History

The Most Disreputable Block and a Half in Golden

, and Barb Warden

January 14, 2026 . 12:00 AM

1 min read

The highlighted area shows the "disreputable" buildings that were later replaced with Mitchell Elementary. The large building on the left was the Belle Vista Hotel. The buildings along Ford Street, on the right, were a commercial block. There were several houses in between. - Click to enlarge

89 Years Ago
The January 14, 1937 Colorado Transcript announced that our new elementary school would be dedicated on Sunday, January 17th. Knowing that everyone in the community would want to see the new building, Superintendent Roger Q. Mitchell arranged for public tours.

*Mitchell Elementary on 12th Street – Golden History Museum collection -* *enlarge*

In 1956, the school was renamed in honor of Supt. Mitchell. At that time, Fleet Parsons, editor of the Colorado Transcript, remembered Mitchell’s efforts to get the school built:

It was 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. This Golden Shopping Center of that early date had been moved up onto Washington Ave., where it is now thriving. A few old, illy-kept homes were located on Eleventh Street. It was a whale of a job that Supt. Mitchell had determined to accomplish, and I told him so.