A restoration project of the Golden Landmarks Association

Golden Landmarks Association is now commencing work to restore this beautiful Foursquare Romanesque brickwork house. Located on Catamount Drive on the north side of Golden Gate Canyon Road just east of the Jefferson County Shops, this little house is an unusual and ornate landmark made of several kinds of pressed and fancy shaped brick, as if meant to show off the product of the Golden Pressed & Fire Brick Works it served a century ago. Built at the dawn of the 20th Century, it served as company housing for the works, established at this location in 1890 by brothers John B. and William Church, who were among the most prominent industrialists and philanthropists in Colorado. This building housed people of high positions in the works such as the plant manager, and possibly was a model house. Shaped fancy bricks, colored bricks and other innovations catapulted the works from a regional player to national renown, eventually shipping as far away as China. The house escaped the fire of 1915 which destroyed the works adjoining to the east, and is today one of the few remains of an industry of which Golden was renowned for a century.

See the restoration plans!

East Elevation (from today's driveway)
West Elevation (from Catamount Drive)
North Elevation (back of the house)
South Elevation (front of the house)

Plans created by Donelson Architecture of Golden

Map Location of the Brickyard House

The workers of the Golden Fire Brick Works, at this location in the 1920s
Brickyard House is above the second worker from the left

Our feature of the Brickyard House will be a museum that will showcase our regional brickmaking industry history and its impact on how so much around this region was built. Being the home of folks who saw to the making of bricks for over half a century, the house is a terrific place to introduce everyone to this history of which Golden played such an important part. This history covers a century of building, which supplied the materials of even Denver's most important landmarks. If you've shopped at the REI Store or eaten at the Old Spaghetti Factory you have visited places there made of bricks from the plant this house was part of. The Brickyard House will also become the headquarters of Golden Landmarks, Colorado's second oldest non-profit historic preservation organization. Once restored, the building will also be available to the public for events.

The unique ornamental brickwork of the Brickyard House, as seen on its west side. The house uses 7 different forms of shaped fancy brick, manufactured by the Berg brick shaping machine around 100 years ago. You can see 5 of these kinds in the photo on the left (water table brick atop the base, tiered brick topped by angular brick at the sill level, quarterpipe rimming the arches, bull-nosed curved brick at the corner).

GLA is pursuing the restoration of the Brickyard House in part through seed grants used to get greater grants from the Colorado State Historical Fund. Initial stabilization, weatherproofing and restorative architectural plans have already been done through a $10,000 grant from the City of Golden in the fall of 2006. The Colorado Historical Society awarded a $140,000 grant to restore the exterior in 2007, matched by an additional $40,000 grant from the City of Golden. The Brickyard House is a designated historic landmark of the City of Golden, and it is GLA's goal to list it on the State and National Registers of historic places once its restoration is complete. Golden Landmarks hopes to share this building with the public as often as possible for many years to come!

Questions? Want to offer support? Contact Golden Landmarks at 303-279-1236, or Email us!

Map location to the Brickyard House, just north of Golden Gate Canyon Road, just east of Jefferson County Shops, below the new Golden City Shops.

This project funded through generous grants from: