The Alba Dairy began operations on RFD 1 in Boulder just before WWI at the outset of the prewar agricultural boom. The dairy market consisted of at least 10 small operations servicing Boulder. Fred Schroeder was the Dairy’s first proprietor. It appears that the Alba Dairy went under after the War. By 1920, Schroeder was running the Gilt Edge Creamery with G. B. Hardy on 2021 15th and Gilbert E. Longshore ran the new Alba Dairy on 27th and Pine. Fred Watts had, by then, set up his Watt’s Blue Ribbon Dairy on 1435 Spruce.
Two years later, Alba was being run by G. W. Robbin and J. F. Brahmstadt. Justus Brahmstadt had come from Nebraska where he had been born, raised, educated, and business trained before arriving in Boulder and taking over the Alba Dairy. Brahmstadt became a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Methodist Church, the Masons, BPOE, the Lions Club, and the Republican Party. While the JLS was in operation, the Alba Dairy was located on Pine and 27th and had an outlet between Pearl and Spruce on Broadway. They advertised 20 flavors of ice cream. Harry Foote claimed, “It took practice to finish one of their thick shakes.” The Alba finally closed down shop in 1958.
The Gilt Edge Creamery was owned by Boulder raised and educated, CU graduate, Griffin Hardy. It merged with the Watts Blue Ribbon Dairy in 1927. Fred Callaway Watts, an Indiana, Oregon and Washington raised dairyman, became president of the Chamber of Commerce, member of AF & AM, Rotary, BPOE, American Legion, and Boulder County Club. With offices on 1248 Walnut (or near Broadway and Walnut) and their Dairy on 27th and Walnut, they served an entire line of dairy products, including ice cream. During the 1950s, the dairy industry began to consolidate, mechanize and mass-produce. Shopping at supermarkets took over for home delivery. Most of the local dairies dropped out of production. Watts-Hardy and Alba were the chief competing dairies at the time. After 1958, Meadow Gold and Watts-Hardy were two of the last three Dairies in town, both having kept up with the demands of the new mass market. Watts-Hardy had their facility on 27th and Walnut. They built a new facility on 25th and Walnut in the 60s.
Watts-Hardy was taken over and closed by Sinton’s in 1987, a dairy of similar family background from Colorado Springs. The city considered the Sinton property for a new public library in 1989, an effort that failed. Then the property was divided and an apartment complex called the Sinton Apartments was built in the early 1990s. During the same period, arts groups raised enough donations to purchase and renovate the old Watts-Hardy facility into an arts complex. Now called the Dairy Center for the Arts, it is home to Boulder County Arts, Boulder Actors Group, The Boulder Conservatory Theatre Company, Community Television of Boulder, Dairy Administrative Offices, Frequent Flyers Productions, The Guild Theatre, Helander Dance Theater, Imagination Makers Theater Company, International Tap Association, Mystyk Hande, Naropa University Arts Department, Peak Association of the Arts (Peak Arts Academy, Boulder Ballet and Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra), and the Upstart Crow Theatre Company. In other words, in keeping with Boulder’s contemporary civic character, lots of theatrics, but no ice cream. Or is that crying over spilt milk?
References: Archives, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries and the Carnegie Branch Library for Local History.
