From Trolley to Light Rail

Eiber, Past, Present, and Future

By Tom Slabe and Carrie Sonneborn

Legions of early adventurers and settlers, including fur trappers, miners, rail men, cattlemen, and timber workers, passed through the Denver region in search of riches in the nearby mountains and plains. They needed the agricultural products originating in Eiber and were a market for the local farmers.

Today, it is hard to imagine that the area that is now Eiber Neighborhood was once a farming community. Suburbs have overtaken the farmland, replaced by manicured bluegrass lawns, asphalt and concrete roads and parking lots, homes, and buildings. The orchards, livestock, and agricultural cropland have faded with the passage of time. Still, modern residents can see the vestiges of our agricultural heritage in the irrigation ditches, remnant fruit trees, historic landmarks, and even in the zoning ordinances that allow for horses, chickens, bees, and other livestock. These are just a few of the things that make our neighborhood unique.

People tend to reminisce about this early history and lament its passing. But, today we enjoy a quality of life that would have been unimaginable to those who originally cultivated the area. Those nostalgic times were in fact often difficult, dangerous, and lonely as compared to today. One hundred years ago people accepted their lack of mobility, medical care, utilities, and the isolation. Today we expect much more and Eiber is fully meeting the demands of today and the future is bright.

Now the Eiber Neighborhood is undergoing a sort of transformation, with developments that will set the stage for a promising future that builds upon Eiber Neighborhood’s rich heritage. For example, the RTD light rail system – which includes three transit stations in Eiber Neighborhood – connects residents to downtown Denver, Golden, the Federal Center, St Anthony’s Hospital, and other transit lines. Residents of Eiber are able to commute car-free as they wish, making this neighborhood an attractive residential area with easy access to essentially the entire region. The current light rail development actually follows the same route of the Denver and InterMountain Railroad, which ran between Golden and Denver, and served the area in the early 1900s. The current FasTracks developments utilize the old line that paralleled 13th Avenue. Now pockets along this corridor are slated for a new and different kind of change.

For example, Weston Solutions, Inc., a prestigious environmental and urban development firm, has chosen to build its regional headquarters in Eiber Neighborhood near what will be the Garrison Street Station. Weston is building a mixed-use development consisting of high-performance “green” buildings on the SW corner of Colfax Avenue and Garrison Street. This is the first mixed-use development (i.e., with cafes, restaurants, retail shops, and office space) along the west corridor of the light rail system. Each of the three future light rail stations in Eiber are likely to attract more mixed-use development where residents can shop and socialize near where they work and live.

The regional bike trail along 13th Avenue is undergoing enhancements, including bridges over major roads and a paved bike trail sections. This segment of the region-wide bike trail system will link local neighborhoods to one another and encourage bike riding.

The Wadsworth Boulevard Station has been dubbed the “Gateway Station to The City of Lakewood” and will be an innovative structure – actually suspended on a platform above Wadsworth Boulevard – that will be coupled to a modern parking structure with plazas, where individuals will be able to sell their wares and residents can purchase art and produce from local artists and farmers. Areas around the core of Wadsworth Boulevard and Oak Street Stations are rezoned as transit mixed-use, or TMU, which permits compact housing, office, retail, and entertainment venues that give rise to vibrant mixed-use urban villages. Such high-density mixed-use developments are known to appeal especially to young adults.

Historically, this region has thrived and with the major investment slated for the West Corridor and the anticipated transit-oriented developments, there is great promise for the future. Our Eiber Neighborhood community has a rich and proud history that is always in the making, as much today as at any other time.

History of Rail in Eiber

• Denver Lakewood and Golden RR 1891 – 1896 (steam freight and passenger, Denver to Golden)

• Denver and Intermountain RR 1904 - 1939 (electric trolley, steam freight)

• D&IMRR with Associated RR 1941 - 1953 (diesel freight to Remington Arms (Federal Center))

• Electric passenger rail ceased in 1950

• Associated RR 1953 - 1988 (diesel freight to Federal Center)

• RTD 2013 (electric passenger light rail, Denver to Golden)

A Historic Journey

Agriculture was Lakewood’s economic base at the end of the 19th century.  However, the collection of ranches and farms was not completely isolated from the growing city to the east and the immovable mountains to the west.  Horses and stagecoaches brought Lakewood’s first settlers and remained an important aspect of farm living for many years thereafter, but the railroad was the next step in the evolution of transportation.  The locomotive made it possible for one of the community’s founding fathers, William A.H. Loveland, to achieve his ambition to plat a community where his Denver, Lakewood & Golden Railway (DL&G) could stop and take on passengers. 

The January 2, 1892, issue of the Rocky Mountain News described the DL&G as “a humble affair” with 15 miles of track and eight stations. A century after Loveland platted Lakewood, Associated Railways abandoned its route to the Denver Federal Center. As a result, Lakewood was the first city in the late-20th-century America to lose its rail service despite having more than 100,000 citizens.

Few mourned the loss of freight traffic in Lakewood by the end of the 20th century, but there were still many residents who fondly recalled the Denver & Intermountain Railroad (D&IM). The D&IM trolleys carried Lakewood’s residents from downtown Denver out to Golden for nearly five decades. The DD&IM made the rural community of Lakewood seem a little more sophisticated. As the automobile reshaped Lakewood and the nation, it was no longer important to remember a timetable for trains and trolleys. As gravel roads expanded into four-lane highways, segments of the D&IM track rusted from abandonment and exposure.

The D&IM 84 trolley made stops at Pierce and West Thirteenth Avenue. Route maps identified stations by locally familiar names or landmarks such as Devinny Station (Wadsworth Boulevard) and Beehive (Kipling Street). According to a timetable from the 1920’s, the 84 trolley ran from downtown Denver’s interurban loop to its terminus at West Thirteenth Street and Washington Avenue in Golden in 38 minutes.

The station at West Thirteenth Avenue and Garrison Street was known as Smiths station. The Smiths stop was named after an early ranching family, and Garrison Street was originally called Smith Road. The D&IM also ran a freight service, and many local sugar beet growers would ship from Smiths station to sugar beet refineries outside of Denver. During the years when most of Lakewood’s residents made their living off the land, there was a sugar beet dump adjacent to the tracks. Not all stops along the 84 trolley route could boast covered stations. The Smiths had a lot of traffic because there was a modest structure protecting waiting passengers from the elements.

The trolley’s linear rails have carried Lakewood back full circle. In 2013, Denver’s Regional Transportation District launched a new light rail route that closely follows the D&IM original alignment.

Information gathered from the internet and Images of American, Early Lakewood by Robert and Kristen Autobee with Lakewood’s Heritage Center.