Harvest festival brings history full circle at Altona Grange Hall

Several miles west of Longmont, the Altona Grange Hall sits in the foothills amidst farmland and pasture, a rustic white clapboard building that evokes the days of early Colorado immigrants. The hundred-year-old property was once the hub of agriculture for farmers and ranchers in the area and is finding new life for the modern community as an event venue.

Nearly 40 vendors set up in and around the Altona Grange Hall for a Fall Harvest Festival on Sunday, from craft producers and jewelry sellers, local food trucks and artists. The Fall Harvest Festival is the latest in a series of markets for artists and microbusinesses for the Grange Hall, but the idea is far from new.

Altona Grange #127 started in 1891 and the historic building was constructed in 1895 in its current location at Nelson Road and 39th Street. Grange Halls were a gathering place and community center for local farmers and ranchers to trade, share best practices and develop policies to support the needs of local agriculture. The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry traces its history back to 1867, with more than 1,700 chapters around the U.S. as of April 2021.

Altona Grange #127, named for the former town of Altona, is one of 57 active grange communities in Colorado. The property was designated a historical landmark by Boulder County in 1999. In February 2021, the membership of the grange created the Altona Preservation Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, in order to protect the landmark building and open it to a greater community.

With the historic landmark status, the Altona Preservation Alliance, or APA, was awarded a $9,900 grant through Boulder County to restore and renovate the existing building. The work so far has involved stripping asphalt siding to reveal the original clapboard siding, replacing the windows and more. The lumber used for the hall was milled less than five miles from the site, at what is now Heil Valley Ranch Open Space. 

In total, the renovation work will cost nearly $20,000 — in order to receive the grant from the county, the APA must complete the reservations and provide matching funds equal to the grant allocation. The work is nearly completed for the current projects, including replacing rain gutters and restoring the sign. Future projects include free wifi and landscaping, to continue to increase the appeal of the property.

Emily Rodriguez, an organizer of the Fall Harvest Festival, said vendors at the festival came from as far as Denver and Aurora to participate. Part of the vendor fees for the festival were donated to the grange hall restoration funds, according to Rodriguez.

“The grange hall is amazing and it has this awesome history,” Rodriguez said. “We’re able to do events like this to help maintain the building.”

Members of the Altona Grange were on-hand to share the history of the organization and join in the community festivities, including passing out candy at a trunk-or-treat for the kids and a barnyard petting zoo with goats and sheep. 

“It’s still a grange hall, but we don’t necessarily maintain the grange traditions,” said APA President Chris Doyle. “We’re here to maintain the building as a community resource.”

Doyle found the grange hall when looking for a venue for a party a few years back, having known Altona Grange historian Donlyn Arbuthnot for some years. Doyle, a bagpiper, thought the cost of membership was more than worth it to have a regular venue for himself and other musicians to gather. 

Arbuthnot grew up in the Grange community, her ancestors Carson Arbuthnot and Jason Bader were early founders of the community settling around modern Niwot and Longmont. Arbuthnot, 66, grew up in the Altona Grange, remembering the potluck dinners of her childhood. The Grange Hall originally required membership for entry, complete with gatekeepers and secret hand signs to gain entry, but those traditions are a thing of the past.

“It’s so exciting for me and I feel like my grandparents would be proud of me that we’re keeping the history here and telling the story,” Arbuthnot said. “Seeing people use this grange when people rent it out ... it’s exciting to see it as a community center.”

The membership had been dwindling for some years, Doyle said, but the recent artist markets have started to bring new life to the community center. The grange hall also hosts meetings for local 4H gatherings, continuing a history of supporting local agriculture, along with meetings for the local ditch management companies.

Dozens of local families attended the afternoon and, including the vendors, more than half had never stepped foot on the property before. Both Doyle and APA Treasurer Henry Poirot were impressed with the diversity of the crowd, hopeful that continuing with the markets will bring more “new blood” to the community.

“The grange supported small farmers and ranchers, now it can support these microbusinesses and that’s why we like this idea,” Poirot said. 

The next event at Altona Grange will be a holiday market held on November 27, with a focus on local handcrafted goods.