Milestones Icon: Adolph J. Zang

Broomfield’s central location between Denver and Boulder caught the eye of several major developers over time, who eventually made it into the “bedroom community” of today.

But what Adolph J. Zang, the son of Bavarian-born brewery magnate Philip Zang, envisioned when he and two others purchased the 4,000 acres of land from Union Pacific Railroad in 1885 was a cozy place for his Elmwood Stock Farm. Zang became sole owner in 1895.

The land encompassed much of Broomfield, including the old railroad depot where the iconic grain elevators now stand in Original Broomfield. At the time, the area was known as Zang’s…