Northwest Denver ยท Neighborhood Guide
The Highlands,the one with the square
Stand at 32nd and Lowell on a Saturday morning. Croissant line out the door at Hearth, dogs tied to parking meters, a wine shop and a cheese shop within a hundred steps of each other. This corner has been the center of something since the streetcar stopped here, and it still behaves like it knows it.
Here is the thing nobody tells you: "the Highlands" is a marketing word, not a map. The neighborhood on the city's books is West Highland, 29th to 38th, Sheridan to Federal. LoHi is a different neighborhood with different prices. Learn the distinction and you will read listings better than half the agents working them.
Where it starts and stops
Which Highlands is which,and why it matters?
West Highland runs 29th Avenue to 38th, Sheridan Boulevard to Federal. Highland, no west, no s, runs east from Federal toward I-25, and its southern end is what everyone calls LoHi.
The confusion is historical. The Town of Highlands once covered most of this hill before Denver absorbed it, so the plural stuck to everything. Today the two neighborhoods price differently, zone differently, and live differently. A "Highlands" listing deserves one question first: which side of Federal.
West Highland is a boundary.
Buy the boundary.
Highlands incorporated as its own city in 1875, a temperance-minded town that looked down the hill at Denver's saloons with open disapproval. The Silver Crash of 1893 broke its finances, and Denver annexed it in 1896.
Elitch Gardens opened at 38th and Tennyson in 1890 and ran there for a century before moving downtown in 1994. The 1891 theatre still stands behind the housing that replaced the rides, one of the oldest theatre buildings in Colorado.
The street
What is actually in Highland Square,worth the parking hunt?
West 32nd between Irving and Perry, plus the Lowell cross streets. Small rooms, long tenures, almost no chains.
Blue Pan Pizza
Detroit-style squares with the caramelized frico crust, from a team that wins international pizza competitions and acts like it is no big deal. Order ahead on weekends.
El Camino Community Tavern
Margaritas, green chile, and a community tavern that means the second word. The square's living room for going on two decades.
Hearth
Bakery and coffee shop with pastry discipline that would hold up in a much bigger city. The morning line is the neighborhood census.
Hello Darling
Coffee house by day, cocktail bar by night, one room doing both without changing its personality. Date spot, meeting spot, both.
Fire on the Mountain
Portland's wing shop, transplanted. A dozen sauces, tots, and a patio that fills on the first warm Friday of the year.
Paperboy
Breakfast and lunch with coffee one side, cocktails the other. The kind of all-day room the square did not know it was missing.
Mondo Vino
The wine and beer shop that has anchored its corner since the nineties. Staff picks you can trust blind, which is rarer than it sounds.
St. Kilian's Cheese Shop
A proper cheesemonger with a cut-to-order counter. Between this and Mondo Vino, dinner parties here assemble themselves in fifteen minutes.
Cerebral Brewing & Outside Pizza
The Congress Park brewery's west side taproom, sharing a roof with wood-fired pies. The square's newest reason to stay past nine.
Highland Square is the most complete small main street in Northwest Denver, and it is complete at a human scale. No anchor tenant, no destination traffic, almost nothing you would drive across town for except Blue Pan. That is its strength. It serves the people who live within a ten minute walk, which keeps the businesses honest and the sidewalks familiar. If Tennyson is a night out, 32nd is a Tuesday. Neighborhoods built on Tuesdays hold their value.
The houses
West Highland homes for sale,read this before you tour
This is streetcar-suburb brick at its best. Queen Anne Victorians from the 1880s and 90s, Denver squares, and ranks of 1900s to 1920s bungalows with front porches built for supervision of the street. Lots are generous for the city, trees are a century old, and the Packard's Hill historic district protects a pocket of the finest Victorian stock.
Renovation quality is the whole game here. Many houses have been opened up two or three times since the eighties, and a glossy kitchen can hide a hacked floor plan. Original woodwork, intact brick, and a sympathetic addition out back is the combination that wins resale.
Watch for scrape-and-build duplexes on the edges, which price off new-build comps, not neighborhood ones. And on anything pre-1910, budget real inspection time for foundations, sewer lines, and knob-and-tube remnants.
Questions I get
Asked,answered
Is West Highland the same as LoHi?
No. LoHi is the southern end of the Highland neighborhood, east of Federal, down toward the pedestrian bridge and the restaurant row on and around 32nd and Tejon. West Highland is west of Federal, 29th to 38th, centered on Highland Square. Different building stock, different noise levels, different comps. Listings blur them constantly. Do not.
Where is Highland Square exactly?
West 32nd Avenue at Lowell Boulevard, with the business stretch running a few hundred feet in each direction. If someone says they live in the Highlands and walks to Hearth for coffee, they live in West Highland.
Was the Highlands ever its own city?
Yes. The Town of Highlands incorporated in 1875 with its own government and famously strict standards, positioning itself as the respectable alternative to Denver below. The Silver Crash wrecked its tax base and Denver annexed it in 1896. The street grid, the church spires, and a certain self-regard survive.
What happened to the original Elitch Gardens?
It opened at 38th and Tennyson in 1890, a theatre and gardens first, rides later, and operated there until 1994 when the amusement park moved to the Platte Valley. The site became housing, but the 1891 Elitch Theatre still stands and a carousel pavilion with it. You can buy a house within sight of where Denver spent a hundred summers.
Is West Highland walkable?
From the middle of the neighborhood, yes, in the truest sense. Coffee, dinner, wine, cheese, pizza, and the whole errand list happen on foot from most addresses between Perry and Irving. The 32nd Avenue bus connects to downtown, and Sloan's Lake is a ten minute walk south from the square.
Next door
The rest of the hill,same grid, different bets
West Highland sits in the middle of everything Northwest Denver does well. Each border changes the math.
Go deeper
Every house here has a history,and a file.
Portals cannot tell you whether that 1905 square was opened up well or badly, which side of Federal the comps should come from, or what Packard's Hill designation means for your renovation plans. I can, address by address. Bring me the listing and I will tell you what the third photo is hiding.
Sources: Denver Public Library and Wikipedia for Town of Highlands and Elitch Gardens history. Venue details verified October 2026 via the Highland Square merchants association directory. Everything else is my read of the neighborhood.