Erie

Erie is its own home rule town on the north side of the metro, split between Weld County, which holds the larger share, and Boulder County. Broomfield borders it to the south and Lafayette to the southwest, and I-25 makes up part of its eastern edge, with Highway 7 along the south.

A coal town that owned its houses

Settlers arrived in 1867 and named the place for Erie, Pennsylvania, where early settler Richard Van Valkenburg had lived. The town incorporated in 1874, and two years later Ira Austin opened the first official underground coal mine. Erie's miners owned houses or land in town instead of living in temporary camps, which set it apart from most coal towns nearby. It was also one of the few wet towns around, and Briggs Street had eleven saloons by 1895. Most mines were closed by 1960, and the Eagle Mine shut in 1978.

Old Town and the subdivisions around it

Erie stayed small for a century. It had 1,258 residents in 1990 and 30,038 by 2020, so most of the houses you'll tour here are recent. The older ones sit in Old Town, on the blocks around Briggs, Pierce and Holbrook Streets. The Lincoln School, a 1906 schoolhouse at 645 Holbrook, went on the National Register in 1981 and has been town hall since a 1998 renovation.

Farther out, the growth came as master-planned subdivisions. Westerly broke ground in 2021 at Erie Parkway and County Road 5, planned for about 1,200 homes on roughly 400 acres, with a town center and more than 100 acres of open space. Some subdivisions, Erie Commons among them, sit inside metropolitan districts, small local governments that finance public improvements. Ask for the district's mill levy before you write an offer so the full tax bill isn't a surprise.

The mines underneath

Old coal workings lie 50 to 150 feet below parts of Erie, and subsidence can show up long after mining stops, as sagging ground, cracked walls or broken water and gas lines. Standard homeowners insurance doesn't cover it. The state runs a Mine Subsidence Protection Program for older homes over inactive mines, and the Colorado Geological Survey publishes a homeowner guide to subsidence. Find out whether a house sits over mapped workings before you're under contract.

Coal Creek flooded in 1890, 1921 and 1972, and the town built a dike along it after the last one.

Coal Creek Trail and Sunset Open Space

The Coal Creek Trail is 14 miles of soft-surface path from South 66th Street in Superior, through Louisville and Lafayette, ending at Vista Parkway in Erie. It ties into the Rock Creek Trail, and bikes, e-bikes and dogs are all allowed. For mountain biking, Sunset Open Space at Weld County Roads 5 and 6 has 3.15 miles of singletrack on 49.5 acres, marked from beginner to advanced, with a parking lot.

Dinner on Briggs Street

Piripi, at 615 Briggs, is chef-owner Hugo Meyer's Latin and Mediterranean spot, known for tapas and a paella day on select Mondays. Lucile's Creole Cafe has been a Boulder breakfast standby since 1980, and its Erie location at 544 Briggs opened in 2022 serving beignets and shrimp and grits. Both are on 5280's 2023 list of must-try Erie restaurants. The Piripi team is also planning Malbec, an Argentine restaurant in a new building at Briggs and Maxwell Avenue, with construction expected in 2027.

Getting to Denver

There's no rail here, so plan on driving. Erie uses Exit 232 off I-25. Denver is about 25 minutes away and Denver International Airport about 35. The town owns Erie Municipal Airport, on Highway 7 a little over three miles west of I-25, with a 4,700-foot runway. If you're looking at houses near Highway 7, go by on a weekend afternoon to hear the small-plane traffic for yourself.