From the Editor: Our Heart

About 40 years ago if you were driving North on Wadsworth just as it crosses Hwy 36 and turns into Hwy 287, you would have seen a sign off to the right standing high over a shopping center. The sign said, "Broomfield Center, Heart of Broomfield."

The sign marked Broomfield's original shopping area which included a strip mall full of local merchants and Broomfield's first grocery – a Safeway store. In the 1960s my grandparents ran two businesses in the area. They managed the Manor Hotel and Restaurant, then at 287 and Midway, and also a paint store in the strip mall. My parents moved here in the early 1970s and began raising their young family. In the early 1980s I remember riding my bike to that shopping center to buy candy at the Broomfield Drug Store and toys at Yellow Front. When the Target store (a space now occupied by At Home) was built in 1994, the original buildings were torn down and with them the sign – but I still see it in my mind every time I head north toward town over the Wadsworth hill. As a child I wondered if other towns also had a “heart.” They might have, but even then I was sure none of them had a heart like Boomfield.

I know there are hundreds of Broomfield families with a similar story of how they ended up here and what they remember about how it used to be. Each story and each memory is part of the very fabric of this community.

I do not believe that there is an intended connection between the Broomfield Community Foundation’s Annual Heart of Broomfield Awards and that sign, but personally I find the symbolism quite nice. To me, the annual recognition of citizens who make Broomfield such a unique and wonderful place to live is a reminder that although the landscape may change, what remains constant is Broomfield’s heart. That singular hometown spirit that makes Broomfield, well Broomfield. Last year I myself was humbled and honored to receive the Heart of Broomfield Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations are now open for 2025 recipients. You can learn all about it and how to recognize a friend or neighbor on page 26.

If this bit of history has piqued your interest in learning more about Broomfield’s early days, you will also want to read about an upcoming Speaker Series that Our Broomfied is presenting with the Crescent Grange. And what is the Crescent Grange? Turn to page 20 to find out about the Broomfield History Series and this important building and its connection to Broomfield’s Beginnings. And then join us March 5 for the first presentation at the Grange!

Happy Valentine’s Day and thanks for reading,

Tina Eichner, Editor & Publisher