art museum · $$ · since 2010
American Museum of Western Art
Three floors of Western painting hung salon-style in the old Navarre building.
The Anschutz Collection sits across 17th Street from the Brown Palace in the Navarre, an 1880s building that ran as a school, then a gambling house, before anyone hung art in it. Inside, roughly 300 paintings run floor to ceiling across three levels: Bierstadt and Moran through the Taos Society and Georgia O'Keeffe, arranged salon-style rather than spaced out with wall text. The audio guide is included and worth the time. Most visitors spend about 90 minutes. The catch is the schedule: Monday, Wednesday and Friday only, 10 to 4:30, tickets timed.
Why go. The deepest collection of Western painting in the city, and it is almost never crowded.
Three days a week only, so check the calendar before you walk over from the Brown Palace; there is no Saturday option.
A short walk from American Museum of Western Art
Ship Tavern
$$$Model ships, mahogany and prime rib, open in the Brown Palace since 1934.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 321 17th Street
The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa
$$$$An 1892 triangle of sandstone with a nine-story atrium and afternoon tea.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 321 17th Street
historic concert hallParamount Theatre
$$A 1930 movie palace on Glenarm that now books comedians and touring bands.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 1621 Glenarm Place
Regal UA Denver Pavilions 4DX & RPX
$$Downtown's only remaining multiplex, up on the third level of the Pavilions.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 500 16th Street #310
Denver Pavilions
$$Three open-air levels of shops, restaurants and the last downtown cinema.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 500 16th Street
Peaks Lounge
$$$Twenty-seventh floor bar with a wall of glass facing the Front Range.
Downtown, a few blocks over · 650 15th Street