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Bill’s Birthday, Movie Night, Volunteering or Working for the City, and Urban Renewal, 1936

Golden Eye Candy – Joyce Davell – Winter at the History Park – enlarge

Virtual Events

Colorado Environmental Film Festival Continues

Real World Events

10AM-3PM Brunch at the Rose @ Buffalo Rose
10AM-5PM DGMG Jewelry, Gem & Mineral Show
11AM-4PM Rocky Mountain Mile High Men’s Exhibit @ The Quilt Museum
11:30AM Winter Jr. Rangers @ Lookout Mountain Nature Center
12-5PM 2022 Members’ Show and Power of Process: A Jeffco Student Exhibition @ Foothills Art Center
12-3PM Buffalo Bill Birthday @ Buffalo Bill Museum & Gravesite
The Pahaska Teepee Gift Store, where the museum was originally housed, will be giving away free cupcakes today to commemorate the birthday of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody.
2PM Moon Over Buffalo @ Miners Alley Playhouse
5PM Movie Night – Hidden Figures @ Presbyterian Church (map)


Applications Due March 4th to Serve on City Boards and Commissions

The City needs applicants to serve on the various boards and commissions. Applications are due this Friday, March 4th, by 5PM. The number of vacancies on each board are as follows:

5 – Community Sustainability Advisory Board
1 – Downtown Development Authority
1 – Economic Development Commission
2 – Golden Urban Renewal Authority
4 – Historic Preservation Board
4 – Mobility and Transportation Board
4 – Planning Commission
1 – Visit Golden Marketing Stakeholder Committee
2 – Investment Advisory Committee

If you want to help set City policy, this is your chance to do so. Decisions are made by those who show up! Learn more….


City Hiring

The City is hiring for several full-time positions. The City Manager’s job has not yet been posted. Learn more….

Economic Development Manager $85,100 – 115,000
Fleet Manager $85,100 – 106,400
Principal Planner $80,000 – 105,000
Deputy Fire Marshal $70,012.80 – 95,014.40
Police Officer $65,353.60 – 92,185.60
Code Enforcement Officer $23.03 – 32.25
Streets Maintenance Worker $49,920 – 55,120
Facility Maintenance Technician $45,760 – 52,000
Senior Maintenance Worker – Parks $43,680 – 49,920


Live Music

2PM Southern Frey @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
4-7PM Keith Hicks @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
8PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern


Golden History Moment

Mitchell Elementary on 12th Street – Golden History Museum collection – click to enlarge

86 Years Ago
The February 27, 1936 Colorado Transcript announced that the old buildings on the site of the new grade school (later called Mitchell Elementary) were scheduled for demolition. Although the project budget included $3,000 for demolition, the project managers found a wrecking company would pay $711 to collect the salvage. This was a net gain of $3,711 for the project, which could be used for landscaping.

Excerpt from the 1882 Birdseye View Map of Golden, showing the buildings that were displaced by Mitchell Elementary – enlarge

This was the property that Fleet Parsons, editor of the Transcript, later recalled as being “…the most disreputable block and a half in Golden. The rat infested wreckage of the old Bella Vista Hotel was in one corner. On Ford St. there were some 4 or 5 unoccupied, abandoned dilapidated, run-down two-story store buildings.

Two Sanborn Insurance Maps showing the school area. The 1938 version was an update to the 1919 base map. They just pasted the new drawing over the old (which is why you can see the old drawing through the new one. enlarge

That same edition of the paper included a lengthy article from an early resident of Golden who recalled each of the residents of each house that was set to be removed. He remembered stagecoaches coming through on 11th Street in the early days.

“First” street, as we used to call it, was pretty busy when the stage coaches, drawn by four and six horses, pulled in every day with lightening-speed, stopped at the Berthoud hotel (log) let passengers out–and then with a crack of the long whip at the leaders, by the high seated driver, the high-lifed steeds would scramble up the slope to the avenue–while the big stage coach rocked up and down on its heavy leather swings….

Building next to the creek – Denver Public Library Western History Collection – enlarge

Several houses had been built right at the edge of the Creek, and that turned out to be a bad choice. Those houses were repeatedly flooded.

The flood that did the most damage on Eleventh Street happened July 11, 1896, after father’s family had moved to Ford street. The back, foul water entered the old home to a depth of 21 inches.

In later years, the Tramway decided to build a track along the Creek, so they could get to the clay pits at the west end of 12th Street. They paid to have “fill” brought in, to raise the height of the south bank. That alleviated most of the flooding.


Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!

Highlights