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Whale Sale, Cocktails, Deaccessioning, and Creating Commons

Golden Eye Candy – Greg Poulos – Fall Morning on North Table Mountain – enlarge

What’s Happening in Golden Today?

7:30AM Golden Young Professionals Monthly Membership Meeting @ Golden Visitors Center
9-9:55AM Silver Sneakers Classic (Virtual)
9-10AM Zumba (Virtual)
9:15-9:45AM Baby Time @ Golden Library
10-10:30AM Call In: Mid-Morning Meditation (Virtual)
10:15-10:45AM Toddler Time @ Golden Library
11-11:55AM HIIT & Sculpt (Virtual)
4PM Wild West Short Tour

5-7PM Re-Opening Celebration and Ribbon Cutting @ Golden Moon Speakeasy
Join Golden Moon Speakeasy for their re-opening celebration after remodeling their space! The celebration will start at 5pm. Enjoy a welcome cocktail (for those who are 21+) delicious treats and live music and see the newly renovated Golden Moon Speakeasy!

6PM Run Club @ Runners Roost
6-7:30PM 4-H Open House @ Jefferson County Fairgrounds

6-8PM Fall Whale of a Used Book Sale Members Only Night! @ Jefferson County Fairgrounds
Free admission for Friends of JCPL members. Memberships available at the door. Must be a member to attend.

6:15-8:15PM Herbal Liquid Magic @ Earth Sweet Botanicals

Sampling of items from the deaccession list – enlarge

7PM Parks, Recreation and Museums Advisory Board Meeting @ City Hall
The History Museum Director will discuss the Ethnography study with the board and provide a list of 434 items that he plans to deaccession from the museum’s collection. The list includes clothing and hats, including military uniforms going back as far as the Revolutionary War, several Victorian pieces, flapper dresses, American flags with varying numbers of stars, an Edison Home Phonograph, a medical bag, purses, and a high chair.

The board will discuss the multi-use fields that may be built in Ulysses Park, stadium tax, review a draft of the Open Space Master Plan, and discuss Lena Gulch/Bachman drainage issues. They will elect new officers, discuss progress on goals for this year and begin setting goals for next year and hear a staff report. Learn more.


Live Music

5-8PM Shawn Eckles @ Golden Mill
5-8PM Talk Box @ Goosetown Station
5PM Josh Blackburn @ Wrigley’s
5:30PM Rolling Harvest @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
5:30PM The Decaf Muchachos @ Over Yonder

6-9PM Jon Eric Farmer @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
6-9PM Cool Shade @ New Terrain Brewing
6:30-9:30PM Rolling Harvest @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
6:30-8:30PM Derek Dames Ohl @ Tributary Food Hall
8PM Karaoke @ Rock Rest Lodge


Golden History Moment

View from Guggenheim, circa 1920, pre-Kafadar Commons – enlarge

56 Years Ago
The October 20, 1966 Colorado Transcript announced plans for change on the Mines campus.

Caption provided by the 10/20/66 Transcript: Seven buildings outline the new mall of the Colorado School of Mines, with one more to be built and two to be replaced. They are: 1. Guggenheim Hall (administration); 2. Berthoud Hall (geology and geophysics); 3. Meyer Hall (physics); 4. the new Professional Communications and Humanities Center (to be built); 5. Hill Hall (metallurgy); 6. Stratton Hall and Chauvenet Hall (to be replaced by the engineering building); and 7. Lane Library and Research Center.

A new beauty spot is due to emerge in Golden. In a sense it is one which exists today under a chrysalis of shrubbery and middle-aged buildings.

This excerpt from a photo belonging to the Denver Public Library Western History Collection, taken ~1900-1910, shows the houses that formerly occupied Kafadar Commons – enlarge

Those “middle-aged buildings” were homes, including two fraternity houses. The School planned to move all fraternities to a “Fraternity Row” on the west side of campus, on the former clay pits.

The plan called for a central commons, surrounded by the major academic buildings. Meyer Hall was new at that time, and–in anticipation of the future green space–had been built facing the back yards of the houses. Meyer Hall was replaced by the CoorsTek Center for Applied Sciences and Engineering in 2017.

Chauvenet (left, built in 1900) and Stratton (right, built in 1904) – enlarge

The article referred to the “new Professional Communications and Humanities Center.” This was the future Green Center. It also said that Stratton and Chauvenet Halls were due to be demolished and replaced. That didn’t happen; instead, they were both upgraded and are still in use.

Kafadar Commons, shown by Google Satellite image – enlarge

The central campus area was ultimately named “Kafadar Commons” in honor of Ahmed D. Kafadar, Mines class of 1942.


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