Downtown Development and a Trench for Safeway

Golden Eye Candy – Kat LeFevre – A Walk by the Creek – click to enlarge

Virtual Events

6-6:55AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
10:15AM Spanish Story Time with the Library
4-4:30PM Kids Martial Arts Class
2-3PM Active Minds Mondays

Real World Events

5-9 Golden Game Guild Meet-Up Mondays @ Golden Game Guild
4-5PM Monthly Maker: Stage Makeup @ Golden Library – WAIT-LISTED

6:30PM Downtown Development Authority Meeting @ City Hall
The Yo Colorado store, located at 805 12th Street, is requesting a matching grant for their new garage door. The cost was $5,042, and they are requesting that the DDA pay for half the cost. Miners Alley Playhouse, which receives $20K every year to help pay part of their rent, will provide their annual status report. VisitGolden, the City’s tourist marketing program, will request $10K. After the business meeting, they will adjourn to executive session (no public, no cameras) to discuss “financing and contracting relating to the real property located near 11th and Arapahoe Streets.”

Golden History Moment

*Top photo – Golden Transcript – October 18, 1978 } bottom photo – Google Maps – click to enlarge*

43 Years Ago
The October 18, 1978 Golden Transcript included the top photo, showing a sizeable excavation on Jackson Street. Safeway was getting ready to build their current store at that time, and the City was installing an 8 foot storm drainage culvert in preparation.

*Safeway’s 1934 store on Washington Avenue*

1701 Jackson Street would be Safeway’s fourth (and so far, final) store in Golden. Their first store opened in 1934, at 13th and Washington. They remodeled and doubled in size in 1942, then moved to 1109 Ford Street in 1950.

*Safeway at 12th and Ford in 1961 – Golden History Museum collection – click to enlarge*

The 1950 store was larger than the old, and–more importantly–had its own parking lot, designed to hold 70 cars. The parking shortage in downtown Golden had grown increasingly drastic over the previous two decades, and close parking is particularly necessary for shoppers with large grocery purchases. In 1961, they built another store–larger than the 1950 model–on the same lot. When the new store was finished, they demolished the old one to make an even bigger parking lot.

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!