The Lakewood Heritage Center will offer free admission and hourly historic tours today during its all-day “Rockin’ Block Party.”
The event includes live music, antiques appraisals and an outdoor film.
Capping the city of Lakewood’s “Inspire Arts” week, today’s activities highlight the history of the area. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., visitors can participate in guided tours of the historic structures on-site. Inside the White Way Diner, for example, families can perch on one of eight stools and imagine short-order cooks serving up “fast food” in the days before drive-through chains became commonplace.
Other buildings include several homes and barns, an early 20th-century one-room country schoolhouse and Ethel’s Beauty Shop, a 1950s hair salon that was moved to the Heritage Center from its original location at South Federal Boulevard and West Alameda Avenue.
“Our schoolhouse has wooden desks and some of the actual books that kids would have had for school in the early 20th century,” says Rhetta Shead, marketing and promotions supervisor for the city, which operates the center. “The houses from the ’20s and ’30s also have authentic furnishings.”
Fans of the popular PBS program “Antiques Roadshow” will appreciate the “What It’s Worth” event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Hosted by the Lakewood Historical Society, this offering will include four local appraisers on hand to inspect small, portable items of interest. For $5 per appraisal, participants can learn about the value of family heirlooms or collectibles.
“You can learn a lot about the history of people by the things they owned,” says Marian Metsopoulos, president of the Lakewood Historical Society. “Antiques can bring up all kinds of questions and open the door for conversations about the past.”
Glassware, dolls, old papers, art, weavings, pottery and small household items will be appraised at today’s event — not large items or furniture. Metsopoulos says she has received multiple phone inquiries about specific items already; one woman called hoping to learn more about trinkets saved from when her grandmother came to Colorado on an “orphan train” from New York in the early 1900s.
“It’s an incredible story,” Metsopoulos says. “Families who couldn’t afford to raise their children would ship these unwanted kids out west, and they would be adopted by farmers or families who needed help.”
Located within Belmar Park, the Lakewood Heritage Center also has a visitor center with two museum galleries, an outdoor amphitheater and an easy loop of walking trails.
Tonight’s entertainment takes place around the amphitheater beginning at 5 p.m. Retro games for children will include a hula-hoop contest and water-balloon toss. At 7:30, ’80s cover band Into the Groove takes the stage, followed by a showing of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on the outdoor screen at 9.
“People get so busy just living their everyday lives that they don’t always think about history,” Metsopoulos says. “But we’re hoping that today will help people realize that (history) is truly fascinating.”
Lakewood’s Rockin’ Block Party
History tours, games, music and an outdoor film punctuate this event honoring Lakewood’s heritage.
When: Today, beginning at 10 a.m.
Where: Lakewood Heritage Center, 801 S. Yarrow St., 303-987-7850
Admission: Free
