Stapleton, Denver the A Line. The original airport was named for Benjamin Franklin Stapleton (November 12, 1869 – May 23, 1950) who was the Mayor of Denver for two periods (comprising five terms), the first from 1923 to 1931 and the second from 1935 to 1947. He also served as a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan and the Democratic Colorado State Auditor from 1933 to 1935. Today, the Stapleton neighborhood continues to bear his name despite increasing political pressure to rename it due to Benjamin Stapleton's adherence to white supremacy and membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Stapleton, Denver Stapleton
Stapleton International Airport officially opened for all operations the following morning. When it closed in 1995, Stapleton had six runways (2 sets of 3 parallel runways) and five terminal concourses. The runways at Stapleton were then marked with large yellow "X"s, which indicated it was no longer legal or safe for any aircraft to land there. The IATA and ICAO airport codes of DEN and KDEN were then transferred to the new DIA, to coincide with the same changes in airline and ATC computers, to ensure that flights to Denver would land at the new DIA. While Denver International was being constructed, planners