Six days a week, for five decades, Bud Vecchiarelli walked from his home to work at the corner gas station and garage he owned in the Potter Highlands Historic District in northwest Denver.

Bud’s Zuni Service, with its red trim, red lettering and red lion logo, a symbol popular in North Denver, was a fixture on the southwest corner of 33rd Avenue and Zuni Street. Even after the long-neglected area was gentrified into one of Denver’s most popular neighborhoods starting in the late 1990s, the auto shop remained a touchpoint to an earlier era.

Already old when Vecchiarelli purchased it in the early 1970s, the building and lot hosted a Standard gas station, which he eventually converted into an auto repair shop. It was hard work at times, but it wasn’t only work.

After the shop closed at 5

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