Gates Rubber Company will be noted in Denver history as one of the city's preeminent manufacturing businesses. Purchased in 1911 by Charles Gates, Sr., as the Original Colorado Tire and Leather Company, the company was also one of the city's most important early employers. Over the course of 85 years, the business grew to become a multinational corporation and one of the nation's largest rubber product manufacturers.

The property on which Gates Rubber Company sits has enjoyed an equally noteworthy evolution, based on a general plan developed early in the company's history. In 1919, there were three buildings on site that housed the corporate offices, research and engineering laboratories and most of the company's manufacturing and product testing. As the business grew, the Gates Rubber Company property evolved as a mixed-use campus of industrial, administrative, recreational and retail properties, all planned to maximize employee and company efficiency.

While the buildings and company culture made for a unique business model in Denver, it was truly the people and the families living in the area, supporting the factory, that have always made the former Gates Rubber Factory a location with a rich history.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, most of the manufacturing was moved overseas and Gates ceased production at this site in the mid-1990s.

Photos courtesy of DPL Western History Archives