Cold Weather and the Big Red Boot

*Golden Eye Candy – Richard Luckin – Wild Geese – enlarge*

The National Weather Service tells us we’ll have another cold day, with a chance of snow.

Monthly Appeal

Many thanks to the people who sponsored this email for the month of January. If you enjoy the Eye Candy, the events, the descriptions of upcoming city meetings, and Golden History, please consider sponsoring us for February–or contributing on a monthly basis. Click here to find out how.

Thanks,
Barb Warden
goldentoday.com

What’s Happening in Golden Today?

6:30-7:15AM Dynamic Circuit (Virtual)
8:30-9:30AM Power Training (Virtual)
10-10:55AM All Levels Yoga (Virtual)
10:15-10:45AM Let’s Dance @ Golden Library
12-12:30PM Mondays with Mayor Weinberg (Virtual)
2-3PM Active Minds Monday: The Nuremburg Trials (Virtual)
4-4:30PM Kids Martial Arts Class (Virtual)

Golden History Moment

*The Big Red Boot appears on the far left of this photo. The parade is celebrating Inspection Day. Golden History Museum collection – enlarge*

The Snodgrass family arrived in Golden in 1863. The older boy, J. Austin, became a cobbler, making and repairing shoes and boots in his Washington Avenue store, The Big Red Boot. His brother Amos began working as a typesetter for the Transcript at age 13. Eventually, he moved across the street and joined his older brother in the shoe business.

122 Years Ago
This advertisement from the January 30, 1901 Colorado Transcript shows Amos combining his paper and leatherwork skills.

If you have books of any kind to be re-bound or repaired, leave orders with Amos at the Big Red Boot shop on Washington Avenue.

The Big Red Boot shop was a one story frame building. I haven’t discovered when the frame building was removed, but the lot stood empty for several years before being acquired by the Middlemiss family, owners of the adjacent Fair store.

*Downtown, circa 1925-1937, with the billboard highlighted – enlarge*

For some years, a billboard covered the vacant lot. A 1943 Transcript article mentioned that local children were making good use of the ground:

Across the street criss-cross lattice work beneath a billboard hides a vacant lot belonging to Ralph Middlemiss, proprietor of the Fair. On several occasions boys have been see playing behind these bars. Investigation shows Ralph has built for them a croquet ground.
Colorado Transcript – July 22, 1943

*Big Red Boot –> The Fair –> Baby Doe’s Clothing – enlarge*

In 1949, the Middlemisses used the lot to build an addition to the Fair. That building is now home to Baby Doe’s Clothing.

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!