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Spooky Season and Aspiring Shopping Center

Golden Eye Candy – Chris Davell – Fall Flying – enlarge

What’s Happening in Golden Today?

Harvest Haunt Express this weekend at the Railroad Museum

9-10AM Zumba (Virtual)
9AM-5PM Harvest Haunt Express @ Colorado Railroad Museum

9AM-5PM Whale of Used Book Sale @ Jeffco Fairgrounds (map)
Saturday Special: Jeffco employees, Friends of JCPL and educators receive half-off purchases with ID

9:30AM Full Walking Tour @ Dinosaur Ridge
10-110AM Mat Pilates (Virtual)
10AM-3PM Brunch at the Rose @ Buffalo Rose
10-10:45AM Preschool Nature Nuts – Bats @ Lookout Mountain Nature Center
10:15AM Family Time @ Golden Library

Only two weekends left!

11AM and 1PM The Legend of Sleepy Hollow @ Miners Alley Playhouse
12-12:45PM Amazing Apples @ Natural Grocers
12PM CSM Football vs Black Hills State @ Marv Kay Stadium

Tonight’s Golden Civic Foundation Gala is SOLD OUT!

5-11PM Planet Golden @ Lockridge Arena
6PM Golden Hayride Tour @ Colorado Plus 49 Cidery & Pub
7-11PM Ten Years Gone & Journey to the Heart @ Buffalo Rose

7PM The Talking Dead Haunted Pub Crawl
The 8PM Pub Crawl is sold out, but there is still room at 7PM. This is a great opportunity to meet some of Golden’s honored dead in the flesh!


Halloween Calendar

Check the calendar at www.goldenhalloween.com

Live Music

11AM-2PM Southside Mike @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
12PM Elise Falkenstein @ Tributary Food Hall
1PM Project X @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
5-8PM Silver Stephen @ Golden Mill
5-8PM Riding Carpets @ Goosetown Station
6-8PM Rick Lewis Project @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
6:30-9:30PM Swerve Residency N3 @ Over Yonder
7-10PM Bunny Blake @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)

7-11PM Ten Years Gone & Journey to the Heart @ Buffalo Rose (main venue)
9PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern


Golden History Moment

Downtown in the late ’50s or early ’60s – enlarge

Downtown Golden is thriving these days, but that hasn’t always been the case. From the late 1950s into the 1990s, Golden was struggling. Shopping centers were proliferating at that time, and they were siphoning off the shoppers who had traditionally patronized downtown stores.

63 Years Ago
The October 22, 1959 Colorado Transcript announced that the downtown “businessmen” had agreed to form a Downtown Improvement District. This would impose a tax on the downtown businesses that could be used to fund improvements that would make downtown more enticing.

Cinderella City Shopping Center, with its vast parking lots – Denver Public Library Western History Collection – enlarge

At a public meeting, the Chamber explained the plans for the new district:
“Parking is the big problem. The huge parking area around a shopping center looks good even though the customer may have to park a distance equal to four blocks away from the store where the shopping is to be done. We lack appearance. We lack parking space.”

The Chamber rep went on to explain that–if shoppers could only be made to realize it–Golden was a far superior place to shop, because it offered many services as well as stores–banks, doctors, lawyers, salons, dry cleaners, florist, laundromat, etc.

The downtown development authority spent the next several decades buying land to provide free, convenient parking for store patrons.

Hard-won downtown parking – enlarge

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