Washington-Virginia Vale is southeast Denver’s oldest neighborhood and includes the city’s oldest existing building at 715 South Forest Street. Known as the Four Mile House, it was built in 1858 as the last stagecoach stop between Kansas City and Denver. Shortly after the Civil War the area was known as the Booth Ranch, which covered more than 600 acres. The beginning of present development occurred in 1946 when all but 7.5 acres of the ranch was sold for development.

Little development occurred until the neighborhood joined Denver through a series of 27 annexations between 1951 and 1968. Most of the annexations occurred in two periods: between 1951 and 1953 and 1961 and 1965.