%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Longmont http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Longmont</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2864--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2864.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/fourth-main-c-1900"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Longmont-Media-5_0.jpg?itok=c31hYTft" width="1000" height="581" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/fourth-main-c-1900" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Fourth &amp; Main, c. 1900</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>This photograph looks south at the intersection of Main Street and Fourth Avenue in Longmont around 1900. The post office (marked at right behind the McFarland's Dry Goods sign) dated to the city's founding in the early 1870s. Many of the brick buildings in this photo still stand today.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-12-11T13:09:01-07:00" title="Monday, December 11, 2017 - 13:09" class="datetime">Mon, 12/11/2017 - 13:09</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0" data-a2a-title="Longmont"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Flongmont-0&amp;title=Longmont"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Longmont is a city of about 92,000 along the <a href="/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a> in eastern <a href="/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a>. Named after the prominent <a href="/article/longs-peak"><strong>Longs Peak</strong></a> to the west, the city was founded in 1871 by members of the <a href="/article/chicago-colorado-colony"><strong>Chicago-Colorado Colony</strong></a>, near the confluence of Left Hand and St. Vrain Creeks.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After its founding, Longmont quickly developed into an agricultural hub where local farmers and ranchers brought produce to be processed and shipped out on rail lines. Beginning in the 1960s, the Longmont economy diversified to include high-tech and other industries, and the population swelled to 71,000 by 2000. Today, even though agriculture is more a part of Longmont’s past than its present or future, the city maintains a hard-working, industrious spirit, with a large population of blue-collar and service industry workers and a thriving artist and professional class.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early History</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The sheltered and well-watered region along Colorado’s Front Range has drawn human populations for millennia, as far back as the <a href="/article/paleo-indian-period"><strong>Paleo-Indian</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/folsom-people"><strong>Folsom peoples</strong></a> about 12,000 years ago or earlier. By the nineteenth century, the <strong>Arapaho</strong> and <strong>Cheyenne</strong> people lived in the area, making winter camp near the sites of present-day cities such as <a href="/article/boulder"><strong>Boulder</strong></a> and <a href="/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>. Left Hand Creek is named for the Arapaho leader <a href="/article/left-hand-niwot"><strong>Niwot</strong></a>, or “Left Hand,” who encountered the first white prospectors in what became Boulder County.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>St. Vrain Creek, Longmont’s other main waterway, was named after <strong>Ceran St. Vrain</strong>, a fur trader of French descent who came to the area in the early nineteenth century.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Beginnings at Burlington</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> of 1858–59 brought thousands of white settlers to the Front Range. The first to settle near present-day Longmont were prospector Alonzo Allen and his seventeen-year-old stepson, <a href="/article/william-h-dickens"><strong>William Henry Dickens</strong></a>, who in 1860 built a cabin on the south bank of St. Vrain Creek.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1862 Allen and Dickens filed for adjacent <a href="/article/homestead"><strong>homesteads</strong></a> on St. Vrain Creek. Allen’s cabin was located near a convenient ford of the creek, so it soon became a stage stop and post office. Allen’s wife, Mary, arrived in 1863, and they set up a tavern and inn that served passengers on stage routes between <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> and Laramie, Wyoming. A small settlement of 150 took shape around Allen’s stage stop and was named Burlington. The community added a school in 1864 and a newspaper in 1871, but frequent <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/flooding-colorado"><strong>flooding</strong></a> stunted its growth.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Chicago-Colorado Colony</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Chicago-Colorado Colony Company incorporated in Chicago on November 20, 1870, with the goal of establishing an agricultural community in what was then <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>. A committee headed by former lumberman Seth Terry and <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News</em></strong> founder <a href="/article/william-n-byers"><strong>William Byers</strong></a> arrived in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> in January 1871 to search for a suitable location for the colony. Byers, along with the group’s secretary, Cyrus N. Pratt, were investors in the <strong>Denver Pacific Railway</strong> and wanted the colony to buy land from the railroad.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After a tour of the Front Range that included a visit to <strong>Horace Greeley</strong>’s <strong>Union Colony</strong>, Terry bought 23,000 acres near the Burlington settlement from the Denver Pacific’s National Land Company. In early March 1871, Terry led a group of about 250 settlers to the confluence of St. Vrain and Left Hand Creeks.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Terry surveyed and platted a town, naming it Longmont after the stunning view of Longs Peak to the west. The colonists immediately set to work digging ditches and building homes.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Like the Union Colony, the Chicago-Colorado Colony was envisioned as an agricultural utopia where colonists would farm the land and share the benefits of their work. Temperance was written into the colony’s constitution although it was quickly challenged, and saloons became legal as early as 1873. The colonists had plans for churches, parks, a library, a college, and even a county courthouse, as they hoped to take over the county seat from <a href="/article/boulder"><strong>Boulder</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Longmont never became the county seat, but many of the colonists’ other plans quickly came to fruition. The city’s first church, the United Methodist, was founded in 1871. Lake Park, one of Colorado’s earliest public parks, was completed just west of Main Street that same year. The park was supposed to hold a lake, but it was eventually filled in and made into a horse racing track. Elizabeth Thompson, a wealthy East Coast philanthropist, financed the construction of Colorado’s first public library in Longmont in 1871. The library doubled as the city’s first schoolhouse.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Growing City</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Longmont absorbed the older community of Burlington in 1871 and incorporated in 1873. The Chicago-Colorado Colony all but dissolved with Longmont’s incorporation. That year the <strong>Colorado Central Railroad</strong> arrived from <a href="/article/golden-0"><strong>Golden</strong></a>, allowing Longmont to ship farm products to miners in the mountains.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Some of the Burlington homesteaders became leading citizens of Longmont, the most famous being <a href="/article/william-h-dickens"><strong>William Henry Dickens</strong></a>. He built the <a href="/article/dickens-opera-house"><strong>Dickens Opera House</strong></a> at Third Avenue and Main Street in 1881, which served for decades as the social hub of the city, hosting not only concerts, plays, and operas but also dances, club meetings, political rallies, and other events. Among other ventures, Dickens also founded Farmers National Bank, which helped local farmers secure funds for land and farm equipment.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>A year after Dickens built his opera house, the Chicago, Burlington &amp; Quincy Railroad arrived in Longmont, giving the city its second rail line and easier access to markets in Chicago, Kansas, and elsewhere.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1887 entrepreneur Thomas Callahan and his wife Alice arrived and opened a dry goods store on Main Street called the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule was immediately successful, and Callahan soon opened other locations throughout the Front Range and Wyoming. In 1892 the Callahans acquired and improved the large mansion at the corner of Third Avenue and Terry Street, now known as the <a href="/article/callahan-house"><strong>Callahan House</strong></a>. Meanwhile, the local Presbyterian synod built Longmont’s first college on East Sixth Avenue in 1886, but only had enough money to complete one building, now known as <a href="/article/longmont-college-landmark"><strong>The Landmark</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As Longmont developed, pro- and anti-drink crowds battled over temperance. Saloons were first allowed in Longmont in 1873, but liquor was periodically banned and allowed between 1875 and 1916, when Colorado enacted statewide prohibition. During these decades, the<em> Longmont Ledger</em>, a weekly newspaper dating to 1877, was one of the loudest voices for temperance, while the <em>Longmont Call</em>, founded in 1893, defended saloons. The situation became so heated that in 1903 a group of pro-liquor Longmontians moved north and established the new town of Rosedale, also known as North Longmont. Rosedale welcomed not only saloons but also gambling and prostitution. After a lengthy and controversial annexation process, Longmont officially absorbed Rosedale in 1913. Legal booze finally won out in Longmont with the lifting of national prohibition in 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Agricultural Hub</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Longmont had a flour mill as early as 1872, but its days as a processing center for local produce were only beginning. In 1889 Denver businessman John Empson opened the <a href="/article/kuner-empson-cannery"><strong>Empson Cannery</strong></a> in Longmont and began buying up local farmland to grow vegetables. The cannery helped anchor the city’s growing economy, and in 1891 Empson’s money and canned pumpkin helped make Longmont’s first annual Pumpkin Pie Days a success. Empson’s company became one of the leading producers of canned peas in the world, and in the 1920s, it merged with the successful Kuner Pickle Company of Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Longmont’s economy received another major boost when the city gained a sugar beet factory in 1903. City trustee Frank M. Downer led the campaign for the factory. He formed the Longmont Sugar Company, and local businessman Henry O. Havemeyer agreed to provide funds for the plant. With Thomas Callahan supplying the bricks, the Longmont beet factory was built just southeast of downtown. At the time of its completion, it was the largest beet factory in Colorado, employing more than 700 men, women, and children.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>At its peak, the factory processed 3,650 tons of beets and produced more than one million pounds of sugar per day. The Longmont Sugar Company was soon acquired by the Great Western Sugar Company, the agricultural titan that dominated the <a href="/article/sugar-beet-industry"><strong>sugar beet industry</strong></a> in Colorado for nearly seven decades.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Beet farms needed labor, and Longmont’s sugar beet boom brought hundreds of newcomers from all parts of the world. Germans from Russia joined Japanese and Mexican families that either worked in the beet fields or set up farms of their own.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1900 the US census recorded no one with a Spanish surname living in Longmont, but by 1920 the city had thirty-one households headed by a person with a Spanish last name. Great Western built a small <em>colonia</em>—a cluster of barely adequate company houses—near its factory, and Latino beet workers spent winters there until the 1940s. In 1907 German Russians established Longmont’s first German-speaking church, the Evangelical Lutheran. The first generation of Japanese farmers in the St. Vrain valley arrived between 1915 and 1920. One prominent early Japanese farmer was Goroku Kanemoto, who moved his family to a large farm near Terry Lake in 1919.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As one of the most prosperous agricultural hubs in Colorado, Longmont enjoyed continued growth even during the <a href="/article/dust-bowl"><strong>Dust Bowl</strong></a> and <strong>Great Depression</strong>, events that hollowed out other farm communities. In 1934 some 380 of Boulder County’s 1,500 farms reported crop failure, yet the city’s population kept rising, reaching 7,406 by 1940.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Diversification and Growth</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Continued growth through the postwar years gave way to economic diversification in the 1960s and 1970s. State Highway 119 between Boulder and Longmont was paved and straightened in 1960, allowing more Longmont residents to commute to university and other non-farming jobs in Boulder. The US government built an air traffic control center in Longmont in 1962 and IBM added a large facility southwest of the city in 1965.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As the ranks of commuters grew and government and tech jobs arrived, agricultural and industrial jobs dried up. Outdated equipment and infrastructure forced the Kuner-Empson cannery to close in 1970 and decades of corporate mismanagement led to the closure of the Longmont sugar factory in 1977.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Economic transformation proved to be a boon for Longmont, as the city’s population exploded from 11,489 in 1960 to 42,942 by 1980. Longmont developers were quick to seize the demand for new housing. After the IBM campus opened, the Kanemoto family stopped farming and built the 700-home Southmoor Park neighborhood on some of their land. The neighborhood was one of several Kanemoto developments in town. In the 1980s, the old Longmont College building was converted into apartments, and developer Roger Pomainville turned the old brick warehouses of the Kuner-Empson cannery into apartments.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Redevelopment of Longmont’s downtown district also began in the 1980s. The city council formed the Longmont Downtown Development Authority (LDDA) in 1982, and over the next two decades the authority invested more than $45 million in new buildings and renovations along Main Street. The LDDA also oversaw the construction of pedestrian-friendly alleys and crosswalks, the planting of trees and flowers, and other beautification efforts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alongside downtown development came historic preservation, in the form of two <a href="/article/longmont-historic-districts"><strong>historic districts</strong></a> located east and west of Main Street. The districts were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986–87.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The city’s Latino community grew along with the city, as the changing economy attracted more people from elsewhere in the United States and immigrants from Mexico and Central America. When IBM first set up its facility, the company did not hire many Latinos, but a discrimination lawsuit in 1971 changed that. By the middle of the decade, Longmont was home to some 101 Latino professionals, many of whom worked at IBM or the <strong>University of Colorado</strong>. Hundreds more Latinos worked in service or industrial jobs such as the Longmont turkey processing factory, which was known for poor working conditions.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Although Latinos were a fundamental part of the city’s culture and economy, they faced discrimination and police harassment throughout the twentieth century. In August 1980 a Longmont police officer shot and killed two unarmed Latino men during a routine traffic stop. In response, Latino community leaders formed El Comité, a group that demanded reform of the Longmont Police Department and increased dialogue between the police and the Latino community. El Comité’s efforts were largely successful, and the group continues to advise Longmont police today on behalf of a Latino community that now makes up 25 percent of the city’s population.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Today Longmont’s population boom continues, mirroring the explosive growth of the Front Range. Housing developments continue to spring up, such as the 115-unit Roosevelt Park Apartments and Pomainville’s 220-unit Mill Village. Like its Front Range neighbors Boulder and Fort Collins, Longmont has also developed a thriving craft beer industry, anchored by <strong>Left Hand Brewery</strong> and <strong>Oskar Blues</strong>. More affordable than nearby Boulder, Longmont is home to many working-class residents who commute to the affluent county seat for jobs in construction and service or at the University of Colorado.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Though it has seen plenty of changes over the last 150 years, Longmont remains dedicated to preserving its heritage. The <strong>Longmont Museum</strong>, which opened in 2002 south of downtown, is one of the more robust museums along the Front Range. In 2008 its permanent exhibit Front Range Rising won History Colorado’s Josephine H. Miles History Award and the Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History. Still in touch with its agricultural roots, Longmont is home to the <strong>Boulder County Agricultural Heritage Center</strong>, along Ute Highway at the west end of town.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After three decades of redevelopment, downtown Longmont is now a hub for restaurants, brewpubs, coffee shops, and boutiques. In addition to The Landmark and the Empson cannery, which still house apartments, many of the city’s oldest buildings remain in use. The Dickens Opera House continues to offer live entertainment on the second floor and dining on the first, while the city-maintained Callahan House welcomes visitors and hosts a variety of public and private events.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elizabeth-thompson" hreflang="en">elizabeth thompson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-byers" hreflang="en">william byers</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rocky-mountain-news" hreflang="en">rocky mountain news</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-pacific-railroad" hreflang="en">denver pacific railroad</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-dickens" hreflang="en">william dickens</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dickens-opera-house" hreflang="en">dickens opera house</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sugar-beet-industry" hreflang="en">sugar beet industry</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/longmont-museum" hreflang="en">longmont museum</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/longmont-historic-districts" hreflang="en">longmont historic districts</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder-county" hreflang="en">boulder county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder-county-history" hreflang="en">boulder county history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/latino-history" hreflang="en">latino history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/agriculture" hreflang="en">agriculture</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/front-range" hreflang="en">front range</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Robert R. Crifasi, <em>A Land Made from Water: Appropriation and the Evolution of Colorado’s Landscape, Ditches, and Water Institutions </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Mabel Downer Dunning, <em>The Chicago-Colorado Company Founding of Longmont</em>, ed. Mildred Neeley, Clara Williams, Muriel Harrison, Colleen Cassell, and Mildred Brown (Longmont, CO: n.p., 1975).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Longmont Downtown Development Authority, “<a href="https://www.downtownlongmont.com/about">About Us</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Candy Hamilton, <em>Footprints in the Sugar: A History of the Great Western Sugar Company </em>(Ontario, OR: Hamilton Bates, 2009).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Erik Mason, “<a href="https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-e-m/museum/collections/history-of-longmont">History of Longmont</a>,” City of Longmont, Colorado, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Marjorie K. McIntosh, <em>Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, 1900–1980</em>. Vol. 1:<em> History and Contributions</em> (Palm Springs, CA: Old John, 2016).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Marjorie K. McIntosh, <em>Latinos of Boulder County, Colorado, 1900–1980</em>. Vol. 2:<em> Lives and Legacies </em>(Palm Springs, CA: Old John, 2016).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel and Dan W. Corson, <em>Boulder County: An Illustrated History </em>(Carlsbad, CA: Heritage Media, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>St. Vrain Valley Historical Association, <em>They Came to Stay: Longmont, Colorado, 1858–1920 </em>(Longmont, CO: Longmont Printing, 1971).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Agriculture, “<a href="https://usda.library.cornell.edu/">Colorado</a>,” USDA Census of Agriculture, Vol. 1, Pt. 41 (1935).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alicia Wallace, “<a href="https://www.timescall.com/2014/10/05/apartment-boom-playing-out-in-longmont/">Apartment boom playing out in Longmont</a>,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, October 5, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Magdalena Wegrzyn, “<a href="https://www.timescall.com/2012/03/21/longmonts-link-to-japan-began-with-immigrants-continues-with-students/">Longmont’s link to Japan began with immigrants, continues with students</a>,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, March 25, 2012.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Carah Wertheimer, “<a href="https://www.timescall.com/2016/09/04/the-rise-and-fall-of-north-longmont-a-century-old-tale-of-saloons-water-rights-and-the-ballot-box/">The rise and fall of North Longmont: A century-old tale of saloons, water rights and the ballot box</a>,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, September 4, 2016.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://bouldercounty.gov/open-space/education/museums/agricultural-heritage-center/">Boulder County Agricultural Heritage Center</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://bocolatinohistory.colorado.edu/">Boulder County Latino History</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/">City of Longmont</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dorothy Large, <em>Old Burlington: First Town on the St. Vrain, 1860–1871 </em>(Longmont, CO: St. Vrain Publishing, 1984).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Longmont Hispanic Study, <em>We, Too, Came to Stay: A History of the Longmont Hispanic Community </em>(Longmont, CO: Longmont Hispanic Study and El Comité, 1988).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.rootsweb.com/~colgs/">Longmont Genealogical Society</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-e-m/museum">Longmont Museum</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Erik Mason, <em>Longmont:</em> <em>The First 150 Years </em>(Virginia Beach, VA: Donning, 2020).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="http://longmontian.blogspot.com/">Observations about Longmont, Colorado (blog)</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="http://www.stvrainhistoricalsociety.com/">St. Vrain Historical Society</a></p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 11 Dec 2017 20:09:01 +0000 yongli 2862 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org William H. Dickens http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-h-dickens <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">William H. Dickens</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-12-06T13:51:06-07:00" title="Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - 13:51" class="datetime">Wed, 12/06/2017 - 13:51</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-h-dickens" data-a2a-title="William H. Dickens"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fwilliam-h-dickens&amp;title=William%20H.%20Dickens"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>William Henry Dickens (c. 1842–1915) was a <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/homestead">homestead</a></strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/homestead"><strong>er</strong></a>, farmer, and businessman in the St. Vrain valley. A prominent early citizen of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0"><strong>Longmont</strong></a>, Dickens built the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dickens-opera-house"><strong>Dickens Opera House</strong></a>, established Farmers National Bank, and helped organize the Farmers Milling and Elevator Company, among other ventures.</p> <p>In 1915 Dickens was shot and killed in his Longmont home. The high-profile murder drew law enforcement officers from all over the state. Although Dickens’s son Rienzi was initially convicted, he was later freed, and the murder remains unsolved to this day.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>William H. Dickens, a distant relative of the English novelist Charles Dickens, was born during his family’s crossing from England to the United States in the early 1840s. He lived with his family in Canada and Wisconsin, where his father and two sisters died. Dickens’s mother married Alonzo Allen, and hard times in the 1850s convinced Allen to join the <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> in 1859.</p> <p>Allen took his seventeen-year-old stepson with him to <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder"><strong>Boulder</strong></a>, which at that time was a rough-and-tumble mining settlement. The pair had little luck prospecting, so in 1860 they left the mountains and built a cabin near the confluence of St. Vrain and Left Hand Creeks, near the site of present-day Longmont. Allen’s cabin happened to be near a strategic crossing of St. Vrain Creek, and the area soon attracted dozens of other homesteaders.</p> <h2>Burlington</h2> <p>Soon after their cabin was built, Dickens began farming hay while Allen prospected in the mountains. In 1863 Allen’s wife, Mary, and their children arrived, and the family set up a tavern and inn along the stagecoach route between <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> and Wyoming. By then the area was known as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/burlington-boulder-county"><strong>Burlington</strong></a>. In 1865 Dickens built a stable barn for the family inn, and in 1869 he built Independence Hall, an early drugstore and community center. Sometime between 1865 and 1869, Dickens filed for a 102-acre <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/homestead"><strong>homestead</strong></a> near his stepfather’s cabin.</p> <h2>Longmont</h2> <p>When the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chicago-colorado-colony"><strong>Chicago-Colorado Colony</strong></a> established the city of Longmont just north of Burlington in 1871, most of the early homesteaders picked up and moved to the new town. Dickens moved his family’s stable barn and Independence Hall to Longmont. In 1876 he married Ida Kiteley, the daughter of John Kiteley, another early St. Vrain homesteader. The couple had five children: William, Rienzi, John, Mary, and Artalissa.</p> <p>The Dickenses eventually expanded their homestead to 1,280 acres on which they farmed and raised livestock. In 1881 Dickens moved Independence Hall to another lot and built the two-story Dickens Opera House at Third Avenue and Main Street. In 1891 Dickens founded Farmers National Bank, which was headquartered at the opera house until it moved into its own building in the early 1900s. He was also one of the founders of the Farmers Milling and Elevator Company, which in the early twentieth century challenged tycoon <strong>John K. Mullen</strong>’s near monopoly on Colorado’s flour industry.</p> <p>In 1904 Dickens and his family moved into a large house at Third Avenue and Coffman Street, which later became the St. Vrain Hospital and has since been converted into apartments.</p> <h2>Murder</h2> <p>In November 1915, an elderly William Dickens was reading in his home when a rifle bullet burst through the window, killing him. News of the murder traveled quickly along the Front Range, and law enforcement came from as far away as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a> to help track down the killer. They had little luck, however, until it was found that Dickens’s son Rienzi purchased a rifle and silencer earlier that month. Rienzi Dickens was arrested and initially found guilty of murdering his father in 1915, but his lawyers demanded a retrial. Rienzi was freed by a jury in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a> in 1921 and immediately left for California. The crime was never officially solved.</p> <h2>Legacy</h2> <p>Today William Dickens’s legacy lives on in his opera house, which remains a popular venue for food, drink, and entertainment. The Dickens Tavern operates on the first floor, while the second floor continues to host concerts, plays, and other events. Dickens’s Independence Hall building, one of the earliest community structures in the St. Vrain valley, still stands at 329 Third Avenue. As one of Longmont’s earliest and wealthiest citizens, William Dickens played an essential role in the city’s rapid development into one of Colorado’s most important agricultural centers.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-henry-dickens" hreflang="en">william henry dickens</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-dickens" hreflang="en">william dickens</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/longmont" hreflang="en">longmont</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/longmont-history" hreflang="en">longmont history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/burlington" hreflang="en">burlington</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/chicago-colorado-colony" hreflang="en">chicago-colorado colony</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dickens-opera-house" hreflang="en">dickens opera house</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=TWC19050215.2.45&amp;srpos=4&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22farmers+mill+and+elevator%22+longmont-------0-">City and Country</a>,” <em>Weekly Courier </em>(Fort Collins), February 15, 1905.</p> <p>City of Longmont, “<a href="https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-n-z/planning-and-development-services/historic-preservation/designated-landmarks/dickens-homestead-barn-root-cellar">Dickens Homestead—Barn &amp; Root Cellar</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=WTE19150602.2.18&amp;srpos=1&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-rienzi+dickens+murder-------0-">Dickens Found Guilty</a>,” <em>Wet Mountain Tribune</em>, June 2, 1915.</p> <p>Harrison Fletcher, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/building-for-the-future-5058407">Building for the Future</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, March 5, 1998.</p> <p>Dorothy Large, <em>Old Burlington: First Town on the St. Vrain, 1860–1871 </em>(Longmont, CO: St. Vrain Publishing, 1984).</p> <p>Roger L. Pomainville, “Dickens Opera House,” National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, 1987.</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel and Dan W. Corson, <em>Boulder County: An Illustrated History </em>(Carlsbad, CA: Heritage Media, 1999).</p> <p>St. Vrain Valley Historical Association, <em>They Came to Stay: Longmont, Colorado, 1858–1920 </em>(Longmont, CO: Longmont Printing, 1971).</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=SDM18911127-01.2.17&amp;srpos=2&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-txt-txIN-%22farmers+national+bank%22+longmont-------0-">State and General</a>,” <em>Salida Mail</em>, November 27, 1891.</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=LML19211014.2.8&amp;srpos=2&amp;e=-10-1921--10-1921--en-20-LML-1--txt-txIN-dickens-------0-">Verdict is ‘not guilty,’</a>” <em>Longmont Ledger</em>, October 14, 1921.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Mabel Downer Durning, <em>The Chicago-Colorado Colony Founding of Longmont </em>(Longmont, CO: Mabel Downer Durning, 1975).</p> <p><a href="https://www.dickenstavern.com/">The Dickens Tavern</a></p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 06 Dec 2017 20:51:06 +0000 yongli 2817 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Dickens Opera House http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dickens-opera-house <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Dickens Opera House</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-06-28T13:36:30-06:00" title="Wednesday, June 28, 2017 - 13:36" class="datetime">Wed, 06/28/2017 - 13:36</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/dickens-opera-house" data-a2a-title="Dickens Opera House"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fdickens-opera-house&amp;title=Dickens%20Opera%20House"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>In 1881–82 rancher and businessman <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-h-dickens">William Henry Dickens</a> </strong>built the Dickens Opera House at the corner of Third and Main Streets in downtown <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont"><strong>Longmont</strong></a>. The two-story opera house, with Dickens’s Farmers National Bank on the first floor and an auditorium on the second, served as an important community hub in Longmont from the late nineteenth century through the 1920s.</p> <p>After continued use throughout the twentieth century, the Dickens Opera House was abandoned in 1978. It stood vacant until 1986, when it reopened with a restaurant on the first floor and a remodeled auditorium on the second. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Today, the locally owned and operated Dickens Tavern occupies the first floor, while the second-story auditorium continues to host live entertainment.</p> <h2>William Dickens in Longmont</h2> <p>Born at sea in the early 1840s while his family was emigrating from England, William Henry Dickens came to Colorado in 1860, at age seventeen. He filed for a 160-acre <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/homestead">homestead</a> near the small community of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/burlington-boulder-county"><strong>Burlington</strong></a>, on the south side of St. Vrain Creek. In 1871 Seth Terry, a representative of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chicago-colorado-colony"><strong>Chicago-Colorado Colony</strong></a> Company, came to the area looking for potential town sites. A few months later, the colony platted the town of Longmont around the confluence of St. Vrain and Left Hand Creeks. Thanks to successful <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/irrigation-colorado">irrigation</a> development, Longmont quickly developed into an agricultural center along the <a href="/article/front-range">Front Range</a>.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Dickens had enlarged his homestead and prepared to make a series of investments in the new town. In 1873 he purchased the site for his opera house, but construction did not begin until 1881. Dickens himself hauled many of the opera house’s first bricks, and the building was completed in early 1882. The two-story building was designed in the nineteenth-century commercial style, with an exterior cornice that breaks into a peak on its Main Street facade.</p> <p>The first floor, with its row of street-level storefront windows, held Dickens’s Farmers National Bank, as well as offices for the <em>Longmont Ledger</em>. The opera house’s opening performance, on February 2, 1882, was a play called <em>The Greek Twins</em>, written by local author Will Holland. Its first opera, “Penelope,” debuted on February 12. The Dickens’s long tenure as Longmont’s cultural hub also began that year, as the local McPherson Post of the Grand Army of the Republic made the building its headquarters.</p> <h2>Early Years at the Dickens</h2> <p>In the 1880s and 1890s, the Dickens Opera House hosted such plays as <em>Uncle Tom’s Cabin</em> and <em>Ten Nights in a Bar-room</em>, as well as concerts, political rallies, and meetings of local organizations, such as the Longmont Christian Temperance Union. The first stage sets came from <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver">Denver</a>’s Sixteenth Street Theatre. The opera house also hosted spelling bees, vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, and boxing and wrestling matches. The McPherson Post drew beyond-capacity crowds for its monthly campfire festivities, evenings of dinner and dancing that went on until the early morning. In September 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the Denver Soldiers’ Aid Society hosted a benefit at the Dickens, with proceeds going toward the group’s work caring for about fifty families of soldiers fighting overseas.</p> <p>The opera house also received its first major renovations in these early years. In 1884 two dressing rooms were built in the auditorium, and the building received indoor plumbing.</p> <p>After surviving a fire in 1905 that destroyed the adjacent Masonic Temple, the Dickens Opera House continued to put on operas, plays, and other performances. In 1916 it hosted D.W. Griffith’s white nationalist film <em>Birth of a Nation</em>. Around that time the Farmers National Bank moved to a new location on Fourth and Main Streets.</p> <p>By then, however, events at the opera house were overshadowed by one of early Longmont’s worst tragedies. In 1915 an elderly William Dickens was reading in his home when a rifle bullet burst through the window, killing him. Although Dickens’s son Rienzi was initially found guilty of murdering his father in 1916, he was freed by a jury in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a> in 1921, and the crime was never solved.</p> <h2>Post-Dickens Era</h2> <p>After Dickens’s death, the opera house building passed to the John H. Dickens Trust, and then eventually was owned and managed by William Dickens’s grandson, Jack, and his sister, Ida Marie Stark.</p> <p>In 1957 Alcoholics Anonymous began holding regular meetings at the opera house, and in the 1960s several new businesses moved into the first floor, including George’s Third Avenue Barber Shop and the Red Door Tavern.</p> <p>In 1975 local theater producer Richard Sharp leased the Dickens Opera House auditorium. During Sharp’s three years as operator, the opera house put on thirty-eight performances, twenty-four of which were directed by Sharp. In 1978 Jack Dickens and Ida Stark sold the Dickens Opera House to Boulder residents Albert Fettig and Thomas Suitts for $150,000.</p> <p>Fettig and Suitts apparently had plans to remodel the Dickens, but nothing came of them. Shortly thereafter, the property was acquired by developer Roger Pomainville, who spent about $1.5 million remodeling the first floor, which he converted into a restaurant, and the second-story auditorium. Looking to maintain the building’s Victorian atmosphere, Pomainville restored the first floor’s original porcelain floors and iron bar railings and crafted a large mahogany bar in the late nineteenth-century style. He also converted the old bank vault into a wine cellar.</p> <p>In 1986 local restaurateurs Mike Shea and Fred Johnston leased the building’s first floor and opened the Dickens Restaurant. The restaurant continued the building’s long social tradition, hosting events such as the 1986 Mayor’s Conference, in which local business owners were invited to discuss various concerns with city officials. Meanwhile, the auditorium was leased by the nonprofit Dickens Opera House Association, which continued to book performances throughout the 1980s and 1990s.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>In 2009 Sean and Lynn Owens leased the opera house building and opened the Dickens Tavern on the first floor. Among other renovations, the Owenses scraped off the building’s popcorn ceiling to expose the original wood, installed a marble bar top, and added etched glass doors. The couple continues to book performances for the remodeled upstairs auditorium.</p> <p>The Dickens, one of only several nineteenth-century opera houses remaining in Colorado, may also be holding on to more of its past than many expect. The Owenses, as well as patrons and employees, have reported numerous paranormal experiences, including the sighting of a young girl dubbed the “Dickens Darling.”</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dickens-opera-house" hreflang="en">dickens opera house</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dickens-tavern" hreflang="en">dickens tavern</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-h-dickens" hreflang="en">william h dickens</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/longmont" hreflang="en">longmont</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/longmont-history" hreflang="en">longmont history</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Russ Arensman and John Fryar, “Mayor’s Conference to Seek Input From Public, Business,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, September 28, 1986.</p> <p>BizWest Staff, “<a href="https://bizwest.com/2009/06/12/great-expectations-for-dickens-tavern-in-longmont/">Great Expectations for Dickens Tavern in Longmont</a>,” <em>BizWest</em>, June 12, 2009.</p> <p>Jackie Campbell, “Longmont Dinner-Theater to Close,” <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, August 14, 1978.</p> <p>John Fryar, “Plans Unveiled for Dickens Building,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, January 29, 1986.</p> <p><a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=FCC18860225.2.35&amp;srpos=6&amp;e=--1881---1900--en-20--1--txt-txIN-dickens+opera+house-------0-">Fort Collins Courier</a>, February 25, 1886.</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.dickenstavern.com/ghost-stories/">Ghost Stories</a>,” The Dickens Tavern (blog).</p> <p>Pat Jorgenson, “Story on Closing of Dickens Denied,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, August 14, 1978.</p> <p>David L. Larson, “The Early History of the Dickens Opera House, 1881–1900,” Senior Thesis, University of Colorado, 1983.</p> <p><a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=LML18980902.2.38&amp;srpos=12&amp;e=--1881---1900--en-20--1--txt-txIN-dickens+opera+house-------0-">Longmont Ledger</a>, September 2, 1898.</p> <p>St. Vrain Valley Historical Association, <em>They Came to Stay: Longmont, Colorado, 1858–1920 </em>(Longmont, CO: Longmont Printing, 1971).</p> <p>Susan McCann, “The Dickens Opens,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, October 8, 1986.</p> <p>Susan McCann, “Being the Host,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, October 12, 1987.</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel and Dan W. Corson, <em>Boulder County: An Illustrated History </em>(Carlsbad, CA: Heritage Media, 1999).</p> <p>Jeff Thomas, “Shea: Restaurant, Opera House Not Linked,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, April 25, 1987.</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=LML19211014.2.8&amp;srpos=2&amp;e=-10-1921--10-1921--en-20-LML-1--txt-txIN-dickens-------0-">Verdict Is ‘Not Guilty,’</a>” <em>Longmont Ledger</em>, October 14, 1921.</p> <p>Kim Ziebell, “Remodeling Viewed for Dickens Building,” <em>Longmont Times-Call</em>, June 13, 1978.</p> <div> <div> <div id="_com_1">&nbsp;</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Mabel Downer Durning, <em>The Chicago-Colorado Colony Founding of Longmont </em>(Longmont, CO: Mabel Downer Durning, 1975).</p> <p><a href="https://www.dickenstavern.com/">The Dickens Tavern</a></p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 28 Jun 2017 19:36:30 +0000 yongli 2678 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org