Englewood’s Amazing Story
Did you know that something exciting happened in Englewood, Colorado in the year 1858 that changed the course of American History?
Have you heard about the machine that could extract fresh water from the ocean?
What about those electric message signs you see in construction zones?
Who came up with the idea of a truck mounted snowplow?
Do you know anyone who uses
home oxygen?
Where did the first all-electric airplane come from?
All of these things were invented in Englewood, Colorado!
Want to know more, then, this book is for you!
A new Englewood history book entitled “Englewood’s Amazing Story,” will be available this month from EHPS historian Doug Cohn. Doug Cohn has written the book with lots of help from other EHPS members and others who know parts of our story. EHPS will distribute them for sale at events. The cost is $18.25.
Doug Cohn is a Colorado native and longtime Englewood resident who has a big heart for history. His family moved into a newly built neighborhood on Bates Parkway in 1951 and he was in the very first 1st grade class at Charles Hay School when it opened in 1953. His older brother Steve loved the 2nd grade teacher Mrs. Nilsen and Doug wanted to have her as a teacher too but she was pregnant and took a leave from teaching to be at home with her new daughter. Doug met that daughter 23 years later and fell in love with Linda Nilsen. They have been married for 45 years and have two sons and four grandchildren.
Doug fell in love with Colorado history in 8th grade at Flood Junior High when he saw a picture of the “face on the barroom floor” in Central City. He graduated from Englewood High in 1965. He graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1969 and the Conservative Baptist Seminary in 1972. For six years he ran a halfway house in Denver for homeless young people. His family owned the Bonnie Brae Hobby Shop which was on University Boulevard for 37 years before moving to South Broadway in Englewood in 1999, the
store closed in 2015 after a 53 year run.
Doug has served on the Board for the Englewood Historic Preservation Society for over 9 years. He loves learning about history and has shared
history stories in the Englewood Schools, senior centers and History Camp Colorado. He is also active in the Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society. He has been working with the City of Englewood to produce the video series on YouTube “Englewood Moments in History.”
