58 Years Ago
The October 5, 1967 Colorado Transcript announced that 13 acres of land had been acquired from the Lookout Mountain School for Boys for an expansion of the high school. The newly-acquired land would be used to add vocational labs and classrooms and baseball, football, and soccer fields.
Before World War II, the Lookout Mountain School (now the Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center) included many acres of farmland. The boys at the school were learning farming and ranching vocational skills.
After the War, Denver’s population exploded, and the surrounding towns were also growing hugely.
Growth in Cities Surrounding Denver, 1950-1960
Westminster – 717.6%
Arvada – 713.7%
Aurora – 323.2%
Littleton – 302.5%
Englewood – 97%
Golden – 35.6%
Source: Colorado Transcript – February 2, 1961
Golden’s leaders were frantic to join the growth trend, but the city was surrounded by mountains on the east and west sides and the Lookout Mountain School on the south.
They began referring to the School as a “plug” and pressuring the state to end the farming program and make the land available for housing developments. In 1963, the State agreed to sell several hundred acres of the School’s farmland.
To the disappointment of Golden's leaders, the land was not snapped up by housing developers.
Parcels were sold for commercial development along South Golden Road. The power company bought a substantial tract, as did a clay mining company. The School of Mines survey fields west of Highway 6 are former Lookout Mountain farmland. The school district acquired land for Johnson Elementary (now Connections Learning Center) and Bell Middle School. The Lunnon family developed Summit View Apartments. Most of the City's golf course was built on former Lookout Mountain farmland.
The residents of Lookout Mountain School have recently been moved to other youth treatment centers around the state. The State has not announced whether they plan to resume using the land as a youth facility.
In the meantime, the City is still anxious to have more housing. The Housing Needs and Strategies Assessment, which was adopted in 2022, concluded that Golden needed 3,100 additional homes (p. 21) over the next ten years.
