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| Tenney Court Alley |
In 2004, the Fort Collins Downtown Strategic Plan identified as a "pedestrian strategy," a concept to integrate pedestrian infrastructure by dramatically enhancing alleyways that connect prominent destinations such as parking structures and Old Town Square Plaza. As a result, in 2006 the DDA funded and constructed the Trimble Court Alley and Tenney Court Alley improvements. These alley improvements integrated urban design features that significantly enhanced the visual pedestrian experience, improved safety and cleanliness, stimulated businesses to build storefronts opening to the alleys, and provided the framework and template for future alley enhancements in the Downtown.
Located just off of Mountain Ave., Tenney Court is vibrant with colorful murals. Chris Bates' "Hard to Leave" highlights things that make Fort Collins unique. Armando Silva created "Colores de la Comunidad", a beautiful mural that captures stories of the indigenous peoples that migrated to the Fort Collins area. Tenney Court is a great shortcut to the Civic Center Parking Garage and has entrances to Clothes, Pony, and Dandelion Toys, Snooze and Gilded Goat Brewery's Taproom.
I took this picture one night a few Summers ago when I decided to photograph some of the Alleys in Downtown. Interestingly while I was there with Jannis at about 9:30pm we heard a loud voice behind us saying "Have you even met a first born son of Fort Collins. We turned to see this old man about 80 years old walking toward us. He introduced himself as Dr. Ed Siegel and we all struck up a conversation. As it turned out, he owns a few buildings in town and one of them is Jannis' favorite. It's an old Art Deco storefront that appeared to be an old clothing store called "Julian's".
Ed offered to show us around the store and told us to follow him back to the store. So we walk with him down another alley and he approaches what I surmised to be the backdoor of the store. Are we about to get killed by the town serial killer I thought to myself. As we entered the store from the back, the first thing we see is a Grand Piano in the back of the retail space and a number of rows of chairs setup as if it were a small concert hall. Ed asked if we wanted to hear him play the piano and that he could play any song we wanted. We took him up on that offer and he started banging out every tune we mentioned. Ed explained that he has had this ability to play any sone he heard since the age of 4. After a fun evening getting to know Ed and listening to his piano playing, we realized it was 11:30pm and we had better call it a night. We bid farewell to Ed, but not before trading phone numbers.
The next day Ed texted us and asked if we wanted to go on a road trip in a "Classic Car". But, that's as story for another day.
