12/29/2025
Honoring our Heritage: Broomfield Heights: The City by the Turnpike
Old Broomfield had always been a small community and had never been incorporated. While it had played a prominent role as a crossroads and transportation hub, at the time the Denver-Boulder Turnpike was built it still only boasted about 200 residents. When the Turnpike opened in 1952, the Turnpike Land Company purchased the old Zang property which made up the EImwood Stock Farm. They soon announced their plans to transform the old farm into what they dubbed a "City by the Turnpike."
Touted by news commentators as a "dream city," the Rocky Mountain News reported that it would be one of only three cities in the country that could claim membership in the garbage elite. This was because of the plan that every new home would include a built-in garbage disposal. Called Broomfield Heights, it was advertised as country living with all the modern conveniences. Each home would feature a garbage disposal, a washer, a dryer, and a dishwasher.
Developers laid out their dream city north of the Turnpike and east of the old Cherokee Trail - otherwise known as Highway 287. It sat on rolling hills with a lovely view of the mountains. Eighteen model homes were completed and opened for viewing in 1955, and over 25,000 people showed up to see what Broomfield Heights was all about. From that time on the new city was well-planned and thought out and continued to develop. Today, it has grown well beyond Zang's original 4,000 acres. Governed by a revised Master Plan that called for it to build out to be a city of 65,000, it has now surpassed that number by over 10,000.
Still, it remained unincorporated. However, in the late 1990s, Broomfield made history. The only thing about Broomfield that had not been well thought out was that the city lay in portions of four different counties which caused issues with school systems, law and fire jurisdictions, as well as taxes. Residents sought relief by putting forth a constitutional amendment to create a city and county of Broomfield. It passed on November 3, 1998, giving the city a three-year transition period to organize. On November 15, 2001, Broomfield became the newest county and city in the State of Colorado. This city and county, with a history that traces back well over a century, also holds the odd distinction of being the youngest city and county in the United States.
