Title: METZGER FARM
Location Current Site: Westminster CO UNITED STATES
Creator Assoc Person Name: Mattivi,Mark, Sedbrook,Kayla
Creator Assoc Person Role: Instructor, Photographer
Date.Creation: ca. 1880-1900
Subject.Image Description: Barn east elevation
Source.Acquisition Date: 2010
Style/Period: Vernacular
Style/Period Description: VERNACULAR
(All eras)
This term applies to ordinary everyday buildings, frequently not architect designed, which are direct responses to the needs of users. Vernacular buildings can be distinguished from High Style buildings, which are the self-conscious products of elite clients and designers. The works of Thomas Jefferson (a gentleman amateur designer) and those of Frank Lloyd Wright (a professional architect) are High Style artifacts, because, in addition to providing shelter, they were explicitly intended to produce an esthetic response in viewers and, most important, to make a significant cultural statement about the relationships of people to history or to nature. In contrast, vernacular buildings, such as 19th century American farm houses, were not unique or pretentious. The term vernacular originated with reference to language, to designate local, everyday speech from Latin which was spoken in church by the clergy.
The term refers to many types of buildings. Vernacular includes pre-industrial structures, folk architecture, or traditional buildings, such as the houses and barns of non-mechanized farmers in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Examples include the earliest structures erected by the first Europeans in the New World and cabins of early settlers in Colorado. Some vernacular buildings were built by the users, and others by specialist craftsmen, who followed time-honored patterns, placing little if any value on innovation or self-expression.
Industrial vernacular structures include pre-fabricated buildings, and those produced by builders on site for sail or rent using industrial materials such a steel, or industrially produced subassemblies such as windows. Like traditional or folk buildings, these are the "tools" of everyday life. Diners, storage sheds, and mobile homes do not embody complex philosophical or esthetic principles, and consequently can be changed or replaced as needed, without much concern for interfering with the designer's unique expression, as in the case of High Style buildings. Industrial buildings are frequently also Vernacular buildings, although architects have designed factories. Neither category is actually a style term in the strictest sense, although certain visual or formal qualities, such as simplicity of detail, are often common to both.
Subject Image View Type: Exterior, general view
Description.Subject Report: The Metzger Farm located at the northeast corner of the intersection of 120th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard in the Westminster, Colorado, is a 152-acre property that was settled in the late 1800s by members of the Gay family. Only one of the original buildings still stands on the property today. In 1943, John Metzger, a former Colorado Attorney General, purchased the property. The property includes the farmhouse and nine outbuildings, oriented in two east-west lines; the north most line includes residential, tool repair and food-related uses, while the south line includes equipment sheds, chicken and brooder houses, barn and horse stalls, and the stock standing shed.
In the 1950s, the Metzgers farmhouse was expanded to allow more room for Jon and his wife, Betty and their two children, Bill and Karen. The home expanded to allow a music room, and two more bedrooms on the second floor. John Metzgers favorite color was green, which is why the buildings have green roofs and trim. The painted white walls of all the buildings allowed for easier maintenance of the property. The Metzger farm was oriented in two east-west lines. The buildings and their spatial arrangement are significantly intact and represent what has been characterized as a model farm of the mid-twentieth century.
The Metzger Family raised Scottish shorthorn cattle and chicken on their farm. The trees on the property were all planted by Metzger as well as the kitchen garden that provided vegetables for the family. The north part of the farm fields were utilized for flood. The fields were irrigated to provide alfalfa and corn for the cattle and were at times also used for grazing. Evidence of the irrigation pipes can still be seen on the site today. Metzger also worked with the Colorado Agricultural College (now C.S.U.) to plant test crops. The main crop in the fields that continues to grow today is wheat. The two ponds located on the farm are both man-made. John Metzger built the ponds in the 1940s and 1950s. They were originally used for irrigation of the fields, livestock watering and firefighting.
In 2005 both the City of Westminster and the City and County of Broomfield created a foundation for the acquisition, financing, management, and maintenance of Metzger Family Farm. The Foundation purchased the Metzger Farm for future community open space purposes. Metzger Farm offers the opportunity to significantly enhance open space, wildlife habitat, and regional trail connections through Broomfield and Westminster. On December 15, 2005, the foundation approved the agreement with the Metzger family for purchase of Metzger Farm as community open space. The total purchase price for the property and water rights was approximately $11 million. The grants received from Adams County and Great Outdoors Colorado funded approximately $2 million, with the cities sharing in funding the balance.
Clean up and maintenance of the property has began in 2007. Broomfield and Westminster are working together to create a master plan for the Historic Building Report. This includes brief descriptions, conditions, and stabilization recommendations for the ten buildings on the property. Highest priority repairs are going to be addressed immediately. Theses include safety and building integrity issues. Medium priority repairs typically will not result in any damage or major change to the structures. The lowest priority repairs help return the building to its original condition. The Master Plan for Metzger Farm is focusing on high priorities of the buildings first. (By Kayla Sedbrook, 2010)
Bibliography
"About the Metzger Farm Master Plan." City Of Westminster. July 2010 <http://www.ci.westminster.co.us/files/metzgerfarmprojectfactsheet32409.pdf>;.
Westminster, City Of. Metzger Farm. 2010. July 2010 <http://www.ci.westminster.co.us/131_2921.htm>;.
ID Number.Former Image Accession VISC: 194808
Date.Image: 2010
Rights Description: Copyright owned by The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate, and the photographer. All rights reserved.
Source.Requestor Full Name: Lickteig, Lynn
Collection Name: Architecture and Planning Collection
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