Hard-working families on the heels of the early gold-seekers settled Broomfield at the end of the 19th Century. They established the Crescent Grange before 1900 as a sort of town organization to bring the community together, petition for a postal service, and encourage retail activity. Broomfield survived in the early years with a grain elevator, a hotel, a grocery, and a bank mostly supported by farm trade. ~ In the 1950s, developers and city fathers began envisioning, and then building, the state’s first “dream” community. Today, Broomfield’s Economic Development Council, one of the most aggressive and effective in the state, has replaced the old Crescent Grange. Broomfield, which used to be situated in four counties, has become the City and County of Broomfield, one of only two in the State of Colorado. Hundreds of acres have been annexed to the north, west, and east. One of the largest retail areas in the state, Flatirons Mall, now thrives at the west end of Broomfield’s Interlocken Corporate Center and the Jefferson County Airport. ~ Employees of Ball Corporation, Sun Micro Systems, and Level 3 to name a few, have settled in homes ranging from brick ranches in the old Broomfield Heights, that dream community of the 50s, to huge family-sized homes in planned developments, to beautiful custom homes and townhomes in the Broadlands, Broomfield’s new golf course community. It’s possible that the 1999 projection of Broomfield’s growth to 65,000 at build-out may have been a little understated.