David R. Feineman

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The Broomcorn Express, Quarterly Publication of the Broomfield Historical Society
Vol. 4, No. 4, Oct–Dec 2024

Note: All photos are from the author’s personal collection.

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag

“Yesterday don’t matter if it’s gone.” – from Ruby Tuesday by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

The County of Broomfield is a recent creation, only dating back to 2001. Much of Broomfield’s development is associated with the construction of the Broomfield Heights subdivision in the mid 1950s, but it should be obvious that people lived and worked here well before that time. This article is an attempt to provide a bit of an overview of the places—where yesterday is still on view—that provide historical context of the development of the area over time, focusing on public and commercial structures. This tour starts in southwest Broomfield, and roughly goes clockwise around the county until it ends in the south just over the county line in Westminster.

Great Western Reservoir, (constructed 1903 to 1911)
Located on the far southwest side of Broomfield, this manmade lake along Walnut Creek was originally built to provide irrigation water to the Zang Ranch. It became the primary water supply to Broomfield as development of Broomfield Heights proceeded in the mid-1950s. Following detection of contamination by plutonium in runoff from the Rocky Flats nuclear facility to the west, it ceased to be used for drinking water. The reservoir sits within open space and currently is used to supply irrigation water for Broomfield and other communities along the Front Range.

The first Maime Doud Eisenhower Library (1963)

A building off Midway located within the Garden Center complex currently houses the Veterans Museum but it was built as the first Eisenhower Library. The land for the library was donated by Axel Nielson and Bal Swan of the Turnpike Land Company. At their request, the library’s name was changed from the Broomfield Public Library to the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library to honor the former first lady. They had originally wanted to name it after the president, but he declined and asked that it be named after his wife instead. She donated a collection of books from her family’s home in Denver to the library which  can be seen in glass cases on the second floor of the current library building. Both she and the former president came to the dedication of the building.

Broomfield Heights (~1955)

The former Zang ranch was sold to the Turnpike Land Company, who had a plan to create a city by the Turnpike with activity kicking off in 1955 offering the promise of high-class country living. The development would have water from the Great Western Reservoir and initiated work on other utilities. Originally called the Broomfield Hills development with plans to build around 1000 homes associated with their First Filing for permits, but the development’s name was quickly changed to Broomfield Heights. Broomfield Heights was the first significant planned community to be built in Broomfield.

Location: Northwest from the intersection of Main Street and East First Avenue

Railroad Depot (1909)

The railroad depot was built by the Colorado & Southern Railway (C&S) in 1909 at a time when there were only 160 town residents. The Broomfield depot was used as a stop by both the C&S and the Denver & Interurban Railroad’s trams connecting Denver and Boulder. The depot had living quarters for the station agent and his family. The depot itself was closed in 1967 and moved from its original location in Old Broomfield to its current site at Zang Spur Park on February 18, 1976. The depot building has been a history museum since 1982. 

Crawford Honey House (1905)

The Crawford Honey House was a commercial building used for the sale and shipping of honey. It was operated by beekeeper Harry Crawford, one of Broomfield’s early pioneers, who had moved to Broomfield from Ohio in 1891. 

The Honey House was part of a cluster of businesses and homes around 120th Avenue and the railroad tracks that later became known as “Old Broomfield.” Neighboring enterprises included: a cheese manufacturer (Robert & Mary Wright); dairy (Watson Colman); blacksmith (Henry & Anna Naeve); flour & feed mill (Ralph & Allice Colman); and railroad agent, general merchandise dealer & postmistress (H.H. & Florence Graves). 

Harry Crawford purchased his property from the Zang holdings and used it to maintain 500 bee colonies. The honey was put in containers and shipped by train to Denver. Its quality was recognized when he received a silver medal for his comb honey at the 1904 World’s Fair held in St. Louis. 

Shep’s Grave (1964)

Shep was a stray dog that had wandered into the toll booth structure along the Denver-Boulder Turnpike and came to stay. He was cared for by the toll booth workers and became a local attraction at a time when cars had to stop in Broomfield and pay their fee. The dog lived in the toll booth area from 1950 to 1964. Initially he was buried next to the highway, but later his grave was relocated and maintained now in a new location next to the Depot Museum.

Colorado Milling & Elevator (1916)

This highly visible reminder of Old Broomfield’s agricultural days sits beside the railroad tracks on West 120th Avenue. The Colorado Milling & Elevator Company was run by J.K. Mullen of Denver who bought the land and hired Fred Harrison to manage the operation. It is a rare example of a steel plate grain elevator. Mullen was famous for producing Hungarian High-Altitude Flour. (The “Hungarian” part of the name comes from the process used to mill the flour, which was developed in Hungary in the 1800’s & used in Colorado by J.K. Mullen’s mills starting in 1875 and is still used on some flour. The flour is milled from hard wheat from Colorado, the Dakotas, and Montana, so the “high altitude” refers to where the grain is from.)¹ 

Coors Grain Elevator (~ 1916-1920)

Locally known as the Coors Grain Elevator, it has had its name changed multiple times. It appears to have begun as Ralph Colman’s Silver Standard Flour and Feed Mill, then Nissen’s Broomfield Feed Mill & Elevator, and then became the Longmont Farmer’s Milling and Elevator Company’s Broomfield Elevator. It is taller than the Colorado Milling & Elevator & has flat sides and is clad in corrugated sheet metal. 

Broomfield State Bank (1921)

The first bank in Broomfield was built in 1921 and was called the Broomfield State Bank. It was located at 7905 W. 120th Ave in a building that still exists. The bank lasted only 11 years but could not survive the declining incomes of local farmers through the Depression. However, the bank is historic for having been robbed twice in the time before Broomfield had a police force. A robbery in 1929 lost $2000 to a man “arriving in a blue sedan driven by a fashionably dressed woman”: the culprit was never caught.²  A second robbery happened in 1930 with the robber apprehended after a car crash and wrestling match with police in Denver.

Crescent Grange (1916)

This clapboard building represents the symbolic center of the Old Broomfield farming community. The building has undergone few changes since its original construction and is a good example of a wood frame building with elements of Greek Revival architecture.³  It was an important community social gathering place for community meetings and dances.

Lakeview Cemetery (1890)

The original cemetery for the Broomfield area, it appears to have started in operation in 1890. Although only 42 gravestones are still there, the actual number buried there is likely to be about 125 to 140 with the last interment in 1959. A marker installed in 2013 names the individuals who are documented to be buried there.⁴

Brunner Farmhouse (1908)

The Brunner Farmhouse was originally located at 120th Ave and Sheridan and was donated to the city for historic preservation. Its current location along Main Street adjacent to The Field open space was land from a different farm owned by the Kozisek family. When the 1908 house was moved to its current location in 1998, parts of the interior were damaged and needed to be restored. The building itself became a designated historic building in 2007 and is used as a meeting place for non-profit groups while the surrounding gardens are open to the public.

Brozovich Beacon (2012)

The Beacon is a piece of public art designed by sculptor Tim Upham. It is 27 feet high and sits in a small community park beside a lake near Anthem Ranch. The City Council approved spending $46,900 for the work- which is both lighted as well as a kinetic sculpture that turns in the wind. The piece is named for the Brozovich family that had done dry wheat farming at the site. The city’s Public Art Committee at the time had chosen a theme of “Earth Meets Water, Mountains Meet Plains, and Past Meets Future” that proposed projects needed to adhere to—which still resonates well about Broomfield today.

Westlake School (1902)

Built in 1902, this brick building stayed in use as a school until 1990. When it opened it supported 48 students from first to eighth grades and served as a community center. In the 1930s, it was one of the first schools to offer a hot lunch to students. Safety concerns about limited exit doors forced its closure in 1952, but the needs of the growing Broomfield population drove its reopening as a middle school. Before its final closure it also served as a high school and preschool.⁵

Metzger Farmhouse (~1800)

Located on the eastern border of Broomfield with Westminster, sits an intact example of a mid-century farm. It is named for John Metzger, a Denver lawyer who served as Colorado’s attorney general and bought the property in 1943. The buildings are architecturally important examples of the Colonial Revival style. The farmhouse itself was constructed in the 1800s, but was extensively remodeled and expanded by the Metzger’s in the 1950s. In 2013 the site was added to The National Register of Historic Places and the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties⁶.

1st Bank Center (2006)

This imposing structure that was part of Broomfield’s more recent history won’t be preserved. Opened at the end of 2006 as the Broomfield Event Center, then relabeled the Odeum Colorado, the building currently named the 1st Bank Center has a highly visible location along Highway 36 at the eastern edge of the Arista development. The building was designed by Sink Combs Dethlefs, prominent large structure architects who are still quite active along the Front Range. It is due to be demolished 17 years after it was built due to its high costs to maintain and its inability to attract enough business compared to other similar venues around Denver.  

Church Stagecoach Well (1864)

Located just South of the Broomfield border in Westminster in Jefferson County, is a well which is believed to date to 1864 that was used to provide water at a for stagecoach stop for animals and people on the property of homesteaders George and Sarah Church. It is the only surviving remnant of Church’s Crossing Stage Stop, which operated until 1869 and was mostly destroyed by fire in the 1920s.⁷

End of the Tour

That concludes our tour, and hopefully sheds some light on the cultural heritage of Broomfield through the remaining visual reminders of Old Broomfield and its agricultural services past along West 120th Avenue, and on to the turnpike, schools and library associated with supporting the Broomfield Heights planned subdivision. They help us remember that there were  people, activities, and industries which were once core to Broomfield’s development, even though their time may have passed. Perhaps most importantly in an area still seeing active new growth and development, these old structures make us look different than surrounding communities in Boulder, Jefferson, Weld, and Adams counties by enhancing the distinctiveness of Broomfield and creating a sense of place beyond just a collection of subdivisions. Promoting awareness of the existence and location of these landmarks that honestly look nothing like modern construction serves as a first step in understanding their value to us today. When light rail finally makes its way here, it will probably follow the same railroad path that led to the development of Old Broomfield. We can imagine it may trigger renewed interest and a resurgence in a historic part of town that recently has been largely bypassed that still has remaining original structures.

Endnotes

1. “Hungarian Unbleached All-purpose – Sourdough Home,” n.d. https://www.sourdoughhome.com/hungarian-bleached-all-purpose/.

2. Enterprise, Broomfield. “On History: Broomfield State Bank Saw Two Robberies in Its Brief Life.” Broomfield Enterprise, May 16, 2010. https://www.broomfieldenterprise.com/2010/05/16/on-history-broomfield-state-bank-saw-two-robberies-in-its-brief-life/.

3. Corbett, Kathleen, Daniel Shosky, Thomas Witt, Nelson Klitzka, Elizabeth Kreider, Sean Doyle, and Kathryn Dunn. “Survey of Historic Buildings within the 120th Avenue Corridor and Broomfield Heights Filing 1, Broomfield County, Colorado.” Broomfield.org, July 2009. Accessed April 6, 2024. https://www.broomfield.org/DocumentCenter/View/26950/2009-Survey—120th-Avenue-Corridor-and-Broomfield-Heights.

4. Enterprise, Broomfield. “Lakeview Cemetery Memorial Pays Tribute to Broomfield’S Early Residents.” Broomfield Enterprise, May 13, 2013. https://www.broomfieldenterprise.com/2013/05/13/lakeview-cemetery-memorial-pays-tribute-to-broomfields-early-residents/.

5. “Westlake School | Colorado Encyclopedia,” n.d. https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/westlake-school.

6. “Metzger Farm | History Colorado,” March 20, 2013. https://www.historycolorado.org/location/metzger-farm.

7. Caldwell, Patrick. “Church’s Stage Stop Well Landmarked in 2015,” 2015. https://historicjeffco.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/hjlandmarkchurchs-2015.pdf.

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The Broomcorn Express, Quarterly Publication of the Broomfield Historical Society
Vol. 4, No. 3, July–September 2024

The transition of Broomfield from a small agricultural community to a recognizable, defined town was supported by the introduction of railroad and interurban service into the Old Broomfield area. Train service enhanced accessibility from Denver and Boulder, both for passenger and freight movement.

As it turned out, although our site in the foothills might seem safer than railroads in mountain communities, there were historic train wrecks right here in Broomfield. Although eight people died in two train different wrecks on the east side of Highway 36 between 119th Place and 104th Avenue, you won’t find a historical marker to tell their story.

But why write about these calamities here? Disasters are associated with locations and time frames, just like the rest of our history. Formalizing them as part of our narrative of Broomfield history lets them be both more understandable and less random. “Every disaster can be compared to one of the past. Understanding how it fits within the context of a region, culture, and history is vital to predicting how a current disaster will impact the population and surrounding environment.”[1]

1908
Unlike the events that follow, this early incident deals not with a train wreck per se, but with a fatal pedestrian trolley car incident in old Broomfield. In an earlier article in the Broomcorn Express, we discussed the Kite Line service provided by the Denver & Interurban line between Denver, Broomfield, and towns further to the North. In 1908, Harry Patrick had just ridden the trolley from Denver to go to the Broomfield Mercantile Company, in which he was a part owner. Walking around a line of parked freight cars, he did not see an oncoming tram and was hit by the same one he had ridden to Broomfield an hour before which was now on its return trip back to Denver.[2] The elderly Mr. Patrick (age 67) was unconscious and placed back onto the same car to ride to Denver for medical attention but died before he arrived.

1909
The Broomfield Archives has a postcard that says the image that appears above was of a 1909 train wreck in Broomfield.[3] Even more tantalizing is the inscription on it that says it was at the same location as an earlier wreck. The rail connection to Broomfield was constructed in 1873, and by 1909, Broomfield had a depot with 19 passenger trains passing through each day. It is plausible that there were crashes around Old Town at that time, although I was unable to find any other supporting evidence for them. There were well-documented, serious Colorado train crashes in Colorado Springs and Dotsero in 1909, but given the distances, they would be unlikely to be confused with the Broomfield area and would not explain the advertisement for the Rocky Mountain News painted on the building behind the wreckage.

1958
On September 22, 1958, a Colorado & Southern Railroad freight train left Denver, heading for Cheyenne, Wyoming. A passenger train that had originated in Billings, Montana, was headed toward Denver on the same single-track line.[4] The plan was for the freight train to pull onto a siding and wait for the passenger train to pass—surviving crew members thought that the freight train would pull into the siding at Semper, five miles south of Broomfield (which to orient you would put it near the Guiry’s in Westminster today). Engineer Fred Tingle was experienced and had been an engineer since 1922; he slowed down near the siding at Semper, but he did not stop. A crew member in the caboose radioed the engineer, asking where they were going to try and pass the passenger train since they had already past the Semper siding, and the reply was at Broomfield (five more miles past Semper).

Although the freight train was powered by diesel locomotives, the crew in the cab consisted of both an engineer and a fireman (who was generally an engineer in training but also responsible for fueling the locomotive). Based on testimony after the accident, the fireman continued to warn the engineer that there was not enough time for the two trains to pass. The train conductor radioed the engineer to stop the train at once but was ignored. Approaching the siding at Broomfield the freight train continued on without stopping. Although the trains were quickly approaching each other, a curve in the track just south of the Broomfield depot meant that they didn’t see each other until right before their collision. Shortly afterwards, the passenger train going 20 miles per hour crashed into the freight train going 50 miles per hour.[5]

As you can see from the photos of the wreck, there was significant damage to the front of both trains. Both crew members in the passenger train were killed, as was the engineer of the freight train, and twenty passengers were injured. Clearly a tragedy but also a mystery here is why it happened given that there were multiple people trying to alert the engineer: did the accident occur because of the politics of making decisions in the freight train, or was the engineer intending to cause a crash?[6]  Harry Anderson, the fireman on the freight train, said that Tingle had stayed in the engineer’s seat as the trains crashed, and although fatally wounded, he kept asking about how the crew on the passenger train had faired. Since he did not survive for very long after the crash, there is no direct testimony from him on what happened.

1985
On August 2, 1985, two Burlington Northern freight trains hit head-on, killing five crewmen along US 36, not far from the site of the 1958 train wreck. The northbound train, pulled by three engines, had left Denver while the southbound train had departed from Longmont.  

The engineer of the northbound train made a scheduled stop just north of Denver and checked on when and where they would pass the southbound freight—but mistakenly reviewed information in a logbook for the preceding day. That act would lead him to believe the other train had already passed his location. As a result, he started on his way north, thinking the line would be clear. Approaching Broomfield, the tracks went underneath a US 36 overpass on a bend in the rail line, which obscured the line of sight of both trains. Given no warning, the two trains collided, going at moderate speed head-on. Although the trains were not carrying flammable cargo, the fuel in the engines ignited and caused a fire that melted the 104th Street overpass over US 36, with smoke seen as far away as Fort Collins.[7]

Today
It’s all just history and from an earlier time in railroading technology. Certainly, rails, signals, communications, and similar technologies have improved in capability and come at reduced costs and could be expected to reduce the likelihood of train-to-train collisions in the segments of rail lines that run through Broomfield. But it should be obvious from the photos that the areas along the railroad track right of way in Broomfield, starting at 122th and Old Wadsworth and heading north, then turning to follow West 120th Avenue, and then turning northeast to pass under the Northwest Parkway, have seen extensive development since 1985—many more people in live and work in close proximity to the tracks, and they would be impacted if there is another incident.  

If you have passed through those areas at the wrong time of day, you know the existing track that is used by Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) freight trains today has many grade crossings (roads cross the tracks with cars driving right over the tracks) where you have to stop for passing trains. With renewed planning on the extension of the RTD B line to provide passenger service from Denver to Broomfield, Boulder, and Longmont, the old view of who and what is impacted by rail traffic should change because of development. If/when passenger rail service proceeds, it would put additional daily traffic on the existing BNSF tracks[8, 9] which, like it or not, is the same right of way that was the scene of our historic train wrecks.

Endnotes

1. Chad H. Parker, Andy Horowitz, and Liz Skilton, “’Disasters Have Histories’: Teaching and Researching American Disasters,” Organization of American Historians, https://www.oah.org/tah/february-4/disasters-of-histories-teaching-and-researching-american-disasters/#:~:text=They%20all%20agree%20that%20while,study%20disasters%20in%20the%20future.

2. Genealogy Trails History Group, “Accidents, Fires, Train Wrecks & Other Calamities News in Broomfield County, Colorado Genealogy Researching Ancestry in Colorado,” http://genealogytrails.com/colo/broomfield/news_accidents.html.

3. “1909 Train Wreck in Broomfield,” Broomfield History Collections, https://hub.catalogit.app/9352/folder/a5ef4790-48a1-11ed-9b74-fb65c00c73a7/entry/41603c00-7d8d-11ed-93c0-254efa3599a7.

4. The 1958 train wreck was the subject of an earlier Broomcorn Express article by Sandra Roberts, The Broomcorn Express, Vol. 2.2 (2022), https://broomfieldhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/FoBH_Issue_5.pdf.

5. Sam Speas and Margaret Coel, Goin’ Railroading: 

A Century on the Colorado High Iron (Boulder: Pruett, 1985).

6. Fred Frailey, “The Follies of Men: Two Disasters Wrapped in Mystery,” Trains Magazine, January 28, 2010, https://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey/archive/2010/01/28/the-follies-of-men-two-disasters-wrapped-in-mystery.aspx.

7. Paul Gibb, “The Perfect Storm,” Boulder Weekly, January 22, 2016, https://boulderweekly.com/news/the-perfect-storm/.

8. Bruce Finley, “Could Rail to Boulder Finally Be Built? Colorado Has a Plan,” The Denver Post, February 21, 2024, https://www.denverpost.com/2024/02/20/boulder-denver-fastracks-rail-rtd-fort-collins/.

9. RTD-Denver. “Northwest Rail Peak Service Study,” October 5, 2023, https://www.rtd-denver.com/about-rtd/projects/northwest-rail-peak-service-study.

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