BRIGHTON —Seven vacant, century-old farm structures and 6 acres of dormant farmland in Brighton will one day be a fully functional farm with community gardens and farm-to-table classes.
Bromley Farm, also called the Koizuma-Hishinuma Farm, is in the midst of an open-ended rehabilitation project.
“The majority of it will be a living farm,” said Gary Wardle, director of Brighton parks and recreation. “We plan to contract with a farmer who will run the land, raise crops and see what kind of products can come from it.”
Wardle said part of a future lease agreement with a to-be-determined farmer will include holding public classes and special events for Brighton, which wants to turn the land into agriculture-centric recreation space.
But that’s still a long way off, Wardle said. The 9.6 acres at 1594 E. Bromley Lane is presently covered in dry farmland and noxious weeds. The exteriors of most of the buildings were restored this spring, but the interiors are still dark and rotting for the most part, covered up with boards and locks.
The farm property has a main house, migrant worker house, wash house, barn, silo, metal granary, cistern and milk trough. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 2007, said Shannon Haltiwanger, preservation spokeswoman at History Colorado — the granting arm for the State Historical Fund.
“We’ve been working on (restoration) with help from the Colorado State Historical Fund over the past four years,” Wardle said. “We’ve restored the exterior of the main house, the barn and the migrant worker’s house to date, and then next year we have a (grant) to restore the interior of the main house.”
In August, Brighton received $200,000 from the State Historic Fund to proceed with the restoration of the main house, which is slated to begin in the spring.
The 2009 master plan for Bromley Farm details a future use for each of the buildings. The main house will be turned into a privately operated café or teahouse.
The barn will be used for events and community classes. The migrant worker house will be office space for the tending farmers. So far, the project doesn’t have a completion date.
Bromley Farm was founded by Emmet Bromley for cattle ranching in 1883. Bromley tended hundreds of acres of farmland until the early 20th century, according to researchers with History Colorado.
The farm passed through two more landowners before the Koizuma and Hishinuma families took it over in 1947. The Hishinuma family eventually sold the land to a developer in 2005, and then the city snapped it up right after.
The city received $417,300 from Adams County Open Space in March to begin work on the landscape design around the buildings and farmland.
That design is being done by Jamie Ramos, a Centennial-based landscape architect from Stanley Consultants.
Ramos said a major design consideration was reorganizing the parking and entrance to the farm, which will be diverted from Bromley Lane to an extension of 15th Avenue, which hasn’t been built yet.
The new road will connect to the neighboring Brighton Oasis Family Aquatic Park. The old entry will be obscured with trees to match the original appearance.
“We’ve embraced the historic tree-lined lane that is evident in the era photography,” Ramos said. “The historic lawn and gardens design will reflect (and preserve) that period.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/MMitchelldp
