Help Mines
Can you spare 10 minutes this morning to help the School of Mines get a grant from the National Science Foundation? Please visit the NSF Virtual Expo–which will take no more than 10 minutes–and fill out a form at the end. You must do this between 8 and 11:30AM Mountain Time. Please click here to learn more.
Public Health References
CDC * Colorado * Jefferson County * City of Golden
Coronavirus report from Jeffco Public Health’s Case Summary Page, as of 3PM Wednesday:
Cases in Jeffco
Tuesday: 2702 | Wednesday: 2750
Deaths in Jeffco
Tuesday: 210 | Wednesday: 211
Ever Hospitalized in Jeffco
Tuesday: 424 | Wednesday: 425 (currently 16)
Recovered
Tuesday: 2339 | Wednesday: 2352
Known Cases in Golden
Tuesday: 112 | Wednesday: 114
The Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors protocol is in effect. City and County fire restrictions are in place.
Here are the changes within the City Limits. All people are required to wear a mask on City property (including parks and trails) UNLESS they can stay 6 feet away from other people. Streets and sidewalks are not public property, so you are merely requested to wear a mask on streets and sidewalks. Nobody is allowed to access the Creek, so no wading swimming, tubing, kayaking, fishing, sticking your toe in the water, or letting your dog go in. The City is fencing off the Creek.
Council is working with several variables, including the Governor and the head of the County Health Department. They are crafting an emergency ordinance to be considered next week, which will either simplify or complicate things–but in any case will likely bring some changes. In the meantime, those are the current Creek and mask rules. See the City’s website for more details….
Virtual Golden
Last night’s Planning Commission Study Session should be posted on the agendas page sometime today. The topic was how GURA might be able to fund or negotiate low-income housing in the West Colfax corridor.
9AM Public Art Commission Meeting
9-10AM Virtual Low Impact Workout
10:15-11:15AM Preschool Time with the Library
6PM Qs and Brews – Pub Trivia with the Library
6PM Clubhouse Live with the American Alpine Club
Golden History Moment
The Ace Hi Tavern building was originally the Golden Opera House. Does it seem strange to think that a small, western town like Golden would have needed an Opera House? Were we really such opera devotees? Not really.
Opera Houses were very popular in the half century or so after the Civil War. Big cities had them as well as small towns, but in big cities they probably had multiple entertainment buildings that specialized for theater, symphonies, and operas. In smaller towns, one structure hosted all entertainment needs. According to Ann Satterthwaite’s Local Glories: Opera Houses on Main Street – Where Art and Community Meet, Colorado built 132 opera houses in 68 towns and cities between 1860 and 1920. Golden’s was built in 1879. The first floor had stores (sometimes restaurants) and the performance area was on the second floor.
Many troupes of entertainers traveled the country and scheduled stopovers in opera houses as they went. Over the years, the Golden Opera House hosted plays, comedians, orchestras, singers, vaudeville shows, dances, church services, political meetings, dance classes, and graduations (both Golden High School and the School of Mines). Minstrel shows were very popular, and we hosted many, many productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Golden Opera House hosted Blind Boone, Henrietta Vinton Davis, and William Jennings Bryan.
Public tastes and needs changed as technology developed. When the Golden Gem theater opened in 1908, motion pictures suddenly became the most interesting thing to watch. When the Gem moved into the big, modern building at 13th and Washington, it offered a newer, nicer auditorium than the aged Opera House. Then radio came along. Then television. The Opera House was used less and less over the years, though the Fire Department still used it for dances in the 1930s.
I don’t know the interim uses of the building, but the Ace Hi Tavern was operating by 1955. The Stillman family bought it in 1961, and it is now owned by the third generation of that family.
