A New Orleans-style jazz band closed down a block of 17th Street. Hundreds danced behind the band outside Union Station and the Oxford Hotel on Sunday afternoon.

It’s how Dana Crawford wanted her life to be celebrated.

At the famous spot where she led redevelopment, many prominent officials and local developers celebrated the life of Crawford, one of Denver’s most esteemed preservationists, at the historic Union Station where the Crawford hotel is located.

The famed developer and preservationist died Jan. 23. She was 93.

“She was an amazing visionary, driven, never said no to anything in front of her. She changed the face of our city,” Walter Isenberg, CEO of Sage Hospitality, said in front of family, friends and colleagues within Crawford’s reimagined Great Hall.

Isenberg worked with Crawford for more than 30 years, first becoming partners to own and redevelop the Oxford Hotel in 1990.

Crawford was instrumental in building out and renovating Union Station to become the Crawford hotel. She proved key in reviving Larimer Square and redeveloping more than 800,000 square feet of historic properties in Denver, including: Acme Lofts, Flour Mill Lofts, Edbrooke Lofts, and Cooper Flats Condominiums.

“She loved this city like no one else I’ve ever known,” Sen. John Hickenlooper and partner of Crawford, said in Union Station’s Great Hall.

“She understood what a downtown could be,” Hickenlooper said. “She brought a whole new way of looking at a downtown, as if it could be a shopping center of its own and revitalize itself by bringing people in from all around the metro area.”

Everyone who spoke about Crawford pointed to her sense of humor, ability to create meaningful relationships and ability to make things happen.

“When she did have a permitting problem, Dana was not shy about calling whoever happened to be mayor,” former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said with a chuckle.

“Not only did she have the vision, she knew what it took to implement the project and who she needed to have to work with her to make sure that the project worked,” Webb said.

Born in Salina, Kan., Crawford came to Denver in 1954 and immediately fell in love with the city, telling the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame: “Colorado people are divine and Denver was beginning to feel like home.” She was inducted into the Hall in 1996, along with many other accolades and awards for her work and commitment to preserving Denver neighborhoods.

“Dana wasn’t just about saving buildings and persuading people to build good buildings, she was about building community,” Westword Editor Patty Calhoun said.

Casey Pitinga, a friend of Crawford’s over the past six years, danced as much as anybody down 17th street on Sunday.

“Dana would’ve loved this,” Pitinga said. “She made the city of Denver better and she made the world better.

Crawford and husband John W. Crawford III raised four sons. The oldest, Jack, still lives in Denver.

“She enriched her cities with ideas, most of them brought people together in crowds or clusters,” Jack Crawford said at Union Station on Sunday.

“Union Station has always been Dana’s church. This is where she found inspiration. This is where she had her epiphany about Denver and transit and the Crawford hotel,” Crawford continued. “This is where she sat quietly on hard wooden benches, praying for approvals and capital and renewal.

Jack, Dana Crawford’s son, concluded: “I will always be grateful for the resolve she showed others when chasing improbable ideas.”