Public Health References
CDC * Colorado * Jefferson County * City of Golden
JCPHD updates the Coronavirus statistics Monday through Friday at about 3 PM. The next update will be included in tomorrow’s post.
Virtual Golden
6-6:55AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
9-10AM Virtual Power Training
10:15AMSpanish Story Time with the Library
6:30PM Historic Preservation Board Meeting
The Historic Preservation Board will hear the Heart of Golden presentation and provide their comments. The Public Art Commission’s “Art in Public Places Handbook – 2017” is included in the meeting packet, so perhaps HPB will be asked about including history-based artwork along the Creek.
Heart of Golden includes three major expense items: 1) turning more of the land along the Creek into public park; 2) constructing new municipal buildings, and 3) building a new history museum and a cultural arts center. The Historic Preservation Board does not oversee the History Museum (that’s under Parks & Rec), but perhaps they’ll be asked whether a new museum would be desirable.
Golden Landmarks Association and other history-minded citizens have asked the Historic Preservation Board to help in forming a Territorial Capital District. HPB has discussed this at the last two meetings, and both times concluded that their involvement was not needed. They say that most of the 31 buildings are already protected in some way (10 are in historic districts and 11 have been designated as “structures of merit”). Public interest persisted, so the City put a survey on Guiding Golden.
Since I already took the survey, I’m unable to review what the questions were, but I believe one of them said “do you want city staff to stop working on their other projects and work on this?” (I found that to be a bit leading.) The agenda says that the survey results would be emailed to HPB members last Friday, but they have not been included in the meeting packet.
When I mentioned this project two weeks ago, I offered a link to a map, along with the following comment: Personally, I think it’s pretty cool that we still have so many buildings from that era, and I would like to draw attention to both the era and the buildings. If you’re curious as to where the buildings are, you’ll find most of them on this map.
The History Museum Director and a planning department member will present a “unique opportunity to study Golden’s Native American past” through a Native American Ethnographic Study that they would like to do. They will also identify potential funding sources.
HPB will discuss a proposal to post signs commemorating the original names of several streets that were originally named after “Founding Mothers.” Staff reviewed the request with the City Engineer and Parks & Rec Director. They learned the places they are not allowed to place signs. The meeting memo points out that the Parks & Rec Board can also review plaques and memorials. “In both cases, a private group or individual, and not the City, must finance and maintain the plaque or memorial.” It concluded that the HPB, either as a board or as individuals, should work with outside groups who could fund such signs.
Staff will tell the Board about the two proposals the City has received regarding the Astor House. Council is not asking the Historic Preservation Board to evaluate the proposals, but Board members are welcome to offer comments through Guiding Golden.
Golden History Moment
When the pandemic started, and we were all asked to self-isolate, a lot of big rock stars gave free televised concerts to cheer us up. I wondered what I could do to help people through the shut-down. I knew that my readers enjoyed my occasional history articles, so I set a goal to write something about Golden history every day. As month follows month, this has turned out to be an enormous task, but so far I’m still doin’ it!
For the past six months, I’ve spent many hours every day reading the Colorado Transcript. Most days, I’m writing about things I learned in the annals of the Transcript.
October 4-10 is National Newspaper Week. Inspired by this, I decided to write today about the Transcript itself.
George West started the Colorado Transcript in 1866. He was a Civil War veteran and a deeply committed Golden booster. According to his grandson, Neil West Kimball, “he wished the newspaper to be ‘a family affair;’ and he realized his wish, for his two sons, his daughter, his son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and grandson all held executive positions on the publication. His wife wrote for newspapers and magazines under the name of Kate Warrenton.”
George West himself (or “Captain West,” as his contemporaries called him) ran the paper from 1866 until his death in 1906. After his death, his wife (Eliza) became the President of the company, while both his son (Harley) and son-in-law (George Kimball) worked as editors. Kimball soon left to edit a newspaper in another town.
George and Eliza’s son, Harley, died in 1927, leaving his wife Vera to inherit the paper. Vera took an active management role, but in 1929 she remarried and moved to Nebraska. She retained ownership and wrote a regular column. Her second husband, Fleet Parsons, was a Mines graduate. After several years, the two moved back to Golden, and Fleet became the paper’s editor.
George and Eliza’s grandson–Neil West Kimball–spent a brief time as the paper’s editor, then wrote a column for many years from his home on the east coast.
When Vera died in 1954, Fleet became the owner of the Transcript. He remarried, and when he died in 1959, his widow sold the paper.
Although the family connection became increasingly tenuous, the Transcript did stay in the family from 1866-1959. More importantly, it’s still in publication today, when so many other newspapers have vanished.
Many 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!
