Picture this: You're out railfanning on the joint line south of Denver--solid choice for February--and you get this craving for coffee, or at least your hands are cold and need to hold something warm. Rather than hit the nearest Starbucks or McDonalds, I have the perfect stop, and it's truly a stop worth making.
Littleton was once just a little farming community well south of Denver proper. It wasn't such a huge investment for the brand new Denver & Rio Grande railroad to build a depot for the mail and the passenger traffic that originated there. In fact, it was how small towns like Littleton thrived, allowing its residents to buy goods and transportation much cheaper than offline communities.
Littleton was one of the very few towns to retain its small depot, and as such, it is an architecturally significant structure. With a Victorian gabled roof, rhyolite masonry and restored interior, it's a historic gem from another era. Too small to house anything practical for Littleton's government, it is currently leased as a coffee shop called Romancing the Bean. After being moved from its original location in 197?, it was moved a second time to a position by RTD's Littleton Light Rail station. You won't miss much while you're waiting for your coffee, because this location shares the trench with the joint line, and you are right on the action, as shown here:
They might even have the chairs out on the porch for some train watching. Silver Canyon coffee, anyone?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Colorado Railroads is a site dedicated to preserving and presenting rail transportation in the Centennial State. Join the growing fascination with railroading and the lives and industries connected by a ribbon of steel across, over and through the Continental Divide!