 There is also an older downtown grid system that was designed to be parallel to the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek . Most of the streets downtown and in LoDo run northeast – southwest and northwest – southeast . This system has an unplanned benefit for snow removal ; if the streets were in a normal N – S / E – W grid , only the N – S streets would receive sunlight . With the grid oriented to the diagonal directions , the NW – SE streets receive sunlight to melt snow in the morning and the NE – SW streets receive it in the afternoon . This idea was from Henry Brown the founder of the Brown Palace Hotel . There is now a plaque across the street from the Brown Palace Hotel which honors this idea . The NW – SE streets are numbered , while the NE – SW streets are named . The named streets start at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway with the block @-@ long Cheyenne Place . The numbered streets start underneath the Colfax and I @-@ 25 viaducts . There are 27 named and 44 numbered streets on this grid . There are also a few vestiges of the old grid system in the normal grid , such as Park Avenue , Morrison Road , and Speer Boulevard . Larimer Street , named after William Larimer , Jr . , the founder of Denver , which is located in the heart of LoDo , is the oldest street in Denver . 
