This is an overview rather than a guide to a single place, because “central Denver” is not one neighborhood. The city recognises dozens of them, and they differ enormously in age, in how they were built, and in what owning one involves.
Start with the specific guides
Where I have written a guide to a particular area, it is because I know the housing stock there well enough to be useful about it. Those are the honest starting points:
- Washington Park — a neighborhood shaped around a park designed over four decades.
- The Highlands — several overlapping historic districts, four decades of building styles.
- Littleton — a separate city with a commercial core in continuous use since the 1890s.
How I would think about the rest
Rather than a tour of areas I would only be describing secondhand, two things are worth more when you are narrowing down where to look.
Age of the housing stock tells you most of what you need to know first. When a block was built determines its foundations, its framing, its wiring, its plumbing and its insulation, and therefore what the next decade of ownership costs. Two houses at the same price in different decades are not the same purchase.
Whether an area carries a local designation changes what you may do to a house. Denver landmark districts require review of exterior work. That is not a reason to avoid them, but it is a reason to know before you buy.
Designation, and what it actually means for an owner
People mix up two different things here, and the difference matters if you plan to touch the outside of the house.
A Denver landmark district is local designation. Exterior changes visible from the street generally need review against the district’s design guidelines before you do them. That is a real constraint on windows, porches, siding, additions and demolition, and it is worth understanding before you buy rather than after.
A National Register of Historic Places listing is federal, and for a private owner spending private money it is largely honorific. It does not by itself stop you altering your house. It becomes relevant mainly where federal money, permits or licensing are involved, and it can open the door to certain tax credits.
So a National Register listing and a local landmark designation are not the same kind of thing at all, even when they cover similar ground. Check which one applies to a specific address with Denver Landmark Preservation, or with the relevant city, before you assume either way.
If you are weighing an area I have not written up, ask. I would rather tell you what I actually know about it, including where my knowledge stops, than publish a page that pretends otherwise.