Denver's dirty little secret

September 21, 2008 1:31 AM

One of the most beautiful and disturbing places in Denver. It a quiet place and quite the place to see. A movie was made about a house and the fellow who rented it one day...adjacent to the park. Scared me to death as a little kid.
posted by shockingbluamp (16 comments total)

One of the most beautiful and disturbing places in Denver.
posted by dgaicun at 1:42 AM on September 21, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

I'm just incapable of being disturbed by anything with a name as fanciful as Cheesman.

Of course, I said the same thing about Lemon Party...
posted by Rhaomi at 2:33 AM on September 21, 2008

Where ghosts linger on the breath of the prostitutes and the indiscriminate still haunting the park after dark.
posted by quintessencesluglord at 5:08 AM on September 21, 2008

there's a similar park in san diego
posted by lapolla at 5:24 AM on September 21, 2008

Q: What do you call a ghost's mother and father?

A: Transparents
posted by netbros at 6:15 AM on September 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

We used to live right next to Cheesman Park about 10 years ago. I remember hanging out there during summer evenings and watching several shirtless men blasting ABBA on their boombox and turning this structure into an impromptu gay roller disco. I loved that place.
posted by bibliowench at 7:27 AM on September 21, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Oh dear, it's this. When I was 11 I read about this park in a library book about haunted places. Freaked me the fuck out at the time, even though I didn't live anywhere near Denver. In fact, it embedded itself in my consciousness deeply enough that when I read the first sentence of this post, my brain immediately fired off an "OH CRAP IT'S CHEESMAN PARK" signal.
posted by decagon at 9:44 AM on September 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

This sentence is a thing of beauty:

Today, Cheesman Park is host to scores of unsuspecting tango dancers.
posted by decagon at 9:48 AM on September 21, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

dgaicun> One of the most beautiful and disturbing places in Denver.

Yeah, but the sopapillas, though ...
posted by elmwood at 9:49 AM on September 21, 2008

I'm just incapable of being disturbed by anything with a name as fanciful as Cheesman.

So now you need to ask yourself: Why were you led to Cheeseman?
posted by mannequito at 11:55 AM on September 21, 2008

I used to live right next to Cheeseman, and worked as a stage manager on a few of the musicals in the park that were put on there in the summers. I had a balcony and could see the park - it had a long road looping through it. Back before being openly gay was acceptable in Denver (and pre AIDS), it was a very busy pickup place for gay men. Lots of cars driving around and around at night, greeting each other with some kind of headlight flashing code that I never understood.
posted by jasper411 at 1:04 PM on September 21, 2008

I don't understand the Changeling link. That movie was set in Seattle and actually filmed in Vancouver.
posted by CCBC at 1:34 PM on September 21, 2008

A house near Cheeseman Park was the lnspiration for the movie.
posted by shockingbluamp at 2:31 PM on September 21, 2008

oops... inspiration for the movie. Ignore the link above.
posted by shockingbluamp at 2:35 PM on September 21, 2008

So I did some googling and what you are after is the Henry Treat Rogers mansion (Scroll halfway down.). Right? Here's another link.
posted by CCBC at 3:10 AM on September 22, 2008

Menacing: To read the whole story of the park's haunted past, click HERE!
posted by DU at 4:27 AM on September 22, 2008