Negley Run Boulevard, East Liberty-Larimer-Highland Park

Negley Run Boulevard, East Liberty-Larimer-Highland Park

Negley Run Boulevard isn’t a park; it’s a City-managed “beautification site” primarily known as a useful shortcut for vehicles and cyclists traveling between East Liberty and Washington Boulevards in the East End neighborhoods of East Liberty, Highland Park, and Larimer. What most people don’t realize as they’re passing through the steep green hillsides is that this was once a neighborhood. Known as Basso La Vallone, “down in the hollow,” the area was connected to the hilltop plateau of Larimer by a series of dirt paths and wooden city steps. The people in the valley were often recent immigrants, growing vegetables and wine grapes, raising livestock, and living in crowded conditions.

In 1910, the residents of the hollow had an up-close view of the construction of the Meadow Street Bridge, which today’s boulevard passes under, and the many changes that would come to Larimer and East Liberty throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The final change would come in the 1950s, when the surviving properties were taken by eminent domain to build the cut-through road we now speed along, intent on our destination.

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