The Brighton Historic Preservation (BHPC) is pleased to announce it has been awarded a $20,475 History Colorado Grant to begin the Kuners Row Historic Resource Survey and has hired Cultural Resource Historians, LLC to perform the work. This project will study 15 residential homes on Kuners Row, located on the western edge of the Central Addition subdivision along 4th Avenue, south of Longs Peak Street and north of Brighton Street. Kuners Row is well-known, but has not been studied in-depth. This project will research the history and study the architecture of the block to help with understanding of Brighton’s past. 

The BHPC spent much of 2019 studying and performing windshield surveys for hundreds of buildings in the Central Addition Subdivision (north of Brighton Street and spans east to west from 4th to 11th Avenues) to understand what areas would be best for historical study. 

“Once company housing for Kuner factory workers, this block speaks directly to the legacy of Brighton’s industrial past and exhibits some very important historic resources in this subdivision,” said Kim Bauer, City of Brighton Historic Preservation Planner. “The reconnaissance research performed by the BHPC helped solidify that surveying Kuners Row was of vital importance.”

In 1927, just 10 years after opening in Brighton, the Kuner Pickle Company merged with Longmont’s Empson Packing Company to create the Kuner-Empson Company, a major player in the region’s agricultural industry. Together with Brighton’s then-existing prominence in the dairy and sugar beet industries, the City truly became an industrial suburb of Denver.

“Studying these homes will, in turn, better study and contextualize the role of the Kuner-Empson Company to the history of Brighton,” said Bauer. “The more we can study and use research for public outreach efforts, the more we can simultaneously engage and celebrate our community and we are excited to learn more about our City’s heritage.”

The Colorado Certified Local Government Grant is financed in part with federal funds from the National Historic Preservation Act, which is administered by the National Park Service. The City of Brighton provided additional funding.

The study is expected to be complete in June of 2021.

For more information, please contact Kim Bauer at kbauer@brightonco.gov.