006

Today CO hwy. 26 begins here, but during the 1960's this was the north beginning of US 285.

In 1969, US 285 was re-routed onto Hampden Avenue, through the southern city limits. The scan below is from the Denver inset on the 1975 CDoT state highway map:

For the next 10 years, the 285 designation continued 3 miles east of its current terminus at I-25, to where Hampden rounds into Havana Street (bottom center), and then went 6 more miles north to its intersection with Colfax Avenue (US 40/US 287/Business Loop 70). The photo below shows that intersection:

me, April 2006

That's north on Havana at Colfax, so US 285 ended there. The photo below is looking west on Colfax:

me, June 2001

US 285 used to begin to the left on Havana. In 1979, when the 285 designation was truncated back to its current terminus at the I-25 interchange, all (except this last mile) of the decommissioned segment became part of Colorado Highway 30 (the west end of which used to be on 6th Avenue at Havana, shown on the map above at upper right). For the full history of US 285's endpoints, please view the main 285 index page.