You’ve likely seen this picture before. Have you ever wondered why there are people frolicking around the brewery and boating in the ponds?
When the brewery was new, and for several decades afterwards, Coors had a beer garden, picnic grove, and mini-amusement park on the grounds. The area had trees, picnic tables, and swings. The ponds, which Coors built to make ice in the winter, were open to boating and even swimming. Coors sold beer and other refreshments and they rented out the grounds for group picnics.
The Golden community often celebrated the 4th of July on the Coors grounds, and the Colorado Transcript sometimes referred to the grove as “the Golden Park.”
References to the “pleasure grounds” began to disappear around the turn of the century, and the grove became a private yard for the Coors family. Adolph Coors and his wife raised their family in the mansion on the grounds, and in later years, cottages were built as the next generation married and started families of their own.
The brewery buildings eventually crowded out the old trees.
Many thanks to Esther Kettering for sponsoring Golden History Moments for the month of August.
