WHAT’S HAPPENING IN GOLDEN TODAY?
10AM-3PM Brunch at the Rose @ Buffalo Rose
10AM-noon Breakfast Burritos @ The Golden Mill
12PM CSM Baseball – Orediggers vs. Regis @ Jim Darden Field
12-5PM Local Art Fair @ Morris & Mae
12-2PM Full Walking Tour @ Dinosaur Ridge
2PM I Hate Hamlet @ Miners Alley Playhouse (through April 23)
2:30-4:30PM Textile Society @ Golden Library
LIVE MUSIC
11AM-2PM Ross Henderson @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
3-6PM Alibi Trio @ Golden Mill
3-7PM 2nd Time Around @ Wrigley’s
4-7PM Will Whalen @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage)
4-7PM Yard Bull @ Over Yonder
7PM MAD-LAB EDM @ Buffalo Rose (main venue)
8PM Karaoke @ Ace Hi Tavern
GOLDEN HISTORY MOMENT
98 Years Ago
The April 16, 1925 Colorado Transcript featured an article by Richard Broad, marking the demolition of “Golden’s Oldest Building.” He referred to the Boston Company building, which stood at 10th and Washington. The Kiwanis Club was building Parfet Park at that time, and they wanted to include that land in the park.
The log building was constructed in the summer of 1859. The Boston Company, led by George West, arrived with a wagon train of goods. As many gold-seekers were stopping at this point before making the final climb into the mountains, the Boston group decided this would be a good site for a town. They began constructing their building and hired a surveyor to lay out a town site.
When Broad wrote the article in 1925, he was witnessing the removal of many later additions to the building, including clapboard siding, so he was able to see the original log structure. Some of his observations:
Those who have seen it in process of demolition know that it was a simple two story log building, constructed of timbers brought from the mountains above. It was about 26 feet long by 19 feet wide, with floor joists and probably floors constructed of logs and hewn timbers. No sawed timber was used, as there were no saw mills in this region until later years…. It is doubtful also if there was any glass in the windows, for window glass was a later luxury. And yet, it was no common log building as any one who watched its tearing down can testify. The axeman who hewed the timbers was an expert, the joiner who fitted them together knew his business, while in the construction of the second story, the mortise and tenon work is equal to that of an experienced shipwright. When it was completed it was so solid as to defy the hardest west winds of the succeeding 66 years.
Broad concluded the article by suggesting that, in default of preservation, “some enduring tablet be placed on its site, which shall briefly record its history, and help preserve for posterity the names of the founders of this community.” The Daughters of the American Revolution agreed, and provided a commemorative boulder that is still in Parfet Park. The brass plaque says
ON THIS SPOT
STOOD THE FIRST BUILDING
IN GOLDEN
A TRADING POST BUILT IN
1859
MARKED BY
MOUNT LOOKOUT CHAPTER
DAUGHTERS OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
1927
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!
