Now home to approximately 40,000 residents, Littleton began as a farm community in the 1859, focused on growing food for the miners that were headed to the Pike’s Peak gold rush of the west. Along with the gold miners came merchants, farmers, and a particular engineer who laid out a series of ditches to connect and carry water from the rivers and creeks of this arid land. Richard Sullivan Little of New Hampshire fell in love with the site of present day Littleton. He filed a home stake and other land claims, brought his wife Angeline here and after several years joined neighbors to build the Rough and Ready Flour Mill in 1867. A solid economic base for a city as established. In 1872 the Littles filed a plat to subdivide their property into the village of Littleton. In 1890, 245 residents voted to incorporate the Town of Littleton. Soon it was named the County Seat, a beautiful Courthouse was built, as well as a Carnegie Library and the Town Hall. These, and other beautiful old buildings are still proudly part of the fabric of “Old Littleton” today.
The historic, stone Denver & Rio Grand depot building was renovated and moved to serve as the Southwest Regional Light Rail station that connects downtown Littleton to Denver via RTD’s light rail system. The original Carnegie Library is now a popular restaurant anchoring the west side of Old Littleton’s charming collection of city blocks that house great galleries, restaurants, a brew pub, the Performing Arts Center and a thriving retail economy.
Littleton is about 8 miles directly south of downtown Denver, bounded by Broadway on the east, Sheridan on the West, County Line Road on the South and Belleview on the North. A quick drive to many points in Denver or a very fast Light Rail trip!