Lakewood

Sister cities

• Chester

History

The Lakewood region was historically inhabited by the Ute people. 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. The Lakewood, Colorado, post office opened on April 21, 1892, although much of the future city was served by the Denver, Colorado, post office. The City of Lakewood was incorporated on June 24, 1969, as Jefferson City. At the time of incorporation, the city population was already over 90,000. 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 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. In 2011, Lakewood was named an All-America City for the…

Geography

Lakewood is 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 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, , is located in the far west-central part of the city. 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. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Lakewood has a cold semi-arid climate, abbreviated Bsk on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Astravo Online Academy High School
  High · LAKEWOOD · 2,134 students · 52:1 ratio
• Lakewood High School
  High · LAKEWOOD · 1,885 students · 18.9:1 ratio
• Arvada West High School
  High · ARVADA · 1,840 students · 20.4:1 ratio
• Chatfield High School
  High · LITTLETON · 1,784 students · 19.8:1 ratio
• Columbine High School
  High · LITTLETON · 1,686 students · 19.6:1 ratio
• Bear Creek High School
  High · LAKEWOOD · 1,431 students · 17.9:1 ratio
• Golden High School
  High · GOLDEN · 1,416 students · 21.5:1 ratio
• Dakota Ridge Senior High School
  High · LITTLETON · 1,338 students · 19.1:1 ratio