Five Points & Welton Street — The Harlem of the West

Last verified: May 2026

The Neighborhood

Five Points — named for the five-way intersection of Welton, Washington, 26th, and 27th — is Denver’s historic Black neighborhood and former jazz capital. The neighborhood was known as the “Harlem of the West” in its mid-20th-century heyday, hosting performances by Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, and others at the Rossonian Hotel and surrounding venues.

The Rossonian was the largest Black-owned hotel between Kansas City and Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s, providing lodging for Black musicians who could not stay at downtown Denver hotels under the era’s segregation rules. The neighborhood’s jazz heritage parallels the better-known Black-music cultural lineages of Harlem, Chicago’s South Side, New Orleans’s Treme, and Kansas City’s 18th & Vine.

The Welton Street Cannabis Anchor

Denver Kush Club (DKC) at 2615 Welton Street — founded 2009, located beside Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom — is the Welton corridor’s anchor cannabis venue. DKC has been a fixture of the Black-Denver cannabis-business community since the medical-cannabis era, predating Amendment 64 by three years.

The Welton corridor has been a focal point of social-equity advocacy in Denver, including The Cannabis Experience’s “Roots, Rhythm and Reefer” mobile tours run by founder Sarah Woodson. The tour pairs Welton-Street cannabis-stop visits with Black-history-themed Denver-jazz-and-cultural narrative. Mobile tours.

The Black-Owned Cannabis Network

Five Points and adjacent neighborhoods host a meaningful share of Denver’s Black-owned cannabis businesses:

• Denver Kush Club (DKC) — 2615 Welton Street
• The Cannabis Experience — 2590 Walnut St (Five Points-adjacent)
• Tetra Private Lounge & Garden — 3039 Walnut Street, RiNo (Dewayne Benjamin, an adjacent Black-cannabis-business anchor)

Plus Simply Pure in nearby LoHi (Wanda James, the first Black-owned U.S. dispensary). The cluster of Black-owned cannabis businesses across the Five Points / RiNo / LoHi triangle is one of the most concentrated Black cannabis-industry geographies in the U.S. Simply Pure.

The Gentrification Pressure

The neighborhood faces sharp gentrification pressure. Welton Street’s commercial corridor has shifted substantially through the 2010s and 2020s — new condos, breweries, restaurants, and retail tenants reshape the historic-Black-neighborhood character. Long-time Black residents have been displaced into Aurora, Montbello, and outer Denver suburbs.

The cannabis-business presence on Welton Street is part of the neighborhood’s historical-Black-business continuity, but the broader commercial geography is rapidly changing.

Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom

Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom — the music venue beside DKC — is one of Denver’s premier mid-size live-music venues. The venue’s programming spans hip-hop, electronic, jam-band, and rock genres, all with substantial cannabis-adjacent culture. Pre- and post-show consumption at DKC is a common pattern; the venue itself prohibits cannabis under standard concert-venue rules.

The Persistent Arrest-Disparity Pattern

⚠️ Five Points and the Welton corridor have continued to see disparate cannabis-related stops despite the 2014 legalization. The Colorado Department of Public Safety’s 2021 SB13-283 report found Black Coloradans were arrested at roughly twice the rate of white Coloradans for marijuana offenses in 2019. The Welton corridor’s historical pattern of disparate cannabis policing predates Amendment 64 and has persisted in modified form. Arrest disparity detail.

The Five Points Jazz Festival

The annual Five Points Jazz Festival on Welton Street draws thousands of attendees each year, celebrating the neighborhood’s jazz heritage. The festival is generally cannabis-tolerant in vibe, but technically illegal in public; discreet vape-pen use is common.

Community Organizing Around Cannabis

Five Points-active organizations engaged in cannabis-equity advocacy include:

• Black Cannabis Equity Initiative (BCEI) — Denver-based equity advocacy organization
• The Color of Cannabis — partner organization for Denver’s Cannabis Social Equity Technical Assistance Program
• Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) — National with strong Colorado chapter

Companion Pages

For other Denver neighborhoods, see RiNo, LoHi, South Broadway Green Mile.