“To my knowledge, none of the factories have been preserved.” “Sugar companies were a huge part of Colorado’s economy,” Mason said. When asked if anyone has died inside the factory, Chamberlin said, “not that I’m aware of.”ĭespite its decaying status, Mason said it would be a loss to see the buildings disappear altogether. Everything is so structurally unstable that emergency responders, in 2010, decided they won’t go inside, unless there’s a life-threatening situation. A quick Google search of the factory shows images of collapsed walls that have sent bricks cascading in haphazard piles. He saw gaping holes in the floor and broken-down stairs. Jim Chamberlin, who has helped to patrol the area, said he hasn’t been inside the factory but once peered into the buildings. The image of a bustling factory is a stark contrast to its presence today. The broken down condition of the old Western Sugar Factory site outside Longmont on March 18, 2020.(Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer) It also produced other commodities such as animal feed made of beet pulp.
Mason said that the sugar factory produced mostly granulated sugar, through a process in which the beets were sliced and run through a chemical bath to extract the sugar.
Longmont began to grow.”Īlthough the facility is located on Sugar Mill Road, Mason said it is referred to as a factory, not a mill. “The factory cost about $1 million to build, which was significant at that time. “When it came in 1903, you see a pretty significant economic boom happening in Longmont,” Mason said. Putting an exact number on those employed through sugar factory is difficult to do, because it included farmers and field workers who planted and harvested the beets, Mason said. He estimated that hundreds worked for the factory during its peak season, from roughly September to February. The factory’s presence is credited for nearly doubling Longmont’s population from 2,000 to more than 4,000 when it opened in 1903, Mason said. Producing more than a million pounds of sugar every day, during the three to four months it processed beets after harvest, the Great Western Sugar Company, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based American Sugar Company, was the city’s top employer for most of factory’s 74-year lifespan, according to Erik Mason, curator of history at the Longmont Museum. There was a time when the factory at 11939 Sugar Mill Road was a hub of economic activity. (Photo by Charles Boynton, courtesy Longmont Museum) The Great Western Sugar Factory outside of Longmont is pictured around 1905. Others, however, contend that it’s time to knock the old facility to the ground. Thomas said he hopes the storied factory can be preserved. While Thomas said there are “no specific plans” to re-purpose the buildings in the near future, there has been interest from developers. Thomas said he liked the factory’s brick architecture and its ties to Longmont history. It includes 11 buildings on roughly 40 acres of property, according to county records.
Thomas said he bought it for roughly $1.7 million. Not long after the factory shuttered in 1977, self-employed broker Dick Thomas of Denver bought the property from Great Western Sugar Company in 1980 under the name Clean Energy LLC. 119 - are a serious hazard to those who enter, with holes in floors and the numerous air-born health concerns from asbestos to small-animal feces. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office warns that the decrepit buildings - visible from the well-traveled Colo. As the property sits, it has continued to draw the interest of those who grew up hearing tales of what it was like to explore the unlit twists and turns of the once-prosperous 110,000-square-foot factory, left dank and crumbling. For the past 120 years, the towering smokestack, cluster of brick buildings, and large metal shed have been part of the local skyline. It’s a question that has plagued the sugar factory, just east of Longmont.
0 kommentar(er)
