[4] The City of Denver, Auraria, and Highland was chartered as the 1859 territorial capital after the start of the 1858 Pike's Peak gold rush.

At the military school site the Agnes Phipps Memorial Sanatorium[5] was established as a tuberculosis hospital in 1904 at 520 Rampart Way[5] (cf.

"East 6th Avenue and Quebec Street") by Lawrence C. Phipps Sr., and in the 1930s the sanatorium included 17 buildings designed by the Gove and Walsh firm.

[6] "After several fires at Chanute Field and deterioration of the buildings" in Illinois,[7] a 1934 Air Corps announcement solicited a replacement training location and Denver submitted a bid.

"[9] The name Lowry Field was originally assigned to an airfield consisting of property taken over by the Colorado National Guard, having a southern border along East 38th Avenue between Dahlia & Holly Streets.

A 28 October 1926 photo shows the Fokker BA-1 trimotor Josephine Ford of the Byrd Arctic Expedition being refueled at the original Lowry Field.

[11] Charles Lindbergh and his Spirit of St. Louis made a scheduled stop at Lowry on 1 September 1927[11] during his 48 state sponsored tour.

[12] Jack Taylor died on the maiden voyage of the Cheyenne-Pueblo-Denver contract airmail route from Lowry to Cheyenne when his aircraft exploded on 10 December 1927.

[14][15][16] During the latter part of 1937 the name "Lowry Field" was transferred from the Colorado National Guard facility to the new Denver Branch, Air Corps Technical School.

In early 1938, after about a year of overlapping operations, the 120th Observation Squadron moved to their new quarters at the Denver Municipal Airport;[17] remaining there until mobilization for World War II took place on 6 January 1941.

[29] Lowry training for Boeing B-29 Superfortress pilot qualification and for B-29 operational crew readiness began in 1943, and the base had a July 1943–Jan 1944 clerical school.

The nearby bombing range was transferred from Buckley Field, by authority of Technical Division, Air Training Command, to Lowry A.F.B.

In 1951, plans called for the headquarters of Technical Training Air Force to be at Lowry[8] and after expansion at the beginning of the Korean War, Lowry courses included photography, armament, rocket propulsion, electronics, radar-operated fire-control systems, computer specialties, gun and rocket sights, and electronically operated turret systems.

The 3415th Wing formed a Guided Missiles Department on 7 June 1951[citation needed] and from 1952 – 1955, Lowry functioned as President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Summer White House.

")[8] In 1965, the runway was closed, and all Lowry AFB flying activities moved to nearby Buckley Air National Guard Base.

Construction began in 1970 for enlisted and officer billeting facilities to replace World War II vintage barracks, five 1,000-man dormitories and completed by 1974, a 187-space mobile home park.

[45] The Bonfils Blood Center "became the first commercial tenant at Lowry" in the former commissary during September 1995, and the site development company was presented facility and real estate awards in 1997[46] (asbestos was remediated from the Formerly Used Defense Site[47] of "1,866 acres"—remediation at buildings included Building 402:PCBs, 606: groundwater, & 1432: soil[2]).

[48] Most of the base is now the Lowry, Denver, neighborhood with 2 hangars used for the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, the former Building 1499 for the Big Bear Ice Rink, a dormitory for the Logan School for Creative Learning,[51] and base officer housing and other facilities for the Stanley British Primary School.

[52] A dormitory and a former medical building on the east end of the base are owned by the state as part of the Higher Education and Technology campus.