Just west of Main Street on 11th Avenue stands a brown-and-white “Old North Longmont Neighborhood” sign, one of several identifying the historic area between Ninth and 11th avenues and Bross and Main streets.

Other historic neighborhoods in Longmont bear these types of signs as well.

But North Longmont, independent for a decade in the early 1900s, occupies a unique place in local history.

Bordering Longmont to the north, the hamlet, which grew from about 100 to 260 residents over its short life, had its own laws, government and a town hall that doubled as a (busy) jail, not to mention its own values.

If only those old walls — and saloon doors — could talk.

From fraught beginning to fractious dissolution, tiny North Longmont, or Rosedale, its postmark and official name, was ground zero for a feisty cultural and political battle over alcohol and everything that came with it.

A similar battle would play out on the national stage for decades.

Settled in 1871 by the Chicago-Colorado Colony and incorporated in 1873, Longmont, like Greeley, was an intentional agricultural community built on utopian ethics of “temperance, industry and morality.”

Initially, people caught drinking had to return their land to the colony, although that policy, and the alcohol ban, turned out to be short-lived.

Just two years after settlement, in 1873, saloons were allowed in Longmont.

Saloons were outlawed again in 1875, legalized in 1885, outlawed in 1901, legalized in 1909, and outlawed in 1916. (Druggists, however, were licensed to sell alcohol for “medicinal, sacramental, chemical and mechanical” uses.)

Meanwhile, in 1903, unincorporated Rosedale sought annexation by Longmont, but the process stalled.

A crusading newsman

Editor Charles W. Boynton of the Longmont Ledger, the most stridently anti-saloon of Longmont’s three newspapers, supported the annexation and covered it closely, according to Erik Mason, curator of history at the Longmont Museum.

Two city councilmen, Boynton reported, told him that in exchange for access to city waterworks, improvements and protections, Rosedale was expected to forfeit its ditch-water rights.

Such terms were typical, the councilmen told Boynton, applying equally to other additions to the city upon annexation.

Rosedale residents apparently wanted Longmont to purchase their ditch water, insisting that their new tax payments to the city would offset the cost. The City Council disagreed.

“The effect has been that some of the malcontents … have been going through a certain course, calculating to make a town of their own. Some have said that if it is carried out, they will grant licenses to saloons, and Longmont will be worse off than if saloons were on Main Street,” Boynton wrote.

Boynton urged the council to make an exception on the water rights so that annexation could proceed. His words were not heeded.

‘None of our business what they do’

On Aug. 13, 1903, Rosedale incorporated. It would become commonly known as North Longmont. Whatever its name, the Ledger waged a relentless campaign against the town until its demise in 1913.

“By some people it is claimed that the chief industry in Rosedale will be the sale of hop extract and the essence of corn and rye. However, that will be decided later, when the town board is elected and things are in running order,” Boynton wrote.

“The Ledger ventures the prediction that the move will prove a failure if the action now contemplated by some of our citizens materializes. They have something up their sleeve for the Mayor of Rosedale,” he concluded.

The Longmont Call’s position stood in stark contrast to the Ledger.

“Some Longmont people say they had no right to incorporate,” the newspaper wrote. “The probabilities are, it’s none of our business what they do.”

On Sept. 4, 1903, 113 years ago this weekend, Rosedale held elections, voting 42-to-8 to license saloons.

The Call responded:

“There has been a whole lot of discussion with reference to the probable policy of the new town, and as to the personnel of its officers. Some people claim to see nothing but trouble in the future. There is no need to become hysterical. … They are all real nice fellows. Here’s to the new town and its officers.”

Saloons and crime

Rosedale granted the first two licenses to Ed Lewing and Zang Brewing, of Denver. Each agreed to erect a brick building on Main Street.

“The application for license of Longmont men was not accepted,” the Ledger stated.

Bavarian-born Philip Zang was quite well-known. His brewery at 617 Water St., current site of the Denver Aquarium, was the largest between St. Louis and San Francisco until Prohibition.

At the time, Longmont was in one of its dry periods, with five of its six councilmen from the Anti-Saloon party.

Boynton did his best to publicize North Longmont crime, of which there was plenty.

Between 1904 and 1908, the Ledger reported arrests for indecent exposure, assault, gambling and other crimes.

In March 1904, an old man was nearly beaten to death in a saloon, while the marshall sustained a knife cut to his arm while caring for him.

In October 1905, a murder occurred after “a number of Mexicans had been on a spree in a saloon in North Longmont,” according to the Ledger. The defendant, Jacinto Navarette, was acquitted.

“Navarette did not remember that he had had a knife and did not know that he had killed (Yenes) Vais until awakened from his drunken stupor the next morning,” the Ledger reported.

Between 1906 and 1908, multiple gambling arrests were reported.

“The sheriff is bound to crush out gambling in North Longmont, and our citizens should stand by him, no matter what their politics may be,” Boynton wrote.

In May 1907, an assault.

In March 1908, a former resident of North Longmont was arrested for selling liquor in Niwot.

Voting to go dry

The towns of Lyons, Mead and Loveland went dry in 1908 as North Longmont residents voted to keep their saloons.

The Longmont Times supported the pro-saloon vote:

“The small number who were dreaming of having the luxurious privilege of taking their ‘enthusiasm’ behind nicely screened prescription cases, as well as those who are not and never expect to become thirsty, did a vast more talking than systematic organizing.”

Boynton expressed the usual dismay:

“North Longmont has not changed its views and the saloons will still continue to embarrass the body politic. In other words, Longmont will be bothered as before with the drunkenness and crime which are the natural results of saloons.”

He suggested that North Longmont’s vote could be overruled if its home precinct or district went dry — which is exactly what happened.

In a November 1908 post-election article, the Ledger reported that all four of the election precincts covering Longmont voted to go dry, including Precinct 24, which included, but was larger than, North Longmont.

North Longmont saloons were given 30 days to close. A handwritten North Longmont “water rent” ledger from 1906 to 1910 indicated that six different saloons were open at some point during those years.

“Longmont breathes a sigh of relief that these hell holes will be done away with. That temptation to the weak will be gone, and the gambler’s work we trust will be over,” Boynton wrote in the Ledger, encouraging North Longmont to build a community based on “civic righteousness and good living.”

Taking it to court

North Longmont had other ideas, and appealed its injunction to the state Supreme Court.

On July 5, 1908, the court ruled that even though North Longmont was incorporated, it was still subject to the laws of its precinct.

“Longmont people, who love law and order, temperance and morality, will rejoice that this battle is won. … We hope this will be done and that all controversy over water, beer and whiskey will cease…” Boynton wrote.

Newspapers across the state reported on the closure of North Longmont’s saloons in July 1910, while North Longmont appealed the Supreme Court’s decision and continued its lifestyle.

Six months later, in January 1911, the mayor and trustees of North Longmont were arrested for licensing alcohol sales in “anti-saloon territory,” the Ledger reported.

The town’s crime patterns continued. Between 1909 and 1912, there were 118 arrests in a population of 260.

The vast majority, 87 of those arrests, involved intoxication. Fighting was the next most common charge, along with indecency, one count of prostitution, and sundry other charges.

In February 1911, the Colorado Supreme Court decided against the town.

“The rehearing was denied and (North) Longmont should have been dry these two years,” Boynton wrote.

Rosedale, or North Longmont, voted to disincorporate on April 4, 1911.

From North Longmont to ‘Boozeville’

In June, Boynton reported that annexation was proceeding slowly due to disagreement once again over ditch water, and other issues.

“North Longmont wants to consolidate, but it wants all the favors their way … there is no progress at present,” he wrote.

In April 1912, the Leadville Herald Democrat reported that North Longmont elected a mayor and board of supervisors who would be charged with “looking after the affairs of the town with a view of its absorption of Longmont.”

It would appear that not all North Longmont residents were on board with the annexation.

In September of that year, the Aurora Democrat reported a raid on a North Longmont bootlegging joint.

In January 1913, the Colorado Transcript reported, “A petition has been placed in circulation for the re-incorporation of North Longmont, with the end in view that saloons may again be opened.”

The Montrose Daily Press reported in 1914 that a former North Longmont saloon keeper had repurposed his 10-foot-by-12-foot liquor refrigerator into a makeshift casino.

“A roulette wheel and other gambling paraphernalia were found in the refrigerator. (Lou) Weir was arrested and brought to Boulder. … The authorities were informed by a farmer from Hygiene, who said he was enticed into the place and fleeced.”

In September 1912, a vote on annexation was scheduled for the spring. Boynton endorsed the merger. This time he got his way.

On April 1, 1913, the two communities voted to approve annexation, and North Longmont was absorbed into Longmont.

But hard-living, liquor-loving Colorado towns don’t just fade away.

The spirit of Rosedale lived on in a twin town of the same name to the north — nicknamed “Boozeville” — that was incorporated from 1939 to 1987 as a “wet” oasis for neighboring Greeley, which was dry until 1972.

Special thanks to Erik Mason, curator of history at the Longmont Museum, who provided research assistance for this story, and Peter Schow, of the blog Longmontian, who contributed historical data and resources.