The Story Behind the Name: Johnson Farms and Brittany Place

By the middle of the 19th century, Sweden was in the throes of a national population crisis-the small country's population had doubled from 1750 to 1850, and was still growing. Tillable land became more scarce, and famine swept the nation. Emigration regulations were eased, and the 1860s saw a massive movement of Swedes fleeing their homeland; between 1861 and 1881, 150,000 traveled to the United States.

The majority of these immigrants quickly made their way to the new states and territories of the Midwest, drawn by the promise of open land. Before being allowed to emigrate, Anna and Noah Johnson had to give up their Swedish citizenship, formalized by the signature of the King of Sweden himself.

The Johnsons made their way to Colorado, initially settling in Georgetown to be close to the railroad where Noah was a lineman and Anna was the head of the PTA. Before the turn of the century, they moved to Niwot and purchased a farmhouse (now located on the northwest corner of Neva Road and Dry Creek Road) with a rose farm originally called Rosewood. At the time, the parcel of land associated with the farmhouse was about 400 acres. Anna and Noah rolled up their sleeves and did all the hard work on the farm to grow edible crops and raise animals.

"Royce Johnson married Edith Anderson, which united the Anderson, Peterson and Johnson families", explained Lindy Dawson, Royce's granddaughter and daughter of Royce's son, Lee M. Johnson. "My father was conceived on their honeymoon to San Francisco, where they considered setting down roots in Telegraph Hill. Clearly that didn't happen. They returned to Niwot and my father was born in the farmhouse. Royce and Edith had eight children, but not all of them survived to adulthood."

During the war, Lee Johnson served on the USS Portland, affectionately nicknamed the Sweet Pea by her crew. With the destruction of most of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, cruisers such as Sweet Pea carried the biggest guns the Navy possessed for nearly a year after the start of World War II.

Lee Johnson came back from war and would take BB guns away from local kids and break them in half. According to Dawson, he would say to the kids, "No. We don't kill any living creature." Inspired by the story of Chief Niwot, he was compelled to take action when the Bonneville Dam was built–fighting for water rights and advocating for indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest.

Where the Bank of the West now stands, Dawson recalls, is where she would help with the columbine and make hay to feed the animals.

In 1974, Dawson's grandfather, Royce Johnson, began the process of developing his farm into a housing subdivision in several phases. The farm was bordered by Niwot Road on the south, and extended east past 83rd Street, including land now occupied by Divine Savior Lutheran Church, and north to include the present day Old Meadowdale and Dry Creek subdivisions. The entire subdivision was known as Johnson Farm, and as part of the development process, Royce Johnson donated the land for Left Hand Valley Grange Park to Boulder County. Homeowners were charged a $300 park fee as the subdivision was developed, with the money held by Boulder County for development of the park.

Royce Johnson was also a baseball enthusiast, and as the development process proceeded, he made land at the southwest corner of Neva Road and 83rd Street available to the Niwot Youth Sports (then known as the Gunbarrel Lefthand Valley Recreation Association, or GLVRA) program as a site for "temporary" ballfields. The three "temporary" Johnson Fields, with snow fence in the outfield and chicken-wire backstops, were used for the youth softball and baseball programs until homes were built on Christopher Court in the Johnson Valley Subdivision in 1994.

Royce Johnson was also a devoted Grange member, and when it came time to name the park, he asked that it be named Left Hand Valley Grange Park, honoring not only Left Hand Grange, but also the other Grange organizations in the Left Hand Valley, such as Altona Grange.

When development of homes in the Johnson Farm subdivision took out one of the three temporary ballfields, Niwot Youth Sports officials went to Boulder County and asked that they be allowed to build a permanent ballfield in Left Hand Valley Grange Park. Bruce Warren, former president of GLVRA, recalled that the park fund was "discovered" after review of the development agreements with the county. "Boulder County, which had not previously segregated the park funds, agreed to allow the funds to be used to purchase the backstops and fencing for the ballfield if we would supply the labor to build the field," Warren said. "So we bought the materials from Churchich Recreation in Gunbarrel, hired one of their former employees, Dan Swanson, to supervise construction, and used volunteers to put up the backstop and fencing."

"That was one of the first permanent ballfields available to Niwot youth," Warren said. "We later got Left Hand Water District to donate a water tap, and used volunteers to lay sod in the outfield."

The last 40 acres of the Johnson's farm became Brittany Place, and included a site made available to the St. Vrain Valley School District for a potential middle school. When the school district declined the option to purchase, the site eventually became Divine Savior Lutheran Church.

Unlike Johnson Farm, Brittany Place was named after the beloved dog of Lindy and Pete Dawson. Friendly, family-oriented and good with children, Sally was known to greet everyone while running around the property. "We always asked people if they liked dogs when selling Brittany Place lots, as they would visit Pete's Boulder office and Sally would be there. Sally was a friend to all the new homeowners," Lindy recalls fondly.