return to Forgotten Past
COGenWeb Project
Adams County
© 2001 by Leona L. Gustafson
FORGOTTEN PAST OF ADAMS COUNTY, VOL. I
Thornton is located approximately seven miles directly north of Denver, Colorado. It is one of the larger suburbs of Denver, located in Adams County. According to the map issued by the State of Colorado. Thornton has an elevation of approximately 5,300 feet above sea level. The land around Thornton is compiled of flat, rolling hills. The land north of Denver, Colorado, was owned by farmers. The Eppinger and McElwain families owned a lot of this land. After World War II, many veterans moved into the Denver area. In 1953, a man, named Sam Hoffman, under the direction of Mike Dichter, bought land from the Eppinger and McElwain families. Then Hoffman and his F & S Construction Company began to build several homes in this area. Over 300 homes were sold in a matter of weeks. This was the start of a community north of Denver. Sam Hoffman chose the name of the new community. He chose the name of Thornton after State Governor Dan Thornton. The community of Thornton began to grow rapidly. Why not? It gave people a chance to buy well built houses at a decent price and also to get away from the taxes of the big city. As the community grew, the Thornton Community Association (TCA) was formed in the first part of 1954. The Association was formed by a few good men and women who were interested in the growth and development of Thornton. Early in 1954, the TCA had the streets of Thornton laid. These streets were named after important people of the community. For example: "Hoffman Way," Russell Boulevard, the curviest road in Thornton, was named after the "curvy" actress Jane Russell who was Hoffman's daughter-in-law, and "Eppinger Boulevard." In 1955, the Association bought and put up about 4,000 street lights in Thornton. It also set up the first police firemen to sign up were: Ken Freiberg, Carl Nelson, Al Weltman, Wilber Biggs, Richard Hicks, Harry Salzman, Rudy Salazar, Ken Alles, Douglas Stevens, and Vance Utterback. Mike Dichter bought the first fire truck for the department. In just a short time, this team of firemen became one of the best in the state. In a contest their first year, they took three places. This had never been done before by a first year fire department. In 1976, Thornton has a thirty-eight man fire department and they are still very good. By the end of 1955, there were an estimated 5,500 people and over 1,200 homes in the Thornton community. This was quite a few considering that the project only started two years before. The citizens of Thornton had to have water and a Utilities System. Little did they know that the Denver Water Board would refuse to service the community with an option to buy the system at a later date. At first, there was one well located at 91st and Clarkson Street. This well served every home in the community, but as the community grew the utilities system grew and visa versa. It greatly influenced the growth of Thornton by who it would serve and the income it was bringing, but the system also had some problems. Thornton continued to grow and develop through 1955. The TCA began to "fight" to incorporate Thornton as a city. On May 26, 1956, their dream came true; Thornton was incorporated into a city. The citizens strongly approved of their new city. The new city had a lot of work ahead of it. It had to continue to grow and develop, create jobs for people of the new city, attract new businesses, and start a city government. The members of the first Thornton Government were sworn in on August 25, 1956, at the Eppinger School house (Thornton Elementary, as it is now known). The first City Hall was an old quonset hut which was to be shared with the fire department; then, the city elected a mayor. They selected a man by the name of Oyer G. Leary, who served from 1956 until 1960. That is the longest a mayor of Thornton has served. The other mayors of Thornton are listed below:
In the chart below is a list of salaries of City Officials for the City of Thornton in the year of 1958.
The Thornton City council made a Charter, (a set of rules and boundaries), for the new city. They were always looking forward and planning for the future. Under the guidance of these people, the City of Thornton became prosperous and continued to grow at an amazing rate. By 1957, there were an estimated 10,350 people living in the city of Thornton. This growth brought about many changes. An independent newspaper was started. It was called "The Thunder." Today, the "Sentinel" is a reasonable facsimile of the Thunder. The Thornton City Park and the Thornton Public Swimming Pool, located in the city park, was also begun in 1957. Today the city park provides a great source of recreation for the residents. Thornton also had a taxi service at this time. The service consisted of one taxi which was a Volkswagon Bus that could hold ten passengers. A trash department for the citizens was also formed. The Council also made the plans to enlarge the City of Thornton. The Council split Thornton into two districts, a residential and a commercial district. They also planned a new City Hall which would cost $144,000. The first Post Office also came to Thornton in 1958. So as you can see the City was quickly becoming a booming suburb of Denver. The City continued to grow through the 1960s. In the early 1960s, Valley View Hospital was built, because there was a big need for some kind of medical care in the area. At first, the hospital had 250 beds, but later, it was enlarged to accommodate 950 beds because of the fast growing population of Thornton. Today, Saint Anthony's North Hospital stands just outside the city limits of Thornton. This hospital helps take some of the load off of Valley View Hospital. It also has the modern convenience of a helicopter ambulance. The Thornton Shopping Center was also built in the mid-1960s. The Center is located at the corner of Washington Street and 88th Avenue. There were many stores in the Center including a "Safeway" and a "Millers." The shopping Center was the first major source of income for the City of Thornton. It was in 1963 that the Utilities System had its problems. That year the City of Thornton decided to exercise its option to buy the Utilities System from Northwest Utilities Company. At this time, the System was providing about 30,000 people, both inside and outside the city of Thornton, with water. The city sold a total of $7,870,000 in bonds in order to purchase the utility. Now the system is under the direct control of the City of Thornton. The problem was that about sixty percent of the customers lived outside of the City of Thornton. These customers, especially Northglenn residents, had to contract with Thornton Utilities because Northglenn made no provisions for contracting with another company for utilities. The contract, which runs until 1988, guaranteed that users outside the city limits of Thornton were to agree to contract only with Thornton for the duration of the contract. The Northglenn residents claimed the contract was "too long," but being out-of-city residents, the people had no official representation in the administration of the system. For this reason the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) questioned the validity of the sale by Northwest Utilities Company. In 1964, the PUC took the problem to the Colorado Supreme Court. The PUC claimed that it should have jurisdiction over the system in order to protect buyers outside the city. The Colorado Supreme Court declared that the sale of the system from Northwest to Thornton was invalid because outside customers had no representation in its management, so the PUC took jurisdiction of the system. Less than a year later, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed its earlier PUC ruling, declaring that the PUC had exceeded its jurisdictional powers and had no right to interfere with matters of municipal improvements. The City of Thornton regained control of the Utilities System. Immediately after the ruling, Thornton moved forward in developing its system. In 1965, the biggest expansion occured. $1,300,000 was spent on items such as storage tanks, water mains, new wells and a utilities department in the new city hail. At present approximately 80,000 people are being served by the Thornton Utilities System. Only about one third of these people reside within the city limits of Thornton. The system is providing better service for out-of-city residents, and it is continually being expanded to provide service for the future. By the year 2000, it is estimated that Thornton will have approximately 200,000 utility customers. The City of Thornton continued to grow and develop through the early part of the 1970's. The population to the city still grew In leaps and bounds. This created more housing projects and provides more income for the city. The following figures show the population for the City of Thornton in the 1970s.
In February, 1971, Thornton made four annexations totaling 925 acres. The old North Valley State Bank announced new plans for building a bigger and better bank near it's old site. In April, the YMCA opened a branch in Adams County. This was the first real recreational building for the youth of Adams County. A few years later, Thornton spent $870,000 to have a full-scale recreational center and library combination built. Construction was started on a new "Target" store in August, 1971. The store is located on Washington Street just south of 104th Avenue. This was a convenience for Thornton and Northglenn shoppers. In October of 1971, a $1,127,100 budget was approved for Thornton. Many new stores were being built in Thornton. These stores made average retail sales worth approximately $100 million. Thornton had a steady rate of growth during 1972 and 1973. The North Valley Shopping Center was also built during those years. North Valley is located at the corner of 84th Avenue and Washington Street in the southwestern corner of Thornton. Thornton's third fire station opened towards the end of 1974. The station was converted from a ranch style home. The new station is located on 112th Avenue and Birch. The fire department's second station was located on 92nd Avenue and Huron, which was quite an improvement over the old quonset hut. Today Thornton is a well established city. There is a total of 17.6 square miles of land within its city limits. Over 30,000 people live within these limits. Many buisnesses and shopping centers are in the city also. In 1976, Thornton was assessed at fifty-two million dollars. The average price of a home in Thornton today is $30,000. In 1975, the City Council decided to build a new and third City Hall of Thornton. The City Hall cost $723,000 to build. It was built at the site of the former North Valley State Bank. On January 11, 1976, the new hall was oficially opened. The old City Hall was remodeled and turned into the Public Safety Department building. It is the opinion of Mike Dichter that the City of Thornton has a great future ahead of It. He feels that it will only be a matter of time before the cities of Thornton and Northglenn will merge into one city. The two cities are wasting money by duplicating services and there also isn't much land left in the area. Mike Dichter also feels that Thornton will eventually become a big industrial area because of the large labor pool in the city. That Is Thornton, a city of the past, the present, and the future. Acknowledgments Jim Perry Tom Clonsen Mike Dichter John L. Kane References Forward Thornton "The City Chatter Report on Thornton Utilities Articles on the City of Thornton Thornton City Charter" |