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Johnson's Corner
Historic Longmont is partnering
with the Prospect Home Owners Association to apply for a Colorado State
Historical Fund grant to restore and preserve the architectural and
historical features of the Johnson’s Corner
building. Rehabilitation of the structure will provide a
small café, providing a limited menu of snack, fast, and
deli foods and beverages. Seating will be provided indoors at
tables and a dining counter, and outdoors under the restored
fuel-service canopy. The kitchen will also serve concessions
to swimmers at the adjacent pool. This service will be made
through a south-facing window and door from the proposed
kitchen. It is our intention to complete the project with the
following:
• Repair and repaint the
exterior plaster skin
• Re-glaze the existing steel
sash windows
• Provide code-compliant
restroom facilities
• Provide a new commercial
kitchen and dining areas (inside and out)
• Provide a new fire sprinkler
system throughout
  
Built in 1937 by the imaginative and innovative architect Eugene G.
Groves (Colorado State University, AMMONS HALL - 1922 - NATIONAL
REGISTER / Fort Morgan, FARMERS STATE BANK BUILDING – 1930
– NATIONAL REGISTER), [1, 2] the building stands as a unique
relic of the early days of poured, cast and reinforced concrete
construction as well as the Art Deco-Pueblo style that Groves is known
for.
Jack Kerouac (American author, poet and painter – alongside
William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of
the Beat Generation) might have lain down on the front lawn of
Johnson's Corner gas station, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 287
and Ken Pratt Boulevard, later writing about it in his novel On the Road.
[3]
Johnson's Corner is remembered more fondly as a Latino-friendly eatery
in the 1940s and 1950s. While many restaurants and businesses in
Longmont displayed "white trade only" signs in their windows Johnson's
Corner served all races. [4] The building is a Boulder County version
of the Greensboro lunch counter (which is preserved at the Smithsonian
Institution).
In 2002, after 65 years of history, Johnson's Corner was threatened
with demolition due to the expansion of the left-turn lane for Highway
119. [5, 6, 7] The extension of 119 allows drivers to bypass downtown
Longmont. At that time funds were provided both by DRCOG [8]
and Mr. Kiki Wallace to move the building to its current location in
the Prospect New Town community.
After a lengthy legal dispute and expenditure of more than a hundred
thousand dollars for the move to its new location, the structure is now
ready for rehabilitation and reconstruction. It is critical
that this work completed now as additional delay will likely result
loss of the building to continued vandalism and decay due to weather.
The Johnson’s Corner building was designated a local historic
landmark in August 2007. A Certificate of Appropriateness for
the restoration of the existing building and replacement of historic
one story addition was issued by the Longmont Historic Preservation
Commission in May 2008. [9]
References
1. First Annual Thanksgiving Weekend
Campus Architecture Tour, November 2006, http://www.troutsfarm.com/USA/200611/CSUTour/GrovesTour.htm
2. Guide to Colorado Historic Places:
Sites Supported by the Colorado Historical Society's State Historical
Fund, 2007.
3. Paul Verizzo, http://www.pbase.com/pzo/kerouac_gas_station_longmontco
4. Documentation of Johnson’s
Corner South Longmont Station, prepared by Hermsen Consultants and
Fraser Design, April 2000.
5. Boulder Weekly, 2002, http://archive.boulderweekly.com/053002/newsspin.html
6. Boulder Daily Camera, 2002, http://209.215.174.183/news/longmont/24ljohn.html
7. Boulder Daily Camera, 2002, http://www.boulderdailycamera.com/news/talbott/2002/0314ltalb.html
8. DRCOG, Policy Amendments to the
2003-2008 Transportation Improvement Program, TIP# 2003-083, http://www.drcog.org/documents/December_2002_Policy_Amts.pdf
9. City of Longmont records
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