City of Golden history

In 1860, during the Colorado Gold Rush, Berthoud and his wife Helen settled in the western part of the territory in the new town of Golden.

Golden, city, seat (1861) of Jefferson county, north-central Colorado, United States It lies on Clear Creek at an elevation of 5,675 feet (1,730 metres) at the foot of Lookout Mountain, just west of Denver, and it is separated from the metropolitan area by the Table Mountains plateau.

Originally named “Golden City” it became the capital of the federally recognized Colorado Territory in 1862.

In 1864, the Legislature met in Loveland’s original wooden mercantile on the east side of Washington Avenue.

Our local newspaper, the Golden Transcript, was established in 1866 by George West, one of the town’s founders, and is still in publication today.

Golden Paper Mill opened in 1867 producing paper from discarded rags and straw, and held the distinction of being the only paper mill west of Missouri.

While industry was booming, the city was also becoming an important center of intellectual development as the home to the Colorado School of Mines established in 1870.

Originally built to include a first floor public room and a basement saloon, Burgess House became a hotel in 1872 with the arrival of the railroad.

When Colorado became a state in 1876, locals were outraged when Denver snagged the title of state capitol, but the loss of name distinction did nothing to slow Golden’s growth.

Berthoud served as the Colorado State Historian and was Mayor of Golden from 1890-91.

Astor House was built in 1867 from locally quarried sandstone. It was enlarged in 1893 and featured a large dining room, a modern kitchen, some of the first indoor plumbing, and thirteen rooms that housed guests and the landlord.

Colorado School of Mines in 1894.

Opened in 1913 by Henry and Dorothy Foss, the Foss Drug Store was a Golden institution for nearly a century.

Established as the Jefferson County Historical Museum in 1938, the Golden History Museum & Park is the oldest cultural institution in Golden.

The museum hosted a grand opening on January 14, 1939, at North School on Washington Avenue, the first official home.

The Colorado School of Mines dedicated Berthoud Hall in his honor in 1940.

In 1948, Holland asked his friend, Paul Reeves—a Coors ad man who had recently designed the company’s first aluminum can label in 1948—to come up with a concept for the arch.

Reeves designed a modern, steel framework structure that arced 58 feet over Washington Avenue, lit with neon, and emblazoned with the words “Howdy Folks! Welcome to Golden.” At a cost of $7,500 the arch was dedicated on March 24, 1949.

A group of concerned citizens rallied to preserve the building, and in 1972 was purchased and saved by a public vote.

Founded in 1974 by the Carter administration under a different name, the NREL now serves as the country’s primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.

During a renovation in 1979, the last word in the tagline “Where the West Remains” was changed to “Lives,” feeling that the former sounded unpleasantly similar to mortal remains.

Today, the home is best known as the Golden City Brewery—one of State’s first microbreweries founded by Charlie and Janine Sturdavant in 1993.

Beginning in 1994, the buildings were moved to this piece of land in Golden, log by log, where they were lovingly reconstructed over the course of four years.

In 1998, the bar was demolished, but not before some of its interior was saved by John Hickenlooper, Colorado’s brewer-turned-Governor, who installed them in a new Goosetown Tavern in the Congress Park district of Denver.

Golden celebrated its 150th birthday in June of 2009.