It’s Another Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I just love life in Colorado.  I am so lucky that I have such a beautiful state to call “home”.  Everywhere you go, there is so much to see, and so much natural beauty all around.  We love taking in the sights of our beautiful state as much as we can too.  For Labor Day, since we both had the day off, we decided to take yet another one of our little get-away drives.  This time, we ventured Northwest and toured around the Cache le Poudre area and through Red Feather Lakes, not far from the Wyoming border and Cheyenne.  We are only slightly over an hour away from Cheyenne too, so this really is still part of “our neighborhood”, in a general sense.  We talked about packing a picnic lunch, but somehow we forgot to actually pack a lunch, so that didn’t happen.  So instead, we did one of our driving tours and stopped for a late lunch/early dinner on the way home.

This house was built in 1889.

Yes, we even had a Bigfoot sighting, in plain daylight too.

After our driving tour, we stopped at The Pumphouse in Longmont for a late lunch/ early dinner.  Even though it was yet another scorcher of a day, it felt very cool and comfortable to be outside in the shade, with the misters spraying us with cool water.  “The Pumphouse opened in May of 1996 as an independently-owned, single-unit brewpub.

The Pumphouse Brewery is housed in the original “William Lugg Building”. William Lugg was a prominent businessman in Longmont during the early 1900’s. The building was erected on the corner of 6th & Main Street over what was previously a wood & coal storage and sales yard. The Lugg Building was initially used as a garage & repair shop, and was known as the Ford Garage. In subsequent years, the building changed hands a couple of times, and was renamed Power Motor Company & Cleland Motor Company, in turn. In the late 1920’s, Mrs. Ollie R. Boggs leased the building & opened a “high class, up-to-date roller skating rink” named Fairyland. This use lasted only a short while, as Standard Oil of Indiana took over the building in 1930 & remodeled it for a service station. It was a large station in its day & was referred to as “Standard Super Service Station” (S.S.S.S.). Mr. Lugg operated the business himself.

J.W. Rankin purchased the building in 1935, and built his business – Rankin Chevrolet – into the largest dealership in a 6-state region. Six years later, it became Troxell Chevrolet under new ownership, & then again changed hands 10 years later to become Wills & Hajek Chevrolet in 1951. They added an Oldsmobile dealership under the same roof a few years later, and after a few additional expansions, they built a new building for their business, selling the Lugg Building to Firestone Tire Company. Firestone sold tires & serviced cars until 1991, and then leased the building to a real estate office & western wear store. In 1995, the 4 original Pumphouse partners bought the building with big plans in mind.

To become a functional restaurant & brewery, the building had to be transformed radically, though much of the original architecture was left intact to preserve the Historical Landmark status of the building. Renovating a building of this nature – one not originally designed for restaurant use – leads to a somewhat quirky layout, but there is no doubt that the atmosphere is that much more charming & intriguing because of this”.

Larry had a Cubano Sandwich with shredded pork and I had a pecan-crusted chicken salad with spinach, strawberries and mandarin oranges.  Both were very good and seemed to just hit the spot perfectly.

Below is the contact information for The Pumphouse.  It is a fun, lively place to hang out, get refreshed and sit back and watch the world go by.

• 540 Main Street
• Longmont, CO 80501

• (303) 702-0881
• info@pumphousebrewery.com