89 Years Ago
The July 2, 1936 Colorado Transcript found Golden planning “a little jollification” to celebrate installation of new streetlights in the downtown business district. The plan was to have Mayor Jones push the button turning on the lights while the aldermen (city councilors) stood in attendance. The manager of the electric company would give a speech. A quartet of Kiwanis would sing some songs, followed by “a charming chorus of business girls.” Then they would have a dance on the well-illuminated street.
The City had had a few streetlights prior to this time, but they were widely spaced and of low voltage. A 1910 article said that downtown had 8 streetlights, each 200 candle power (approximately equivalent to a 150 watt light bulb).
The new, 1936 lights were described as “Golden’s Great White Way” (which was a nickname at the time for the bright electric lights of the theater district in New York). The paper enthused that the new lighting
...will greatly facilitate evening window shopping, which will be a real pleasure with the marvelous new stocks of merchandise now on display by Golden merchants. Heretofore, persons who wanted to see goods being shown in many show windows at night would have had to carry a flash light or a candle.
This makes me wonder if the stores had electricity in the mid-1930s. If they did, they weren't using any of it to light their display windows at night!
