Auraria started life as an independent town in 1858 and ended its independence in 1860 when it was incorporated into Denver and known as West Denver. Some remains of the early town are still evident on the Auraria Campus, particularly in the Ninth Street Historic Park. However, as the educational institutions of the University of Colorado at Denver, the Metropolitan State College of Denver and the Community College of Denver occupy the bulk of Auraria, there isn’t much by way of permanent housing. The Auraria dorms are therefore essential extensions to the academic institutions.

Dormitories, or dorms, as they are commonly called, generally refer to buildings and housing facilities at boarding schools, colleges, including military colleges, where they are also referred to as barracks. Historically, a dormitory was a large room containing a number of beds. Sometimes the beds were accompanied by bedside dressers, and perhaps footlockers. Often a number of dormitories shared a communal bathroom or bathrooms, depending on the number of beds and individual dorms. Auraria dorms however, are more like apartments than the accommodations of old.

Auraria dorms, or dormitories, are housing and accommodation facilities used by students enrolled at one of the three higher education facilities that make up the Auraria Campus which dominates this neighborhood of Denver. It is not too long ago that this used to be a commuter campus. The first dorm was developed for the University of Colorado at Denver, called the Campus Village Apartments, followed by The Inn at Auraria and the latest addition, The Regency.

The University of Colorado at Denver has certain restrictions over some of its students, requiring them to reside in Campus Village Apartments. The other Auraria dorms do not have reservations such as these on their occupancy and the choice of facilities offered by them are open to anyone willing to pay the going rates, which considering what one gets for the money, are reasonable indeed.

The newest addition to the Auraria dorms is The Regency, which as in their own words is “the first housing development created specifically for Auraria students”. Having been designed with the focus on the residents and their particular requirements, a person would expect to have to pay a premium over other Auraria dorms, but this is definitely not the case. A comparison of the published current rates of each of the dorms makes it very clear that despite being the newest and the most specialized of the three, The Regency offers excellent value for money.