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Boulder Magazine Winter/Spring 2009-2010 Community Profile | Niwot, Colorado Pint-Size Niwot Community thrives in historic railroad town By Lisa Truesdale All over the world, small towns and big cities alike lure visitors by boasting about their “quaint, historic downtown.” More often than not, however, these areas are simply tiny islands of history being swallowed up on all sides by high rises, fast-food chains, big-box stores and traffic. Not so in Niwot. This little community really does have a charming, relatively untouched downtown historic district. In 1993, in fact, the first block of Second Avenue, closest to the railroad tracks, was the first such designated district in Boulder County. It has no stoplights, unless you count the one at Niwot Road and Diagonal Highway, and no fast-food restaurants except a Subway a few blocks south.
Niwot was founded in 1875, after the Colorado Central Railroad laid tracks from Boulder to Longmont, and named after Chief Niwot (“left hand”) of the Arapaho tribe. It’s not technically a town or city, because it was never incorporated; it’s governed by the Boulder County commissioners. “Niwot is also the only [plains] community in Boulder County that can be considered a railroad town, as opposed to a mining town like Louisville or Lafayette, or an agricultural town like Longmont,” says Anne Dyni, president of the Niwot Historical Society and author of Niwot, Colorado: Echoes from a Railroad Town. As Dyni explains, the main business district used to be on the other side of the railroad tracks until 1957, when IBM arrived. Construction began on Diagonal Highway the following year, and buildings were bulldozed or moved. A few of the buildings remaining on Second Avenue are Atkinson’s Blacksmith Shop (circa 1910; now Rockin’ Robin’s Retro & Resale), the Livingston Hotel (circa 1905; now Niwot Interiors), and the Left Hand Grange (built in 1905 as Nelson Hall).
Today, Niwot is a study in contrasts—like the Porsche and Land Rover dealership, Gunbarrel Import Motors, right next door to a good old-fashioned feed store, Niwot Rental and Feed. Or award-winning restaurants like Colterra and Treppeda’s sharing the neighborhood with down-home gathering places like the Garden Gate Café, and cozy, cottage-like houses adjacent to some of the priciest developments in the county. The current population is around 4,000. “We’ve been able to avoid most of the small-town politics that other communities get caught up in,” says Biff Warren, a longtime Niwot resident who has a hand in a little bit of everything in Niwot. He’s a partner in a law firm, chair of the Niwot Local Improvement District, an assistant baseball coach at Niwot High School, co-owner of the monthly Left Hand Valley Courier, president of the Niwot Cultural Arts Association, and a musician in two local bands that play for community events. “We have a lot of good people who are involved in the community, and who are good at building consensus,” he adds. “We are able to get a lot done for the benefit of the community, in spite of, and sometimes because of, the lack of local government.” Robin Abb is another of those “involved people.” Abb owns Rockin’ Robin’s Retro & Resale, an energetic store on Second Avenue that features a jukebox and a dance floor so you can “bop while you shop.” She’s also the promotion, marketing and events chair for the Niwot Business Association, which helps coordinate community events like the Fourth of July Celebration, the Great Pumpkin Halloween Party, the Holiday Parade, and Rhythm on the Rails, the very popular free summer concert series co-sponsored by Boulder Creek Events. Abb serves as master of ceremonies for the concerts because, as she says, “I love rock-and-roll more than anything.”
With all she does for Niwot, it’s clear that Abb loves the community as much as she loves music. “I’ve been called many things around here, like ‘queen’ and ‘unofficial mayor,’” she laughs. “But I prefer ‘head cheerleader.’”
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