Next Stop: Sonny Lawson Baseball Field
23rd and Welton Sts.
"It was the Denver Night; all I did was die," Kerouac wrote in On The Road. The unlikely scene of his despair? Sonny Lawson Baseball Field, a charming little ballpark, which still hosts games, probably not all that different from the ones the author witnessed in 1949. "[A] softball game was going on under floodlights which also illuminated the gas tank," he wrote. "A great eager crowd roared at every play. The strange young heroes of all kinds, white, colored, Mexican, pure Indian, were on the field, performing with heart-breaking seriousness." Run the bases yourself — you probably won't feel as depressed as Jack did back then.
Recommended Reading: On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Next Stop: Five Points Neighborhood
About one mile northeast of downtown, bordered by Park Ave., Downing St., Stout St. and Tremont Pl.
Jazz was the musical fuel of the Beat Generation — the hotter, the better. And in the 1940s and '50s there was no better place to see the giants of jazz than in Five Points — a historically African American neighborhood just east of downtown that earned the nickname "the Harlem of the West." Welton Street alone was home to more than 50 bars and clubs, where some of the greatest jazz musicians, such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Nat King Cole, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and others performed. The neighborhood's musical legacy is celebrated every May at the Five Points Jazz Fest. You can still see live music most nights of the year at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom (2637 Welton St.), which is housed in the historic Casino Cabaret, a club where Cassady and Kerouac almost certainly bopped the night away.
Recommended Reading: Beat Generation Jazz: The Music That Inspired a Revolution
Denver Day Trip: Hit the Road, Jack!
Allen Ginsberg Library
2130 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder
Head out to Boulder, located 30 miles northwest of Denver, to pay a visit to the Allen Ginsberg Library, located on the Naropa University campus. Ginsberg was a key figure on the Naropa campus in the 1970s and '80s, founding the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics with fellow poet Anne Waldman at the university. The library contains rare audio and videotaped recordings of Naropa faculty and visiting faculty, many of whom were associated with the Beat movement. Note: Call ahead to make an appointment.
Recommended Reading: When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School by Sam Kashner
Central City Opera House
124 Eureka St., Central City
The Central City Opera House, located 38 miles west of Denver in the Rocky Mountains, was built in 1878 and Kerouac, a noted Beethoven aficionado, made the pilgrimage to Central City to see Beethoven's Fidelio during the summer of 1947. This adventure is recounted in such vivid detail in On The Road that one can pretty much still follow in Jack's footsteps. "It was a wonderful night," he wrote. "We approached the lights around the opera house down the narrow dark street; then we took a sharp right and hit some old saloons and swinging doors ... We started off with a few extra-sized beers. There was a player piano. Beyond the back door was a view of the mountainsides in the moonlight. I let out a yahoo. The night was on." The second-oldest annual professional opera festival in the country, Central City continues to make history with three productions each year including one opera favorite, one American work and one lesser-known piece.
Recommended Reading: Fidelio by Beethoven
