“In doing my research for this book, I became very proud of the Catholic community’s historical influence on this city,” Pierson said. “Relative to East Coast and Midwest cities, Catholics have always represented a very small percentage of the population of Denver and Colorado as a whole. Yet we have had a substantial influence on the architectural and cultural heritage that makes the city great.”

The book cover features Union Station, and is not written as a Catholic or religious work. But it features photos and stories of some of the city’s greatest Catholic structures, including Holy Ghost Parish, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the historic St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church and the old St. Cajetan Church on the Auraria campus.

The book traces Denver’s early Catholic roots back to St. Mary’s Cathedral and Academy, built by Bishop Machebeuf during the Civil War era. It tells the story of St. Mary’s Academy, which moved to Capitol Hill largely at the insistence of financial patron Molly Brown.

A section about the Tabor Grand Opera House and the Denver Municipal Auditorium tells the story of Bishop Nicholas Matz, and Father Joseph Bosetti, and their role in establishing opera in Denver. Pierson traces the history of successful Denver opera to 1911, when Father Bosetti immigrated from Milan. Bishop Matz quickly ascertained Father Bosetti’s musical talents and appointed him as founding director of the Cathedral Choir.
Realizing Denver had virtually no opera, Father Bosetti mounted a production on an $800 budget, using amateur singers, stagehands and musicians.

“The results were anything but amateur,” Pierson wrote. “Out of these early efforts, the Denver Grand Opera Company emerged in 1931.”

Bosetti began producing and hosting annual productions at the Quigg Newton Denver Municipal Auditorium, at 14th and Curtis streets, which Pierson said “became the toast of the town” until a stroke forced Father Bosetti to quit in 1952.

“In large Midwestern and East Coast cities, Catholics often comprise 40 or 50 percent of the population,” Pierson said. “Here it has always been more of a thin thread running through the greater population. Realizing that, I think the faithful and the city’s Catholic leaders have made a conscious effort to make their mark on the culture a little more pronounced, so the message of a Catholic presence in Denver would come across.”
Richard Weigang, owner of The Catholic Store in Englewood, said he was pleasantly surprised to learn of a secular, mainstream book that boldly acknowledges the constructive influence Catholics have had on Denver’s artistic, cultural and architectural heritage. He made a rare decision to carry it, even though it’s not exclusively Catholic.

“I don’t think most Catholics in Denver understand just how integral the Church and its leaders have been in shaping this city,” Weigang said. “Anyone who reads this will have a much greater understanding of the Denver community, and certainly the role Catholics and Catholic institutions have played in forming it.”

The book, subtitled “Five Fabulous Walking Tours,” tells the story of Denver’s architecture through pictures and words alike. Most of the 211 pages feature old or new photos of buildings still standing or long ago demolished.

“Throughout Denver, there are these fantastic Catholic churches built by ethnic communities that were not very large in numbers,” Pierson said. “These buildings are all testaments to the faith, and the energy and the vitality of Catholics in Denver.”

Pierson, 54, grew up in Denver and belongs to Holy Ghost Catholic Church. He developed his appreciation for architecture as a child by walking the streets and looking at buildings, developing curiosity about the stories behind them.

“Denver suffered a huge loss of its architectural heritage in the 1960s, because of an urban renewal project called ‘Skyline,’ which was intended to establish and protect a view corridor of the mountains,” Pierson said. “But we lost a huge Victorian section of the city, known as Larimer. I’m still somewhat bitter about it.”
Pierson said if his book seems to have a heavy Catholic focus, it’s for a reason. He said the Church, more than secular institutions, has long understood the need to preserve architecture for the sake of enshrining the cultural values and traditions essential to maintaining civility.

“When we deprive future generations of knowledge of what went before, which is wonderfully expressed and preserved through architecture, it leaves us in a cultural vacuum,” Pierson said. “Then we’re left to fill the vacuum only with contemporary ideas. (G.K.) Chesterton used to explain that Christians vote with the ages, and therefore even the dead have a say in who we are. If we’re bound by only our own times, we have a very narrow view of the world and it dehumanizes us as a society.”

Though the book praises Catholic architecture, Pierson said Catholics have also given in to modernism and architectural mediocrity, creating churches for functionality rather than inspiration. Throughout the 1970s, he said, Catholics throughout the United States built ugly churches and ruined some beautiful buildings with bad renovation projects.

“We have our share of them in Denver,” Pierson said. “But much of the new construction shows that this trend is really turning around. We are moving back to the practice of building churches that express the real presence of Jesus, and away from the idea that a church needs only to be functional. Think of architecture like music. Guitars and tambourines at Mass are functional, but Mozart transports the listener to a higher, godly level. Tambourines and guitars are fine, but I want Mozart.”