Tour of Historic Downtown Golden
Calvary Episcopal Church
1300 Arapahoe Street
Built in 1867
Designed by a member of the original church vestry
Constructed by John H. Parsons
Stonework by George Morrison (probable)
Woodwork by Woods & Robert Millikin
Listed on the State and National Historic Registers
Historic Entities - Calvary Episcopal Church (Established by Bishop George Maxwell Randall in 1866)
Calvary is the 2nd-oldest Episcopal chapel in Colorado, constructed in 1867 and since standing watch over downtown. Its congregation was established the year before from the efforts of famed missionary Bishop George Maxwell Randall, who would go on to found 4 colleges in Golden and Denver including the Colorado School of Mines. Calvary has remained a well-preserved landmark, the earliest known work of prominent contractor John H. Parsons, with ornate wooden trusses carved by Woods and Robert Millikin (a future Jefferson County commissioner) in the style of the Anglican churches of Episcopalian heritage. Inside is an ornate stone baptismal font crafted by George Morrison, and pews that were the gift of congregation member Adolph H.J. Coors. Other prominent members of Calvary have included George West and Edward L. Berthoud, and the church sits upon land given the congregation by William A.H. Loveland. Its bell, added in 1870, was given to the church by Mrs. Jarvis, of the family whom Mines' sister school was named after. The church Guild Hall, built in 1902, is made with inner bricks salvaged from Standley Hall, a prominent early meeting and events place located a block northeast. (Images from left - Bishop George Maxwell Randall, courtesy Episcopal Church; Calvary Episcopal Church in 1893, courtesy Golden Globe; Calvary Episcopal Church in 2000s, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Armory
1301 Arapahoe Street
Built in 1913
Designed and constructed by James H. Gow
Listed on the State and National Historic Registers
Site of Bush Mansion (1867-1878); Golden House (1870-1878)
Listed by Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the largest cobblestone building in America, the unique Armory was originally supposed to be made of brick, but made far more noteworthy by the cost-cutting measure of using local cobblestone. This edifice, spearheaded by Col. Joseph C. Taylor and inspired by similar buildings at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, England, is made from 3,300 wagonloads of cobblestones from Clear Creek and Baseball Gulch weighing 6,600 tons, requiring 5,500 sacks of cement, 1,000 cubic yards of sand, and quartz from Golden Gate Canyon. Despite the optical illusion its cornerstone at the northeast base of the main story really is in plumb. This edifice was built as the armory of the Colorado National Guard, housing dormitories, mess hall, drill hall, basketball gymnasium, 3rd floor auditorium with balcony, weapons storage rooms, and an observation and map room atop the tower led to by a wooden squared spiral staircase. The building housed Company A Engineers of the Colorado National Guard, the only such unit west of Philadelphia, and was used as an emergency hospital by the Red Cross during the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918. From 1913-40 the Golden Post Office was at the northeast ground floor, where one may walk into its ornate iron safe today. In 1933 it served as the local headquarters for the Civil Works Administration, the first of several New Deal public works agencies to make an impact here. In 1978 the Armory was converted to shops and offices, and today serves also as living quarters for School of Mines students, a use it has often served over the years. (Image - Armory in 1914, courtesy Denver Public Library Western History Department)
Piggly Wiggly
807 13th Street
Built in 1946
Constructed by Ralph L. Neal
Golden Furniture Store owner Ernie Waters built Piggly Wiggly #29 in 1946, Golden's first purely grocery store building built in nearly half a century, constructed by Ralph Neal featuring rows of glass block over its plate glass windows and doors. Originally operated by W.E. "Brownie" Thornton and Ted Andersen, it was later owned by the friendly elder gentleman Orin Newman and then Japanese immigrants Bright and Show Hoshiko. The grocery operated for 20 years, in later years becoming the Golden Gate Market. In 1964 Jeffco Blueprints office supply store opened here and operated for 35 years, a favorite of School of Mines students began by the Emmanuel family. In later times the building served as Hatch's Books, and today awaits restoration as one of the area's few Moderne styled buildings that was built or is left, with its glass block clerestory remaining beneath the canopy. (Images from left - Piggly Wiggly in 1964, courtesy Charles S. Ryland Collection, Gardner Family Collection; building in 1960s, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; Piggly Wiggly today, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Quaintance Block
805 13th Street
Built in 1911, moved here in 1923
Designed & Constructed by James H. Gow
Listed on the Golden, State and National Historic Registers
Site of Quaintance Building (1908-1913)
James H. Gow, one of Colorado's earliest locally educated masters, chose experimental glazed bricks to define the distinctive façade he dreamed up for Charles F. Quaintance, the "Prince of Boosters." When it was made, the Quaintance Block was located directly on the corner of 13th and Washington, designed as three storefronts for Quaintance's investment company on the corner, photo shop on 13th Street and brother Arthur's law office on the Avenue. From here many eager patrons, after embarking from tramway depots across the street, journeyed to Castle Rock resort towering above Golden, beckoned here by Quaintance's signs advertising the resort he operated. Resort patrons often had their pictures taken here, had them developed while journeying up the Rock, and their postcard photos were waiting for them by the time they got back. Quaintance moved the building 65 feet west in 1923 to make way for downtown's first pure service station, shifted his resort-advertising signs to face east, and added a rear addition in 1924 to house the Jueck Brothers' pool hall. After later serving in part as the law office of Jefferson County Judge Charles McCall, the building became home to the Jefferson County Republican newspaper in 1933 under prominent editor James Cuyler Miller, and then from 1946-1952 the Golden Furniture Store ran by Ernie Waters and later Cliff Evans. From 1953-84 Golden City Councilor Leonard K. Dunn, wife Pat, and later Eleanor Laseman ran Golden's beloved Spudnut Shop here, making tasty donuts using potato flour. In 1990 the Quaintance Block was restored to its appearance of old, and Conrad E. Gardner became the building's third attorney in its eastern storefront. Today the Quaintance Block is one of the rare moved buildings listed on the National Historic Register. (Images from left - Quaintance Block after Great Blizzard of 1913, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; Quaintance Block in 1938 as Jefferson County Republican, courtesy Prospector Yearbook; Quaintance Block in 1953 as Spudnut Shop with Len and Pat Dunn, courtesy Dunn Collection, Gardner Family Collection; Mr. Spudnut, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; James Cuyler Miller, courtesy Colorado Transcript; Arthur D. Quaintance, courtesy Colorado Transcript; Quaintance Block today, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Conoco Service Station
1300 Washington Avenue
Built in 1949
Constructed by Harold W. Pride
Site of Golden School (1859-1876); Quaintance Block (1911-1923); Continental Service Station (1923-1949)
James and Teresa Kite removed the little tin gas station of Golden's oldest brand to make way for a sleek new corner Conoco station of Streamline Moderne styling, coated with white glazed tile, plate glass windows on the front, distinctive porthole restroom windows on the north side, and streamlined in triple green strips across the top. Standing on the historic site of Colorado's second school, this station was profitable for many years for the Continental Oil Company. Around the 1960s it was remodeled with a similar but Modernist steel paneled facade, and in 1972 the building was remodeled to become a branch bank of Golden State Bank, a major transformation of its appearance into a false mansard-roofed building with dark brick siding. This has since been stripped off down to the original facade today. (Image - Conoco Service Station in 1950 (used in its 1950 grand opening advertisement), courtesy Richard & Heather Eckels Collection, Gardner Family Collection)
Table Mountain Inn
1310 Washington Avenue
Built in 1924-1925 (Hotel); 1955 (Methodist Education Building, annexed in 1963)
Designed by Tracy Quick (Hotel)
Constructed by Charles J. Buckman (Hotel)
Historic Entities - Table Mountain Inn (Established by Robert
Berry in 1924)
Site of Washington Avenue Methodist Church (1868-1963); Methodist Parsonage
(1872-1963); Methodist Parsonage (1882-1963); Devalon Residence (1905-1963)
Golden's longest-operating hotel (for over 80 years, counting 2 interruptions) was created by Robert Berry, as the up-to-minute Hotel Berrimoor, named after himself and its moorish architecture by a community contest. Going down with the Great Depression in the 1930s, it was reopened as the Cody Hotel (the second downtown hotel named for Buffalo Bill), and afterwards was the 4th hostelry named the Golden Hotel, then the Wright Hotel. In 1942 Leonard and Mrs. DeLue purchased it and renamed it the LaRay Hotel, building the one-story El Burro restaurant addition in 1946. That year the hotel was purchased by Lu Holland, who remodeled its first story in Streamline Moderne and renamed it the Holland House, and built it into a regionally famous establishment for its cuisine. Holland remodeled the hotel again in 1963 in a flamboyant modern style, featuring a wave canopy and plate glass windows, and annexing the Methodist Education Building (now southwestern end of the hotel, built in 1955) for additional rooms. Fading after Holland retired, the hotel closed in 1987, but in 1992 it was renovated by prominent Colorado restauranteur Frank Day and Bart Bortles into the Table Mountain Inn. Crafted into another southwestern style (the Pueblo Revival), it was greatly expanded in the late 1990s with a 4-story addition on the historic site of Colorado's 3rd church and second Protestant congregation, today's First United Methodist Church in Golden, a congregation dating to 1859. Inside the original hotel one may yet see the original rear wall and windows of the Berrimoor in the Del Rio Room, and the original north-facing front archway going into the restaurant now called the Mesa Grill, and the flagstone fireplace Holland built in the rear lounge in 1957. (Images in rows from left - hotel in 1927, courtesy CSM Prospector yearbook; hotel in 1940s, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; hotel in 1960s, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; Table Mountain Inn today, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Rhoads Residence
714 14th Street
Built in 1907
Designed, Constructed & Woodwork by William A. Rhoads
William A. Rhoads, a Union captain in the Civil War, designed, built and lived in this home in 1907, and here spent the golden years of his life. Built in the Dutch gambrel roof style descended from tall ship construction, this place is decorated throughout with ornate woodwork carved by Rhoads himself. In later years it was home to Mary Bengson, one of the last members of the once large population of Swedish immigrants in Golden. During the 1970s this place became the Brass Lantern, and has remained a restaurant ever since, now one of two Toni Rigatoni's establishments. This home remains well-preserved, with its porch now filled in and northeast corner repaired from the 1908 lightning strike that shattered it. (Image - Rhoads Residence in 1915, courtesy Golden History Center; Rhoads Residence today, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Rhoads Residence
1323 Washington Avenue
Built in 1903
Designed, Constructed & Woodwork by William A. Rhoads
The original home portion of this place was built in 1903, one of the first 20th Century homes in Golden. It was designed and built by William A. Rhoads as his home, which he lived in until building his second and permanent home just next door to the east. The woodwork which this Union Civil War veteran carved may still be seen around the inside of this place. In 1947 Herbert "Bud" Schloffman opened the Golden Pet Shop here, a business that would operate for half a century, expanding into the storefront addition he built in 1957. It replaced the original front porch, but otherwise this home remains intact. (Images from left - Rhoads Residence in 1905, courtesy Colorado Transcript; Rhoads Residence today, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Goad Building
1317 Washington Avenue
Built in 1935
Downtown's first and only building built for medical science is the original rear portion of this place, the brick, tile-roofed office of Dr. R.G. Howlett. Built in 1935, this place was used by the Howlett family of physicians for anything from medical checkups to surgery, and Dr. Louis Howlett built its forward portion in 1963. Soon thereafter the building was sold to Dr. Lloyd Goad, a World War II veteran and surviving tortured prisoner of war of the Japanese. Since his retirement in the 1980s the building has remained in medical practice as the dentist's office of his son Richard, while elsewhere the building has been the headquarters of the World Footbag Association. During the 1990s a 1930s-style storefront facade was built, reasserting the building's historic origins. (Images from left - building in 1961, courtesy Charles S. Ryland Collection, Gardner Family Collection; Goad Building today, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Mountain States Telephone Exchange
1313 Washington Avenue
Built in 1955, originally built in 1925
The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company, after years of operating switchboards in one rented building after another for its Golden customers, originally built this place as Golden's telephone exchange in 1925. This place stood where the northwest portion of the present building exists now, with a 25-foot front and extending about 30 feet back, with a tiled roof nicely complimenting the other tiled parts of southern downtown. Through time updated telephone technology mandated a large back addition in 1955 and then in 1965 the original building was torn down to make way for an equally large front addition, making this downtown's evolved landmark whose origin is in 1925 but did not turn 50 until 2005. After the operators moved out in 1974 this building became a laboratory manufacturing nuclear pharmaceuticals. In 2003 it was renovated to become the Bent Gate mountaineering store, with a new front paying homage to the original. (Images from left - original building in 1925, courtesy Colorado Transcript; building with rear addition in 1955, courtesy Golden Outlook)
Williams Garage
1305 Washington Avenue
Built in 1915
Constructed by H.W. Axtell
Site of Wells Fargo Stable (1871-1911)
William Williams, known through the region as "Cement Bill", who was a builder famed for building the Lariat Loop road up Mt. Zion, built this place to take advantage of all the tourist traffic the new road would bring. Here the Williams Transportation & Investment company kept a fleet of 12 Stanley Steamers ready to take eager tourists to the new Denver Mountain Parks, to destinations like Genesee and Lookout mountains and Idaho Springs. WT&I also installed the first gasoline pumps in the area out front, making this one of the oldest remaining service station buildings in Colorado today. Cement Bill, nicknamed because local suppliers could not keep up with the immense amounts of cement he used on all his projects from roads to sidewalks to dams, operated this garage until 1925, which also served as Golden's first Ford dealership from 1915-1917. The garage was afterwards operated by Mayor George Hering and was a parking garage for the theater next door. After serving as the Golden Bowling Alley of Cliff Evans in the 1930s, it was renovated to a moderne type appearance in 1941, and became the Tropics Inn bar in 1944. In the 1990s the place became the first of the chain of Woody's Wood-Fired Pizza places, named for the wood-burning oven that cooks inside. (Images from left - Williams Garage in 1915, courtesy Golden History Center; Williams Garage as Golden Gem Garage in 1927, courtesy CSM Prospector yearbook; Williams Garage as Golden Bowling Alley, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; Williams Garage as Tropics Inn in 1946, courtesy Jefferson County Republican; Williams Garage in 2000s, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Golden Theatre
1301 Washington Avenue
Built in 1911
Designed by James H. Gow (original and 1926); Charles Dunwoody Strong (1948)
Constructed by James H. Gow (original); Art Moore (1948)
Site of Wells Fargo Stable (1866-1948)
Colorado's oldest known place built as a movie theater was constructed in 1911 to house the Gem Theatre. Owner August F. Sieg, who himself appeared in early films shot in the Golden area, created this as a permanent home for the movie house (established in 1908) and the Golden Athletic Club on the second floor. In 1913 the club folded, but the Gem was very popular, aided by its grand Photoplayer organ with 65-note range of pipes and many sound effects installed in 1926. In 1928 the building was renovated to fully become a theater, but during renovations the east wall fell, severely injuring carpenter D.D. Branch. The wall, which had been built with difficulty and thought to have defects, collapsed when workers punched through, and it was replaced. In 1935 the Atlas Theatre Corporation, a Colorado-based movie house chain that included the Federal, Holiday, Gothic and Oriental, took hold of the venue, and in 1948 the chain architect Charles Dunwoody Strong expanded and completely redesigned the building into a towering Art Deco palace. The façade has since featured the sleek and colorful tiles made by the Denver Terra Cotta Company, the same as created the Mayan Theatre façade in Denver. Renamed the Golden Theatre, this historic venue operated under longtime Atlas leader Charles U. Yeager and others until 1976, much of the time using twin Simplex E7 projectors frm the 1930s. This building has since served several retail and office uses. (Images in rows from left - theater in 1910s, courtesy Charles S. Ryland Collection, Gardner Family Collection; theater in 1932, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; theater in 1930s, courtesy Rizzari Collection published in Golden Transcript; Golden Theatre in 1949, colorized by Richard J. Gardner, Gardner Family Collection; 1920s theater art, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; Charles U. Yeager, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; stairs to balcony, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; snack bar, courtesy Gardner Family Collection; auditorium feather motif, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)
Bank of the West
701 13th Street
Built in 1956
Designed by James H. Johnson
Constructed by R.W. Mein Construction Company
Historic Entities - Bank of the West (Established as Golden
Building & Loan in 1910)
Site of First Baptist Parsonage (1866-1956)
Golden Savings & Loan, an institution created through the spearheading efforts of Charles F. Quaintance in 1910, outgrew its quarters after half a century and decided to move next door to the corner. Here they built this truly Modernist bank, a one-story dark brown Roman brick building with accordion roof supported by laminated wood beams, with a front almost completely of plate glass windows and doors. Inside the vault is encased in a native rock wall built by the Archuleta family of stonemasons whose work has since graced many fine Golden places. A matching 2-story addition was added to the rear in 1965, and matching drive-thru shelter during the 1980s. The bank has since become First Federal, Commercial Federal and Bank of the West, but its building has remained one of the best-preserved examples of its type of design anywhere. (Image - James H. Johnson's original architectural plan, courtesy Golden Outlook)
Wells Fargo Bank
1301 Jackson Street
Built in 1956
Designed by William C. Munchow
Constructed by Amil E. Jones
Historic Entities - Wells Fargo (Originally established
in Golden in 1866; Bank established by Louis J. Smith in 1873)
Site of Linder Residence (1870s-1956)
Golden’s only bank knew only one building for over 70 years until the First National Bank decided to spring forward into the modern age after World War II. The result was this one-story building of red brick, with distinctive sawtoothed 13th Street façade and overhanging indented metal cornice. This unusual building designed by prominent architect William C. Munchow was created to have a winged effect of alternating sections of glass and brick on the 13th Street façade, and it originally sported indirect backlit signage to the left of the front doors. Since then the original hexagonal building has been added onto considerably and less imaginatively, squaring off its original unique shape. The bank was renamed First Interstate Bank during the 1980s when it became the first franchise establishment of that bank’s system, and it was later absorbed into Norwest Banks during the 1990s. In 1999 Norwest was purchased by Wells Fargo, marking the firm's return to Golden in 2000 after an absence of over a century, only one block east of its original Golden location. (Image - bank at night for grand opening, courtesy Colorado Transcript)
Golden Liquors Building
601 13th Street
Built in 1957
Historic Entities - Golden Liquors (Established by Jack Knight in 1934)
Proudly advertising selling the freshest Coors anywhere, Golden Liquors has been a downtown fixture for over 70 years here and at its original location of 1113 Washington Avenue. Its original neon sign came here with it and was placed in front when this new home was built by Paul C. Howard in 1957. The building is of a Modernist design featuring an angled glass storefront all catering to its corner location. A second, rear structure was originally a separate building also built in 1957 which served for half a century as the home of Golden Cleaners until it was absorbed by McPeek Cleaners in 2007. Today the building maintains one of the oldest continuous liquor sellers in Colorado. (Image - Golden Liquors in 2000s, courtesy Gardner Family Collection)