Several buildings at Burnham Yard, the historic rail yard where the Denver Broncos could be eyeing as the potential home for a new stadium, that date back to the World War II period have been torn down.

Historic Denver said in a press release that they discovered Colorado Department of Transportation demolished several historically significant buildings over the weekend without proper consultation or community engagement.

Of the buildings demolished, the preservation group said it included a women’s locker room built for the substantial number of workers hired at the railyard to accommodate men shipped off to fight in World War II, the Roundhouse Foreman’s Office used during the segregation period, a steel car shop and a testing laboratory built in 1937.

“The Neighborhood Association had no warning that these historic buildings were going to be torn down,” said David Riggs of the local Registered Neighborhood Organization for La Alma Lincoln Park in a statement.

He added that there are still residents in the surrounding area who had family who worked at Burnham Yard.

“This action is an insult to the history of the community, and disrespectful of the influence that the railroads had on the growth of Denver,” Riggs said.

The site is owned by CDOT, which is preparing to sell the 58-acre property by May 2026 after buying it in 2021.

The state originally had plans to widen Interstate 25 and relocate consolidated mainline railroad tracks but found after conducting a transportation study that the original plan wasn’t feasible and it didn’t need all of the railyard’s land.

One potential buyer? The Broncos.

A series of land sales around the area have been tied to the NFL team as it looks for a potential new stadium.

Denver Broncos could be buying land around historic rail yard for a stadium

Ahead of any sale, CDOT worked with the State Historic Preservation Office and the Department of Personnel and Administration to clean up Burnham Yard, the Colorado Transportation Investment Office, a division of CDOT, told The Denver Gazette in an email.

“This process includes mitigation of any hazardous materials, such as asbestos, but also demolition of structures,” the agency said. “None of the buildings found to be historically eligible by the State Historic Preservation Office are a part of this cleanup effort, and we are committed to working through the historic eligibility process for those structures.”

The Colorado Transportation Investment Office said historic easements on the properties the state designated as historic will remain after the railyard is sold.

Last April, Piper Darlington of CDOT’s investment office told the state’s Economic Development Commission that it was working on getting demolition permits for non-historic structures on the site to prepare the old railyard for a “next life.”

Preservationists at Historic Denver have advocated for the historic buildings and have reached out to officials nearly a year ago, asking for discussions on how to protect Burnham Yard’s structures.

The buildings torn down were a representation of how women and people of color could find work at the site when it was harder in other parts of the city, according to Historic Denver.

The organization added that those structures could have been integrated into a future development on the site – including a new Broncos stadium project.

“The Colorado Department of Transportation has demolished buildings that once told the story of our city, state, and America at large,” said John Deffenbaugh, CEO of Historic Denver. “The opportunity to integrate them into a future development or stadium district has been erased, as has the story they once told.”