Within 10 years of the Pikes Peak gold rush, the rich Platte Valley was the largest producer of wheat, barley, oats, fruit, vegetables and a fair amount of the meat supply to the booming town of Denver. By that time, the pride of the valley was the Rough and Ready Flour Mill, a local company that sustained the new town of Littleton with jobs and economic growth.
The first to arrive in the Platte Valley was an enterprising young man with a vision. Richard Little, a farmer from Grafton, N.H., and an educated civil engineer, would become the driving force in the founding of the town that now bares his name.
Little, hired by the Capital Hydraulic Company, came west in 1860 to survey for an irrigation ditch along the South Platte River. Surveying along the river south from Denver, Little envisioned the farming possibilities in an area where the river roamed through a low valley. By 1862, Little had made the Platte Valley his home, becoming the first permanent settler when he filed for a homestead claim. He built a log cabin near the South Platte River, just south of where Bowles Avenue and Santa Fe cross today. Here, he brought his wife Angeline to the Colorado Territory and began a farm.
Little realized the advantages of a water powered mill along the Platte River, and sold the idea to the politicos of the territory, including William N. Byers. Forming a sound solution to water shortage that served most of the Front Range, farmers and ranchers soon moved to the rich Platte Valley. They too, saw the advantages of town development, and along with Little, created a community that one day would become a town with streets named in their honor: Spotswood, Bowles, Curtis and Crocker, among the many.
By 1867, with the wide variety of crops grown in the valley, wheat became the main crop with strong demand. Little constructed the Rough and Ready Flour Mill on the Platte River, approximately where the Riverfront Center at Santa Fe and Bowles now stands. The Columbine Mill, closer to the downtown area, was originally built in 1867 as storage facility for the company, and today serves as a restaurant.
It wasn’t long before the mill prospered, hiring employees who needed homes for their families. To fill this need, Little sold plots on his homestead to his employees and the community began to grow. With this economic growth, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad extended their rails south to a depot built east of the river, near where the historic Arapahoe County courthouse is located on Littleton Boulevard.
The pioneers formed a town charter, and in 1872, Richard and Angeline Little filed a plat to sub-divide much of their property into the townsite of Littleton. From the beginning, a community spirit was evident, as citizens came together to build schools, churches and organize to get a library.
The first school, an 1865 one-room log cabin, became the impetus for Littleton’s School District No. 6, one of the finest in the metro area today. This school cabin is now located at Littleton’s Historic Museum. Little donated the land for the town’s first church, St. Paul Episcopal Church on Rapp Street, in 1874. By 1917, after 20 years of lobbying from Mrs. Martha Crocker’s Littleton Woman’s Club and grant applications, Littleton gained a public library, as part of the National Carnegie Foundation. The semi-classical blond brick structure was built at the west end of Littleton’s Main Street. It was a perfect end-cap to a perfect main street in small town America. Today, the building, a state historical landmark, serves as a fine restaurant.
Littleton’s Main Street, lined with thriving small businesses including restaurants, hardware stores, banks, grocery stores, hotels and feed stores, became the heart of the town, which was incorporated in 1890. The busy street had a friendly community atmosphere, lined with street lamps and trees, it was, and is the pride of the town.
Boosting the town’s image and quality of life carried over into the 20th century, and has been a time-honored tradition, not to mention a fine marketing plan as well. In 1890, 200 people made up the small town, while 1900 census records reveal 738 citizens.
“The prosperity and healthfulness of the community is proverbial,” boasted the Littleton Independent in 1901.
An important milestone in Littleton’s history that stimulated growth and prosperity was the reorganization of Arapahoe County in 1902. The original boundaries of the county, dating to the Colorado Territorial Convention of 1861, were divided into Arapahoe, Denver, Adams, Washington and Yuma counties. Gov. James Bradley Orman proclaimed the town of Littleton as the county seat. As such, Littleton businesses prospered, as well as new success in the form of government employment and support services. Littleton’s place among Colorado’s cities was assured. The new Arapahoe County courthouse was soon under construction, and county offices were located in the new stately Town Hall on Main Street.
Today, those historic buildings still line Littleton’s Main Street. A few of the businesses are third and fourth generations. A walk down Main Street is not only a pleasant afternoon of shopping and lunch, but a part of a community, a traditional heritage of past to present. Have a meal in a restaurant housed in a historic building or a restored home, which now houses a teahouse. Take a stroll into a business that once housed the first newspaper or barbershop.
Littleton’s Main Street, a century later, still maintains the historic atmosphere and the charm of small town life, a community that still brings in families today. Take a stroll down Main Street this summer and see if you don’t agree.
