Lakewood, Colorado - Wikipedia

The urban and suburban development of the community known as Lakewood was started 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.[citation needed] The Lakewood, Colorado, post office opened on April 21, 1892, although much of the future city was served by the Denver, Colorado, post office.[11]

The City of Lakewood was incorporated on June 24, 1969, as Jefferson City.[1] Soon after, an election was held and the city's name was changed to Lakewood, due to an overwhelming dislike of "Jefferson City" and the belief that it would be confused with existing communities in Colorado and Missouri.[12] At the time of incorporation, the city population was already over 90,000.[12] Before incorporation, Lakewood had no municipal government, relying instead on several water districts, several fire districts, several volunteer-staffed fire districts, and the government of Jefferson County, including the Jefferson County Sheriff. Additionally, some neighborhoods lacked street lights and sidewalks.[citation needed]

Lakewood never had a traditional downtown area.[13] West Colfax Avenue served the metropolitan area as U.S. Route 40 and the main route joining Denver with the Rocky Mountains. [citation needed] As such, Colfax from Harlan west to Kipling and beyond had mostly commercial establishments. In addition to the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) for tuberculosis patients, the small, frame Methodist Church, and telephone exchange, by the 1950s grocery and drug stores, gas stations, restaurants and taverns, several motels, branch banks, a movie theater, a roller rink, a bowling alley, and used car lots emerged there. Several multiple-business "shopping centers" developed followed by much larger centers at JCRS and Westland. The Villa Italia Mall on West Alameda Avenue, 20 blocks south of Colfax, reflected the southward expansion of the 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.[14]

In 2011, Lakewood was named an All-America City for the first time.

December 2021 rampage

edit Main article: 2021 Denver and Lakewood shootings

On December 27, 2021, a Denver gunman killed three Denver residents and two Lakewood residents before being killed by seriously wounded Lakewood Police Agent Ashley Ferris.[15]