History Colorado Center is once again the Colorado History Museum

The institution wants its flagship destination’s name to reflect what it actually is. 

The “History Colorado Center” was the obtuse name that History Colorado’s flagship museum started going by back in 2012.

Was it an amphitheater? A throwback sports arena? Perhaps a hub of nerds (ourselves included) shuffling through brittle documents? Perhaps just an amorphic concept?

For many residents, it was a nice surprise when they realized that History Colorado Center was a museum — a place they could go and learn about the state’s complicated past.

Now, History Colorado — a 147-year-old nonprofit and state agency — has decided to clarify what it actually does in its big building at 1200 Broadway with a throwback name change. 

The History Colorado Center is once again called the Colorado History Museum. 

“Museums are beloved institutions for their resilience, trust, and community power, and we are proud to be a long part of this tradition,” said History Colorado CEO and State Historic Preservation Officer Dawn DiPrince in a statement. “Colorado History Museum is wonderfully straightforward. Clarity builds bridges and creates access, which are bedrocks of our organizational values.”

'History Colorado' isn’t going anywhere.

The nonprofit explicitly stated: “The name change is not a rebrand.” 

By our measure, it’s a re-rebrand of the museum. But History Colorado, the nonprofit, will stay History Colorado, and it will continue to run its 11 museums and historic sites statewide, the institution noted.

But highlighting that the museum is actually a museum will go a long way to helping advance that mission. 

“Museums create spaces where people can connect with one another, encounter different perspectives and better understand the communities around them,” said Kelly Brough, History Colorado’s board chair and a former mayoral candidate. “The Board is proud to support a name that clearly and confidently reflects what this place is while opening the door to its future.”

Colorado has more than a few historic institutions with updated names.

Changing the History Colorado Center to the Colorado History Museum is the latest in a string of institutional renamings that have, by turns, clarified and confounded the public. 

Decades ago, 16th Street became the 16th Street Mall. Last year, after the Downtown Denver Partnership spent $100,000 on a rebranding campaign, the city decided to go back to just “16th Street.”

The Dumb Friends League mercifully changed its name to Humane Colorado and quit calling animals “dumb” because they could not speak.

The Denver Zoo became the wordier Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance in 2024. 

The Mental Health Center of Denver, which had a very clear name, became the confusing ”WellPower” in 2022.

And the Denver Film Society made itself less stuffy by rebranding itself Denver Film a few years back.

And the Denver Museum of Nature and Science has had a few names over the years, including the Colorado Museum of Natural History, the Denver Museum of Natural History, and now its current moniker, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which it has held since it celebrated 100 years of geeking out back in 2000.

Source: Denverite.com