Smoke and a Fire

*Golden Eye Candy – Frank Hanou – Return of the Smokey Sunrises – click to enlarge*

Virtual Events

6-6:55AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
11AM-12PM All Levels Yoga Virtual
2-3PM Active Minds Mondays – the Erie Canal
4-4:30PM Kids Martial Arts Class

Real World Events

10AM – Foss Market @ 13^th and Arapahoe
5-9PM Golden Game Guild Meet-Up Mondays @ Golden Game Guild

6:20PM GURA Board Meeting @ City Hall
The Golden Urban Renewal Authority will take a field trip tonight, visiting the Central and West Colfax urban renewal areas. They will meet at City Hall at 6:20.

7-8PM Colorado’s Centennials

Golden History Moment

93 Years Ago
This advertisement appeared in the August 9, 1928 Colorado Transcript. The College Inn was a fairly short-lived business that replaced the long-running Avenue Hotel at 1211 Washington Avenue. It opened in about 1927 and closed in 1929.

*During its brief lifetime, the hotel sported the words “College Inn” over the arched door – click to enlarge*

This narrow window would have been very useful in assigning a date to the photo. As it happens though, there’s a much better clue. Notice the big plume of smoke in the background? That’s the dance hall on Castle Rock burning, and we know for a fact that the fire occurred on August 7, 1927.

The event got surprisingly little press. An article in the August 11, 1927 Transcript speculated that four youths who had been hanging around the mountain that morning might have started the fire. The owners were out of town when the fire occurred, but it was covered by insurance.

*Castle Rock Railway with resort buildings at the top – click to enlarge*

The dance “pavilion” formed part of the Castle Rock Resort, associated with the Castle Rock Scenic Railway. After the resort failed, the property was used for meetings of the Ku Klux Klan and later became a roadhouse. The general feeling was that Golden was glad to see it go.

Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and many thanks to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!