Bromley Farm in Brighton: a Japanese American family's farm you can walk

Most notes about Adams County mention Emmet Bromley as the man the county fathers leaned on in the legislature. Fewer mention that his old homestead at 1594 E. Bromley Lane in Brighton is still standing, and that it carries a second story most people never hear.

Bromley bought 200 acres here in 1883 and built it up toward 1,100. But in 1947 a first-generation Japanese American family, the Koizumas, and their relatives the Hishinumas, bought the place and farmed it themselves for nearly sixty years, raising crops like sugar beets, cabbage, alfalfa, and corn until 2006. That ownership matters: it sits just after World War II, when Japanese American families were rebuilding lives and, here, putting down roots in the soil of the South Platte valley. The City of Brighton bought the 9.6-acre core in late 2006, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

What makes it worth a Saturday is that you can actually walk it. The city opens the farm for a Fall Family Festival, with a corn maze and a pumpkin patch on the same ground both families worked. It is layered local history you can stand inside, not just read on a plaque.

Festival dates shift year to year, so the City of Brighton’s farm page is the place to confirm the current schedule.