May 21, 2015
CONGRATULATIONS Class of
VOLUM E 126 | IS S UE 43 | 75¢
2015
SPECIAL TRIBUTE INSIDE LittletonIndependent.net
A R A P A H O E C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
A publication of
WHAT’S INSIDE
Addressing change no simple story
Paying tribute: Memorial Day events planned for Littleton, Fort Logan. See Page 8
Artists assemble: Peg Meagher and rita derjue team up for watercolor show. See Page 13
Home stretch: Check out results from the Colorado Track and Field Championships. See Page 25
Chuck Bennett checks his mail at his family’s longtime home on Gallup Street, which ended up being numbered out of order after the city changed many addresses in town in 1961, to more closely align with the Denver grid. Photos by Jennifer Smith
Rapid growth led city to overhaul street names, house numbers POSTAL ADDRESS
LITTLETON INDEPENDENT
(ISSN 1058-7837) (USPS 315-780) OFFICE: 7315 S. Revere Pkwy., Ste. 603 Centennial, CO 80112 PHONE: 303-566-4100 A legal newspaper of general circulation in Littleton, Colorado, the Littleton Independent is published weekly on Thursday by Colorado Community Media, 9137 S. Ridgeline Blvd., Suite 210, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT LITTLETON, COLORADO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address change to: 7315 S. Revere Pkwy., Ste. 603 Centennial, CO 80112 DEADLINES: Display: Fri. 11 a.m. Legals: Fri. 11 a.m. Classifieds: Mon. 5 p.m.
PL E ASE RECYCLE T HI S C OPY
By Jennifer Smith
jsmith@colorado communitymedia.com When Sue Rosser grew curious about the history of TLC Meals on Wheels, she didn’t know she was charting a course down the long and winding roads of Littleton. TLC — short for Town of Littleton Cares — was in the midst of celebrating what was believed to be its 50th anniversary; the longaccepted story was that a Littleton resident named Virginia Baker started the program out of her kitchen in 1965. A request from a reporter to find Baker or someone else who was around in the beginning spurred Rosser, a TLC board member, to do some research. It turns out Baker left Littleton in 1982 at the age of 67, and she died in 1994. It also turns out that she probably started cooking free meals for seniors after 1965, with a best guess of 1968. Rosser’s search also turned up the address of Baker’s historic downtown Littleton home, 249 Harrison, which Baker inherited from her parents. And that’s where this story really begins.
‘Keeper of the cards’
When Baker’s Harrison address proved to be nonexistent, Rosser ended up in the office of Roger Peterson. He’s the “map guy” for the city, and also the “keeper of the cards.” The cards are hundreds of decades-old index cards, meticulously typed by now-unknown hands. There are two sets. One allows Peterson to look up a current address to find out what the old one was; the other, vice versa.
Somebody realized it might be important someday to have a record of the pre-1961 addresses, and typed up hundreds of index cards to record them for posterity. It shows that Baker’s revised address is 5555 S. Sycamore St. “It’s useful for people who call us up trying to track down relatives who used to live in the city and all they have is the old address, but they’d like to go by and see where their grandparents or great-grandparents lived,” Peterson said. As far as Peterson knows, the card catalog is the only record in existence of Littleton’s numbering system before the big change. At first, it was just a few streets here and there. Broadway became Littleton Broadway to differentiate it from the road that is Broadway today. In 1952, it was changed again to Littleton Boulevard. “As an isolated farm town, Littleton had independently named its streets,” writes Diane Wray Tomasso in the “Historic Context of Littleton, Colorado 1949-1967.”
‘Growing pains’ But by 1958, it was evident that Littleton was no longer a sleepy little farm town. In 1956, Martin Company, now Lockheed Martin, built its facility in Waterton Canyon. That, along with the arrival of Marathon Oil Company the year before, changed the face of quaint little Littleton forever. Hundreds of well-educated, middle-class employees descended on what was primarily a rural town. With growth spilling southward from Denver and with Littleton beginning to bust at the seams, the Denver metro region was born. Regionalization was an idea in its infancy, but Littleton was in from the beginning. “Growing pains throughout the region brought officials of Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties together in February 1955 to discuss their Streets continues on Page 4
A SAMPLING OF THE CHANGES • The original home of town founder Richard Little was originally 221 Rapp Avenue; today it is 5797 S. Rapp St. • Court Place was originally Santa Fe Avenue • Windermere Street was Blaine • Lincoln, Sherman, Grant and Logan streets were west of Broadway; in Denver, they’ve always been east of Broadway as they are now in Littleton. • Curtice Street was Curtis Street • Bowles Avenue was County Road • The Littleton Courthouse, built in 1907, was 472 Littleton Broadway; now it’s 2069 W. Littleton Blvd.