Our Historic Legacy
Longmont has had a rich history from its founding in 1871 Originally an agricultural community, early visionary residents constructed a Sugar Factory in 1903, creating a boom that doubled the town’s size. Many more visionary designs by our leaders gave us public goods from Button Rock Preserve to NextLight.
Longmont’s latest vision of aims to transform the corridor from South Main Street east along the St. Vrain out to the old Sugar Factory into a locus of learning, science, and the arts. We call this STEAM for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.
Longmont's Brilliant Tomorrow
One essential component of the STEAM vision has always been to construct a Center for Arts and Entertainment, where our local artists could find a permanent home, and where national and regional as well as local acts would come to Longmont to enrich our public life and especially the lives of the children growing up here. Many don’t have the means to go to Denver or even Boulder for the kind of life-changing experiences the performing arts provide.
Several sites along the STEAM corridor have been considered since 2018. Last summer, an extraordinary opportunity arose. A consortium of investors have the land around the old factory under contract, and propose to develop a modern town quarter, with the rehabilitated factory itself forming a Town Center with shopping, dining, and entertainment for all of us. They propose that the City choose the old beet pulp shed for the Center for Arts and Entertainment. Please join us in making this opportunity a reality!