DENVER (KDVR) — Lakewood authorities are searching for a historic bronze plaque that was stolen from where it had been in place on Alameda Avenue for nearly 100 years.
The plaque had been near the intersection of Alameda Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard on Benton Street since 1937, marking the Great-Depression-era Works Progress Administration expansion of Alameda Avenue from Denver to Red Rocks, according to Alameda Connects, a nonprofit organization serving Lakewood’s Alameda Corridor.
The plaque was stolen in a likely attempt to sell it for scrap, Alameda Connects Executive Director Tom Quinn said in a press release, a trend of stealing historic plaques seen from Los Angeles to New York, now apparently hitting Colorado.
“This marker was intended as a permanent record of the New Deal legacy Franklin Roosevelt built and what social programs and public investment can achieve,” Quinn said. It is a somber reflection that trends indicate it was stripped for scrap by those for whom social safety nets were established to prevent this kind of desperate act.”…