Wall Street of the West (17th Street in Denver)

Denver’s 17th Street has been called the “Wall Street of the West” since at least 1908 and the “Wall Street of the Rockies” since at least 1978. Many banks and financial firms are located in this area. Colorado: A Guide to the Highest State (1941) by the Federal Writers’ Project stated:
 
“Seventeenth Street, known as the Wall Street of the West, runs a short course from the Union Station to Broadway. Here, between Curtis Street and Broadway, are the large banks and brokerage firms of the ‘17th Street Crowd,’ many of whom are descended from pioneers.”
       
“Wall Street of the West” is also the moniker of Montgomery Street in San Francisco. “Wall Street West” is a nickname for Jersey City, New Jersey.
 
 
The Historical Marker Database
Wall Street of the Rockies
Inscription.
Four Corners
The four corners of 17th and Champa Streets are occupied by the Boston Building (1890), the Colorado National Bank (1915), the Railway Exchange (Title) Building (1937), and the Ideal Cement (Colorado Federal) Building (1907). All were built of Colorado Yule marble, red sandstone and travertine.
 
At one time, this intersection was considered the heart of Denver’s Business District.
 
Google Books
July 1908, Public Service, “Denver’s Famous Street Lighting” by R. Garland Gentry, pg. 4, col. 2:
This street (17th Street—ed.) is better known as the “Wall street of the west.”
   
27 August 1909, Denver (CO) Post, pg. 8, col. 1:
Financial Interests Collecting on
Seventeenth, Which Will Be
“Wall Street of West.”
(...)
In the near future Seventeenth Street, Denver, will be the Wall street of the West, and all the large banking houses are preparing to move farther uptown.
 
Google Books
Colorado:
A Guide to the Highest State
By Federal Writers’ Project
New York, NY: Hastings House
1941
Pg. 125:
Seventeenth Street, known as the Wall Street of the West, runs a short course from the Union Station to Broadway. Here, between Curtis Street and Broadway, are the large banks and brokerage firms of the “17th Street Crowd,” many of whom are descended from pioneers.
 
9 July 1978, The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, OR), “Denver suffering mall-birth pains” by Todd Engdahl, pg. C1, col. 1:
Along bank-oriented 17th Street, which boosters like to call “The Wall Street of the Rockies,” six new skyscrapers now are in various stages of completion, from groundbreaking to installation of carpets.
 
Google News Archive
2 February 1981, Windsor (Ontario) Star, “Driller’s fortune is buried,” pg. 9, col. 2:
A few years ago Davis bought control of the small Metropolitan State Bank in Denver, secured a national charter, changed its name to Metrobank of Denver and installed it in a new 16-story headquarters on 17th Street, the Wall Street of the Rockies.
   
New York (NY) Times
Oklahoma Blast Case Puts Denver on Edge
By JAMES BROOKE
Published: April 18, 1996
(...)
With the Federal Courthouse only two blocks from a high-rise financial center known as the Wall Street of the Rockies, nervousness has rippled through private companies.
   
New York (NY) Times
Denver’s Dot on Map Swells in the Afterglow
By JAMES BROOKE
Published: January 27, 1998
Cow town no more, Denver today was the Broncos’ town.
(...)
On Tuesday afternoon, a parade to celebrate the victory will travel down 17th Avenue (“the Wall Street of the Rockies”) and through United Nations Plaza, a failed marketing ploy by the Chamber of Commerce to lure the United Nations headquarters here after World War II.
   
Vimeo
Denver History Minute #18: Wall Street of the West
from Havey Productions PLUS
October 12, 2010
How 17th Street became the financial center of the Rocky Mountain West.