Gingerbread Man, Daniels & Fisher, Denver 1950s

Traced back to 16th century England when Queen Elizabeth I ordered them made to resemble foreign dignitaries, gingerbread men have long been a favorite sweet thing to eat.

This charming fellow was depicted on a die-cut children’s menu cover at the Daniels & Fisher department store restaurant in Denver, Colorado.

The department store was located on Arapahoe Street and was attached to the Daniels & Fisher clock tower, completed in 1911.

Designed by Colorado architect Frederick G Sterner, the tower was commissioned by store management and its design based on St. Mark’s Campanile in Venice. That tower collapsed in 1902 and was being rebuilt at the time, inspiring replicas around the world.

The tower was conceived as an artistic advertisement for the department store and at 330 feet—375 counting its flagpole—it was the tallest building in Denver and one of the tallest in the country when it opened. Its height was overtaken in the 1950s as the city expanded.

The tower’s bell chimed the hour, and the sixteen-foot faces of its electric clock told the time to anyone in downtown Denver who glanced up.

The Daniels and Fisher department store had an astonishing 400,000 sq ft of space ( covering roughly nine acres) and the tower itself was used for employee break rooms, offices and an in-house school and hospital. During the summer, the 20th floor observation deck attracted more than 1500 people a day.

The department store closed in 1958 and was demolished for Denver’s Skyline Urban Renewal Project 1970–71 but the tower was converted into offices and remains one of Denver’s iconic buildings. However, its chimes stopped in 2017.

Judging from prices, we believe this delightful gingerbread man menu is from the 1950s.