Bettie Cram Drive

The National Western Center’s “Main Street.”

A new street will extend through the National Western Center and over the South Platte River, connecting to 48th Avenue on the west and to Brighton Boulevard on the east. Bettie Cram Drive is the center’s main street, and on it you’ll find CSU Spur’s three buildings, the historic Livestock Exchange Building, the Stock Show’s Legacy Building, and more.

Designed to accommodate all travelers – including people on foot, on bikes or in cars – Bettie Cram Drive will intersect with the north-south pedestrian spine of the campus: the main plaza.

The CSU Spur Vida building is the first of several new buildings that will be found along Bettie Cram Drive.

About Bettie Cram

Bettie Johnson Cram began working at the Livestock Exchange Building in 1941. She met her husband, Eddie Cram, while working there, and she was a fixture at its offices over the years. For decades, she lived just east of the National Western Center site in the Swansea neighborhood, and was active in her community. With years at the Livestock Exchange Building under her belt, and having lived through the heyday and decline of the stockyards and packing houses, she became an early and passionate supporter of the National Western Center redevelopment. In 2017, a smiling Bettie Cram was present on a rainy and snowy day when the National Western Center named its future main street for her. Bettie passed away in 2020 at age 98. Read more about Bettie Cram via CSU, or listen to an oral history in her own words, via the Denver Public Library Special Collections.