Historic Shoenberg Farms in Westminster Hosting Ice Cream Social Sunday

Longtime residents of the Denver area may remember Shoenberg Farms, which at one time was one of the largest egg distributors west of the Mississippi and for decades provided the milk for Dolly Madison Ice Cream. At its peak, the farm covered 800 acres around Sheridan Boulevard and 72nd Avenue; eventually, the facility was abandoned and surrounded by strip malls and townhouses. The City of Westminster bought the dairy and its buildings, including the iconic silo and barn, in 2009; they were soon declared historic...but remained empty.

But not for too much longer. A duo of Denver-based developers, Matthew Lawrence and John Crays, have been working with Westminster for several years to develop the property into a food hall and entertainment/community center. Last week, the team announced a new name for the complex, The Berg, to honor its history; this new identity will be celebrated at an ice cream social Sunday, July 20, on the lawn adjacent to the barn and silo to mark National Ice Cream Day.
The ice cream will be provided by Bonnie Brae Ice Cream, which is located in what used to be one of the Dolly Madison parlors; Bonnie Brae Ice Cream took over the spot on South University Boulevard in 1986. The ice cream connection is natural because of the history of Shoenberg Farms. The farm was founded by Dudley Shoenberg, a philanthropist whose son died of tuberculosis and who built the farm to provide poultry, eggs and dairy for tuberculosis patients at National Jewish Hospital.

The connection to Denver's Jewish community continued with the 1921 purchase of the farm from the hospital by Jacob Tepper, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who settled in Denver with the help of the Jewish Consumptive Relief Society (JCRS), an organization formed to serve the Jewish community then battling tuberculosis. That organization was based on West Colfax Avenue and its legacy today is the JCRS Shopping Center where Casa Bonita was built; behind it was the institution that evolved from the fight against tuberculosis, the AMC Cancer Research Center, which eventually merged with the CU Health Sciences Center.
When Tepper bought Shoenberg Farms, he continued working with the Jewish community and with hospitals, providing dairy and eggs to military hospitals during WWII and the Korean War. His son, Ed Tepper, expanded the business to include Dolly Madison Ice Cream, which was produced until the early 2000s.

Although the buildings are in disrepair, a new chapter is being written for Shoenberg Farms: as The Berg food hall and entertainment complex.

"We've got two large buildings that we can use, the milk house and the barn," explains Lawrence. "They are going to house five different restaurants, and we'll also have an outdoor area for entertainment. There's going to be not just live music, but for movies or any kind of events that would draw a crowd."
The plan also calls for an atrium roof above the space between the buildings, similar to the Galleria over the Denver Performing Arts Complex downtown. The current timeline calls for the Berg to open about this time next year, Lawrence says.

The goal is to respect and honor the farm's history while making it into an economic driver for the City of Westminster. "One of the key things to recognize, if you've driven by here in the past decades, is that it's kind of untouched, abandoned," Lawrence says. "And so the City of Westminster partnered with the State Historical Fund to preserve and protect the property. They've been good stewards for the last twenty-odd years, at least. So they've done their part, and it's our turn to bring that to bear and make sure that we pay homage to this amazing history."

The free Ice Cream Social will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, July 20, on the Berg’s lawn at 5202 West 73rd Avenue in Westminster; in addition to ice cream, there will be dogs from Lifeline Puppy Rescue.