EASTLAKE, COLORADO
Eastlake is a little town located about three miles northeast of Northglenn's City Hall.
One hundred years ago, however, there was no Eastlake, Northglenn, or Thornton, just bare, desolate land used by the Indians. Near the intersection of 144th and Colorado Boulevard lies "Eastlake Hill," the highest point in Adams County. Eastlake Hill was used by the
Indians as a lookout. On a clear day they could see two-hundred square miles of the surrounding area.
During the winter of 1863-64, the Colorado State Militia called a caucus with the Indians in an area
which was known as the "dishbowl." Today the "dishbowl is the football field at Meritt Hutton Junior High School in Thornton. The Indians disagreed with the State concerning the land, which was owned by the State and Federal Governments. The land was just desolate and unused.
One of the first homesteaders, in this area, was Judge Henry Tull. He owned the King and Willy Ranch. The boundries ran from Washington two miles to Colorado Boulevard and from 136th to 120th Streets. Later, in 1890, he sold this land to Andrew Patten, the founder of Westlake. Patten tried to make Westlake a boomtown but failed because it had no railroad. So he tried again and made a town with what is now known as Eastlake. In 1901, he obtained the township rights from the State.
Patten and a few business friends founded the Eastlake Land Development Company and the Eastlake Water Company. Andrew Patten wanted to name his new town Quimby, but the State would not let him because Quimby was already a town. Patten then decided to do the same thing he did when naming Westlake--name it after the lake and so it was named after the lake east of town.
Along about this time, the coal towns around northern
Colorado were really booming and the Union Pacific Railroad decided they would need a line through this area. They had done everything they needed to do and were ready to start laying tracks, except the problem of locating the tracks around the existing town. So they went to Patten and he made them a deal. The Union Pacific would lay out the town, that is survey, grade the street, mark the curbs, etc. He would then give them the "right-of-way" through his land. ThThe Unionacific agreed, but they were sly devils. They knew that the horseless carriage was coming so, if they were to lay out the town west of the tracks, it would expand west and 11 the cocommerceho shipped out would be using the country road with their wagons, carts, and cars; but, if the tracks were laid east of the town, the town couldn't go any further than the tracks, so shippers would use the railroad for their shipping. This is the reason why Eastlake is the only town in the State of Colorado to be built off the county highway.
After the railroad was built, people started coming in and homesteading. In 1910, one of the first businesses was started by Mr. Sniddle. It was originally known as "Eastlake Grain Elevator." Later it was bought out by a syndicate known as "The Denver Elevators." The oldest house in Eastlake is the Sniddle House.
Around the same time, a man, named Hopkins, arrived in Eastlake from Denver. He started Hopkins Lumber and Hopkin's Mercantile, which is now the vacant lot next to the barber shop.
Dr. Elmore was the first and only doctor in Eastlake. He took care of anything that moved and breathed. He had a two story building that had his waiting room on the first floor and his office on the second floor. Dr. Elmore also took care of the Post Office and the Drugstore across the street.
On the corner of Second Avenue and Main Street there is a manhole. This used to be Eastlake's community well. It was an arartisanell, owned by Dr. Elmore, who bottled it and sold it to people who did not have
good drinking water. People used to say that Dr. Elmore's water would cure almost anything.
Dr. Elmore had two children. One a lovely girl. Babe, was known as the "Belle Of Eastlake."
She is now Mrs. Howard Sniddle. Dr. Elmore practiced until 1947, and died soon after.
On the east side of town is one of the town's two churches; the youngest one, Eastlake Catholic Church, was built in 1916. It is now a Masonic Temple. The oldest church is the Eastlake Congregational Church which was built in the years 1910-1911.
The First National Bank of Eastlake opened in 1910, but failed during the Crash of 1929.
Eastlake was mostly a wheat farming community, but long before that the big crop was sugar beets. There was a sugar beet dump a little north of the grain elevator.
The Union Pacific was running four passenger trains daily, two in the morning and two in the evening.
They went from Denver to Fort Collins. Next door to what was the Mercantile were the original Eastlake Food Lockers. Where the Food lockers are now was where the Poolhall-Dancehall was located. It was built in 1910. When it first opened, the poolhall was up stairs and the dancehall was downstairs. This arrangement was reversed around 1918.
The community outhouse was located in back of the poolhall building until 1925 or 1926.
School in Eastlake presented a problem. The children did have a choice. They could go to the Cinderblock School which was located at Colorado Boulevard & 120th; Webster School at Washington & 112th; Number 64 at 144th; or to the school at Holly Street & 100th. The
pupils complained that they didn't want to walk so far to go to school. Their parents didn't want to see them walk that far either, so they started a movable school.
One never knew where it would be. One day it would be in the back room of Hopkins Lumberyard, the next day it would be in the back room of the drugstore, but, usually, it was held in the basement of the Congregational Church. Finally in 1916, Eastlake School was bui1t.
In 1917, there was a teacher's strike. All four or five of them!Patten was a nice fellow and paid them until the State paid them their back wages. Eastlake is now the oldest school building in District Number 12.
Great Happenings
The first National bank of Eastlake was robbed in 1921. Thirteen thousand dollars was taken. The bank robbers were two young men and one young woman. All three worked on the King and Willy Ranch. They had gone in to deposit their weekly paychecks, but they wanted more money. Before they left the bank, the robbers locked their two hostages, Miss Cathguard, bank teller, and Ed Whitter, bank guard, in the vault. A by-stander witnessed the robbery and called the sheriff.
Meanwhile, other townspeople caught on to what was happening and started on a chase. The girl was caught trying to hide in the wheat fields. One of the fellows was caught north of town and the other one had an accomplice waiting in a car at the King and Willy Ranch. The head woman at the King and Willy Ranch, known as Grandma, saw them and held them at gun point with a sawed off, twelve-gauge shotgun until the sheriff came and took them away.
Back at the bank there was a problem concerning the two hostages In the vault. The combination to the vault was nowhere to be found and nobody beside the teller, Miss Cathguard, and the First National Bank of Denver. who had a subinterest in the bank, had the combination. Some people had to go and flag down the train, tell the engineer what was happening so he could get help. He zoomed all the way to Denver. They ran and got a cab to take them uptown to where the bank was, but the doors were locked! So there they were, pounding on the doors saying "Let us in,"
when along came a policeman. As the story goes, he wanted to pick them up for making a disturbance, but they explained what had happened and he didn't take them in. In the meantime, some one had found the combination on the back of a scrap of paper and the hostages were released.
In 1926 there was a fire. As the story goes, the man who owned the poolhall was going broke and had a large amount of Insurance on the place. Everyone just figured he set the fire to cocollect theoney. He was taken to court but the State found him not guilty. On the night of the fire, there was a dance, and the poolhall caught fire. The Eastlake Volunteer Fire Department came running to put out the fire. The fire went on to spread to the Food Lockers, to Dr. Elmore's
place, then on to the Mercantile Building. The only bhilding that was spared on that side of the block was Hopkins Lumber. People figured if that building would have caught fire, the whole town would have gone.
Most of the land around Eastlake is slowly becoming housing developments. Thornton has annexed most of the land surrounding Eastlake and part of Eastlake, but the name will always be Eastlake, because when Andrew and his friends set up the Eastlake Land Development Company, they put in a law stipulating that "whoever gets the Eastlake land in the future, the name Eastlake will always stay." This is a law registered in the State House.
Acknowledgements
Phil Bruchez
Mr. Sayre
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