The City of Lakewood is a Home Rule Municipality which is the most populous
municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. Lakewood is the
fifth most populous city in the State of Colorado and the 172nd most populous
city in the United States. The city population was 142,980 at the 2010
United States Census. Lakewood is west of Denver and is part of the
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History The urban/suburban development of the
community known as Lakewood was begun in 1889 by Charles Welch and W.A.H.
Loveland, who platted a 13-block area along Colfax Avenue west of Denver in
eastern Jefferson County. Loveland, the former president of the Colorado Central
Railroad, retired to the new community of Lakewood after many years of living
in Golden. Until 1969, the area known as Lakewood
had no municipal government, relying instead on several water districts,
several fire districts, and the government of Jefferson County. Lakewood
was a community with policing provided by the Jefferson County Sheriff, several
volunteer staffed fire districts, and some neighborhoods without street lights
and sidewalks. However, the community had already existed for about 80 years.
The City of Lakewood was incorporated in 1969 as Jefferson City. Soon after, an
election was held and the city's name was changed to Lakewood. This was due to
an overwhelming dislike of "Jefferson City" and the perceived notion it would
be confused with existing communities in Colorado and Missouri. At the time of
incorporation the city population was already over 90,000.
Lakewood never had a traditional downtown area. West Colfax Avenue served
the metropolitan area as U.S. Route 40 and the main route joining Denver with
the Rocky Mountains. As such, Colfax from Harlan west to Kipling and beyond
had mostly commercial establishment. In addition to the Jewish Consumptive
Relief Society for TB patients, the small frame Methodist Church, and
telephone exchange, there emerged by the 1950s grocery and drug stores, gas
stations, restaurants & taverns, several motels, branch banks, a movie theater,
roller rink, bowling alley, and used car lots. Several multi-business "shopping
centers" developed followed by much larger centers at JCRS and Westland. The
Villa Italia Mall on Alameda Boulevard, twenty blocks south of Colfax, reflected
the southward expansion of Lakewood settlement and housed a larger
concentration of retail space. As the mall went into decline, the Lakewood
City Council developed a plan to demolish the Villa Italia Mall and
replace it with a new development called Belmar.
In 2011, Lakewood was named an All-America City for the first time.
Geography Lakewood is located at 39°42′17″N
105°04′53″W at an elevation of 5,518 feet. Located at the junction of U.S.
Route 6 and Colorado State Highway 121 in central Colorado, the city lies
immediately west of Denver and 62 miles north-northwest of Colorado Springs.
Lakewood lies in the Colorado Piedmont on the western edge of the Great Plains
just east of the Front Range of the Southern Rocky Mountains. Green
Mountain, a mesa 6,854 feet tall, is located in the far west-central part of
the city. The city is located in the watershed of
the South Platte River, and several small tributaries of the river flow
generally east through it. From north to south, these include Lakewood Gulch,
Weir Gulch, Sanderson Gulch, and Bear Creek. Two tributaries of Lakewood
Gulch, Dry Gulch and McIntyre Gulch, flow east through the northern part of
the city. Turkey Creek, a tributary of Bear Creek, flows northeast through the
far southwestern part of the city. In addition, Lena Gulch, a tributary of
Clear Creek to the north, flows east then north through the extreme
northwestern part of the city. There are several small lakes and
reservoirs in Lakewood. The Soda Lakes lie in the extreme southwestern part of
the city. East of them lies Bear Creek Lake, a reservoir fed by Bear Creek and
Turkey Creek. Clustered near each other in central Lakewood are Main Reservoir,
East Reservoir, Smith Reservoir, Kendrick Lake, and Cottonwood Lake.
Northeast of them lies Kountze Lake. In the northwestern part of the city, Lena
Gulch both feeds and drains Maple Grove Reservoir. In the extreme southern part
of the city lies Bowles Reservoir No. 1 and, just outside the city limits to the
reservoir's northeast, Marston Lake. According to the United States Census
Bureau, the city has a total area of 44.06 square miles of which 42.88 square
miles is land and 1.18 square miles is water.
As a suburb of Denver, Lakewood is part of both the greater Denver metropolitan
area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. It borders other communities on all
sides including: Wheat Ridge to the north, Edgewater to the northeast,
Denver to the east and southeast, Dakota Ridge to the south, Morrison to the
southwest, and Golden, West Pleasant View, East Pleasant View, and Applewood
to the northwest. = Climate=
Lakewood experiences a semi-arid climate featuring mild and snowy winters and
warm to hot summers, with great temperature differences between day and
night. Precipitation is concentrated in the spring and summer months.
Demographics As of the 2010 census, there were
142,980 people, 61,986 households, and 35,882 families residing in the city.
The population density was 3,334.4 people per square mile. There were
65,758 housing units at an average density of 1,533.5 per square mile. The
racial makeup of the city was 82.9% White, 3.1% Asian, 1.6% African
American, 1.4% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 7.7% from other races,
and 3.3% from two or more races. Hispanics and Latinos of any race were
22.0% of the population. There were 61,986 households out of
which 26.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.1% were
married couples living together, 5.0% had a male householder with no wife
present, 11.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.1% were
non-families. 33.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.2%
had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.27, and the average family size was 2.92.
The distribution of the population by age was 20.8% under the age of 18, 9.6%
from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 28.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.5% who were
65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.2 years. The gender makeup of the
city was 48.9% male and 51.1% female. The median income for a household in the
city was $52,960, and the median income for a family was $66,947. Males had a
median income of $46,907 versus $41,476 for females. The city's per capita
income was $30,027. About 9.1% of families and 11.7% of the population
were below the poverty line, including 20.3% of those under age 18 and 6.1% of
those age 65 or over. Economy
Lakewood's economy is diverse while the largest employers are government.
Companies based in Lakewood include Einstein Bros. Bagels, 1stBank and The
Integer Group. As of 2013, 67.3% of the population over
the age of 16 was in the labor force. 0.1% was in the armed forces, and 67.3%
was in the civilian labor force with 61.1% employed and 6.2% unemployed. The
occupational composition of the employed civilian labor force was: 38.6% in
management, business, science, and arts; 25.9% in sales and office occupations;
16.9% in service occupations; 9.9% in production, transportation, and material
moving; 8.7% in natural resources, construction, and maintenance. The three
industries employing the largest percentages of the working civilian
labor force were: educational services, health care, and social assistance;
professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste
management services; retail trade. The cost of living in Lakewood is above
average; compared to a U.S. average of 100, the cost of living index for the
community is 107.4. As of 2013, the median home value in the city was
$238,500, the median selected monthly owner cost was $1,546 for housing units
with a mortgage and $442 for those without, and the median gross rent was
$940. = Top employers=
According to the City's 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,
the top employers in the city are: Government
Lakewood maintains a council/manager form of government. Citizens elect a
City Council consisting of the Mayor, who is elected at-large, and 10 City
Council members, two from each of the city's five geographical wards. The
mayor and the council members assert the policies for the operation of the city
government. As of 2011, the Mayor is Bob Murphy. The
Council members representing the first ward are Ramey Johnson and Karen Kellen,
Scott Koop and Cindy Baroway represent the second ward, Pete Roybal and Shakti
represent the third ward, David Wiechman and Adam Paul represent the fourth ward,
and the fifth ward is represented by Karen Harrison and Tom Quinn.
Almost the entirety of the City of Lakewood falls into Colorado House
District 26. Lakewood is represented in the state House by Rep. Andy Kerr.
Education Lakewood also houses Lakewood High
School, Green Mountain High School, Bear Creek High School and Alameda
International High School, International Baccalaureate schools in Jefferson
County. Lakewood is also home to Colorado Christian University.
Points of interest Landmarks and historical points of
interest include: The old Villa Italia Mall has been
replaced by Belmar, a new town center with a mix of retail, residential,
cultural, and public space. The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar
was located in Belmar until May 2009, and that location is now occupied by the
Colorado Campus of The Ohio Center for Broadcasting, a private trade school for
the radio and television industry. Belmar has a designated Arts District
that houses a number of artist studios and several gallery spaces, a nonprofit
fine art photography school called Working with Artists.
Casa Bonita, a local Mexican restaurant in Lakewood, where a South Park episode
took place. Lakewood Cultural Center features a
theater, gallery space, and art classrooms.
Lakewood Heritage Center is a museum with several historic buildings and is
located near Kountze Lake, which formerly housed the Belmar Mansion.
Harley-Davidson dealership on Colfax Avenue is housed in what was originally
the Lakewood movie theater dating from the early 1950s.
William Fredrick Hayden Park in the foothills of Green Mountain; the
Colorado National Guard used the north side for artillery practice. The
Department of Defense Military Munitions Response Program has financed
investigations to identify unexploded ordnance there since 2012.
Lakewood has a shopping mall called Colorado Mills which is near I-70 and
Colfax Avenue. Sister cities
Lakewood has four sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities
International: , Chester, Cheshire, United Kingdom
, Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom, also a Friendship City
Stade, Germany Sutherland Shire, Sydney, New South
Wales, Australia See also
Outline of Colorado Index of Colorado-related articles
State of Colorado Colorado cities and towns
Colorado municipalities Colorado counties
Jefferson County, Colorado Jefferson County R-1 School District
Colorado metropolitan areas Front Range Urban Corridor
North Central Colorado Urban Area Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO Combined
Statistical Area Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO
Metropolitan Statistical Area References
External links City of Lakewood website
CDOT map of the City of Lakewood Macaroni Kid ~ Local event and activity
listing for the Lakewood area Lakewood Heritage Center
[2] Belmar
Find Houses for Sale in Lakewood Co