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Herndon Davis (1901–1962) was an American artist, journalist, illustrator, and painter. He worked at the National War College in Washington, D.C., creating maps of China and Japan. Davis was an illustrator for New York, Washington, D.C., and Denver newspapers. He was also commissioned to make paintings and murals.
He moved to Denver in 1936, where his paintings captured notable people and landmarks of Denver and the west. "In some cases Davis provides the only extant image of certain people and places. In hundreds of colorful paintings and drawings he adds impressively to our portrait gallery," according to James X. Kroll, Manager, Western History and Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library, where many of Davis works are exhibited.
His subjects ranged from notorious prostitutes, like Ellen Watson, to Governor Ralph Lawrence Carr. Davis made paintings of houses and mansions, like that owned by William Byers. He also captured the stately Tabor Grand Opera House and buildings that had significantly changed over time. Davis created a painting of an art gallery that used to be a brothel and another of a "shabby" apartment building that has been an elegant hotel. He painted The Face on the Barroom Floor, depicting his wife, on the bar room floor of Teller House in Central City.
Davis created a wash drawing of the notorious House of Mirrors brothel, that later became a Buddhist temple. It was used as an illustration in Caroline Bancroft's Six Racy Madams of Colorado. His illustration of Ellen Watson was used for Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountain by Jan MacKell.
Davis captured images of Denver's landmarks, generally in watercolor, some of which no longer exist. The captured what Thomas Noel said many thought to be "the finest building ever done in Denver," the Tabor Grand Opera House, in its glory. He also captured realistic images of landmarks as they had transitioned over the years. Now a gallery of western art, the Navarre building across from the Brown Palace Hotel had been a brothel. Once considered the "Delmonico of the West" the Charpiot's Hotel had become a "shabby apartment building with seedy storefronts with old cars lined up in front of it." He captured the "tattered" nature of what had once been the "elegant" Arcade Saloon, a gambling hall located on Larimer. Other places that Davis captured were the Palace Variety Theatre and Grayson's store and other 16th buildings in Eugene Field Alley. The Rocky Mountain News published an article, with commentary provided by Joe Emerson Smith, in the 1940s about his paintings of landmarks. He captured homes, too, like the mansions of William Byers and Ed Chase.
Herndon was commissioned to create a mural for the Smithsonian Institution, which he began work on, when he died of a heart attack in 1962. He is buried in Fort Logan National Cemetery.
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