Virtual Events
6-6:55AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
10:15AM Spanish Story Time with the Library
2-3PM Active Minds – Afghanistan
4-4:30PM Kids Martial Arts Class
Real World Events
6:30PM Downtown Development Authority Meeting @ City Hall
The DDA will discuss supporting the Miners Alley Playhouse purchase of the Meyer Hardware building. The proposal calls for DDA providing a $1 million loan from the legacy fund and a $1 million loan from DDA reserves.
When the Golden Urban Renewal Authority finished their 25 year project in the historic downtown, they had $1.8 million left in their budget. They planned to use the money for one last major downtown project–a lasting legacy of GURA’s work to revitalize historic downtown Golden. That money is called “the Legacy Fund,” and GURA shares control of that fund with the Downtown Development Authority.
It took a few years before an ideal project came along, but in the past 14 months, two such projects have arisen–Foothills Art Center’s plan to expand and use the Astor House as an arts center, and the Miners Alley Playhouse plan to purchase the Meyer Hardware building and make it their permanent home.
Golden History Moment
161 Years Ago
The November 15, 1860 Western Mountaineer stated that we needed a tannery. We had butchers, but the hides they produced were mere by-products of the meat. The uncured hides were sent back to “the states” (we were a territory at the time)–and what smelly cargo that must have been! The writer thought that locally-dressed leather could be sold for half the price and still earn “a handsome margin for profit.”
The Civil War intervened, and it took seven more years, but Golden did finally get a tannery. The October 16, 1867 Colorado Transcript announced that C.C. Welch and A. Henry Clements were building a tannery on the east side of town. The first story was stone, the second brick, with timber flooring. It was a large building by the standards of the time–35′ x 45′.
I’m not sure how long the tannery remained in business, but in 1873, the building was purchased by a far more important industry. The November 12, 1873 Colorado Transcript announced that
Another new and extensive manufactory is about to be added to the number already in Golden. Messrs. J. Schueler and Adolph Coors, of Denver, have purchased the old tannery property of C. C. Welch and John Pipe, and will convert it into a brewery. They purpose making large additions to the building, making it one of the most extensive works of the kind in the Territory, completing it about the first of February. We welcome these energetic gentlemen among us, and trust they will be as successful as they anticipate.
Colorado Transcript – November 12, 1873
However much success they anticipated, they must surely have exceeded it. Schueler retired in 1880 and Coors bought out his interest in the firm. Today, Coors’ Golden plant is the largest single site brewery in the world.
