Daniels and Fisher Tower

That slender clock tower over the mall is the Daniels and Fisher Tower, which owes its shape to Venice. Architect Frederick Sterner modeled it on the campanile of Saint Mark's Basilica in the Piazza San Marco. Saint Mark's campanile had collapsed in nineteen oh two and was being rebuilt at the time, which set off a wave of campanile-inspired copies worldwide.

Denver papers noted with some amusement that Venice was building a smaller copy of their tower. Completed in nineteen eleven, it stood three hundred twenty-five feet and held the title of tallest building between the Mississippi River and California until nineteen fifty-seven. In March of nineteen eleven a five thousand five hundred pound bell, cast by the McShane Bell Company of Baltimore, was installed in the upper floors and connected to an electric motor that rang it on the hour.

The tower was built as an anchor for the Daniels and Fisher department store. The store closed in nineteen fifty-eight and came down around nineteen seventy-one. The tower was spared, listed on the National Register in nineteen sixty-nine, and renovated in nineteen eighty-one.

Today it holds offices and event space, with a music venue in the basement.