Virtual Events
6-6:55AM Cycling
10AM Call In: Mid-Morning Meditation
10-10:55AM Awareness Through Movement
11-11:55AM HIIT & Sculpt
3PM Virtual/Call In: Hard Times Writing Workshop
Real World Events
Spring Yard Waste Collection
9:15-9:45AM Baby Time @ Golden Library
10:15-10:45AM Toddler Time @ Golden Library
11AM-12:30PM Golden Community Table @ First United Methodist Church
3PM CSM Graduate Commencement @ Lockridge Arena
5-7:30PM Golden Moon Speakeasy 8th Anniversary Party @ Golden Moon Speakeasy
5:30 to 7:30PM Marketing 101 @ Craft Coworking
6PM Run Club @ Runners Roost
6-9PM Mini Paint Night @ Golden Game Guild
6:15-8:15PM May Flower Moon Creations @ Earth Sweet Botanicals
Join Aromatherapist & Herbalist Crystal Baldwin as you make 4 fabulous projects to celebrate May’s flower Moon: Crystal & Flower Candle, Essential Oil Cone Incense, Herbal Flower Tea, Flower Journal
This class will be all things flowers as we celebrate the flower full moon. Besides making four ceremonial items you will enjoy trying and learning about A calming and centering Flower Essences & Flower Hydrosols. We will discuss different ideas on how to celebrate the flower moon how to take time for yourself and how to usher in the season of fresh growth as well as doing a flower meditation & journal.
Of course we will have a Flower Cocktail and yummy Flower Treats and you’ll go home with all of the recipes. Learn more….
6:30PM Economic Development Commission Meeting
7:30PM Blue Ridge @ Miners Alley Playhouse
Live Music
5-8PM Shawn Eckles @ Golden Mill
5PM 2nd Time Around @ Wrigley’s
6-9PM Travis Daudert @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
6-8PM Quinlan Valdez @ Goosetown Station
6-9PM River Valley Rangers @ New Terrain Brewing
6PM Open Pick Night @ Over Yonder Brewing
6:30-8:30PM Live Music @ Tributary Food Hall
8-10PM Cliff Cody @ Ace Hi Tavern
8PM Karaoke @ Rock Rest Lodge
Golden History Moment
This is #11 in the history of the Heart of Golden territory. Goosetown is one of our oldest neighborhoods and is the newest addition to the City’s property.
What exactly is Goosetown? There isn’t an exact definition–it’s not an officially designated district. Roughly speaking, it’s the area north of the Creek, south of Highway 58, and east of Ford Street. It includes the rubble that was once the Coors office building and the parking lots that the City recently purchased. The other chief buildings in the neighborhood are the Golden Masonic Temple, the American Legion hall, Goosetown Station, Golden Well Being Collective, and the Burgess House apartment building.
David Wall, who may have been Golden’s very first (white) settler, planted a vegetable garden in that area in the spring of 1859. He dug a ditch from Tucker Gulch to his field, thus earning two titles–“the father of Colorado agriculture” and “the father of Colorado irrigation.”
In 1870, the Colorado Central Railroad came to town. Having a railroad put Golden on the map: because of it, we were able to develop significant industry and commerce. The Colorado Central’s roundhouse, machine shop, and freight depot were built in the Goosetown area, and many boarding houses and homes were soon built in the vicinity to house the railroad workers.
Why was it called “Goosetown?” I’ve heard a couple different answers to that question. One is that the brewery kept a flock of geese, and they wandered around the neighborhood, honking. The other answer is that the women of the neighborhood, many foreign-born, kept up a steady stream of chatter, unintelligible to those who only spoke English.
The Colorado Central was built to service the mountain mining towns (Blackhawk, Central City, Idaho Springs, Georgetown, etc.) as well as transporting freight and people between Denver and Golden. By the 1930s, automobiles and trucks were taking the place of railroads, and the railroad employed fewer and fewer people.
After World War II, Coors entered a time of tremendous growth. To enable their expansion, they gradually purchased property adjacent to the brewery. The Goosetown neighborhood was particularly affected. Where there once were a few dozen homes, we now see parking lots and Highway 58.
Moving 10th Street
In 1975, Coors needed more room for beer “cellars,” the buildings where beer is stored for aging. They approached the City of Golden, proposed an exchange of several parcels of land, and asked the City to allow them to reroute 10th Street to make room for their newest building.
The July 28, 1975 Golden Transcript reported that the exchange of land and rights of way was complete, and that 10th Street had been rebuilt at Coors’ expense.
Building and Demolishing the Office Building
The September 9, 1980 Golden Transcript announced Coors’ plan to expand the brewery and construct a new office building on 10th Street between Archer and Vasquez. The article said that the new building would be 150 feet wide by 250 feet long, five stories tall, and 154,600 square feet. It would include a cafeteria and a small park. They anticipated moving into the building in September of 1981.
In 2019, Coors contacted the City to say they would be selling the building and adjacent property. The City wanted more room for city staff, the history museum, a cultural center, and affordable housing, so they bought it from Coors. They then decided that the existing building would not meet the City’s needs, so they demolished it.
The City hopes to build a new City Hall and police department in Goosetown, a new History Museum next to the Clear Creek History Park, and affordable housing in locations to be determined.
If voters approve the project, Goosetown will likely see a resurgence. The Heart of Golden design drawings show new parks and landscaping along the Creek. Eventually, they hope to persuade RTD to bring the gold line into Golden. That would make Goosetown a likely location for high density transit-oriented development.
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!
