Early Lakewood

Since Lakewood's settlement in the 1860s, it has been a community in search of an identity, fluctuating from farm center to factory town, from Denver streetcar suburb to the map's stopover point between the big city and the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Once known for its fruit orchards and dairy and poultry farms, Lakewood in modern times has been home to the western third of the nation's longest commercial street, Colfax Avenue, and houses more federal agencies than any community ou...