Jefferson County Centennial Sites

The Arvada Center originally opened in 1976, its mission to provide area citizens with opportunities to enjoy the arts, culture and heritage, and to make these part of their everyday lives. It originally featured a 2,000-seat amphitheater, 500-seat theater, as well as studio, meeting, gallery, and exhibition space. It also features Arvada’s oldest remaining building, the 1864 hewn log cabin of Arvada area pioneer Hiram C. Wolff. The Center built a $10 million expansion 1992 and is an asymmetrical facility, its enlarged amphitheater featuring a thicket of cast aluminum Aspen branches on sky blue walls designed by Clarice Dreyer. The artist also added a sculptured bird sanctuary of birdbaths, flowers, tree branches, plants, and birdhouses. Another piece of art added in 1992 is Vito Acconci’s Ribbon Wall, an earthen sculpture snaking through the addition. Since it opened, the Center has offered events of the theater and performing arts, a historical museum of the history of Arvada and the American West, art exhibition galleries, education programs, music, visual arts, and more. During the 1990s the Center operated on an annual budget of $4.9 million hosting 1,200 programs for all.

ASTOR HOUSE
1867, Seth Lake/Charles R. Foreman & Company
822 12th Street
National Register - March 1, 1973
State Register
Golden Register - November 14, 1991 (added to 12th Street Historic District)

Among the oldest remaining hotel buildings in Colorado, the Astor House (bearing little resemblance to its New York City namesake) was originally constructed in 1867 by Seth Lake as an upgrade and replacement for the predecessor Lake House hotel. The 3rd hotel ran by Lake in the Golden area, the Astor House was constructed of cut sandstone from the quarries of Charles R. Foreman & Co. at the west terminus of 12th Street, and built by Seth Lake himself. Golden's premier hotel for 3 years until overshadowed by the Golden House, it outlasted that hotel and others into the 20th century. In 1971-1972 it was saved by the Golden Landmarks Association, who successfully crusaded to gain a 2-1 vote of the people of Golden to spare the building from planned City-sposored demolition. GLA thereafter created and owns the Astor House Museum exhibition housed inside.

INTERNATIONAL BELL MUSEUM
1920, Arthur H. Jones
30213 Upper Bear Creek Road

Arthur H. Jones designed this mountain mansion in 1920, and while his dream was created he and his family lived in tents around it. It is a large house of logs and local granite three stories tall. In 1925, Jones’ son Winston began collecting bells and placing them here, a collection which in time burst out of the house and onto the grounds. His collection included school bells, hotel desk bells, Molly Brown’s Chinese dinner gong, mine warning bells, locomotive bells, and many more. Some 5,000 of them were on display at what had been a museum since 1957, until Jones's death in 2006. They are now located at Hastings College in Nebraska.

BOETTCHER MANSION
1916, William E. & Arthur A. Fisher
900 Colorow Road (Lookout Mountain)
National Register - January 18, 1994
State Register - 1993

Charles Boettcher, one of Colorado's greatest industrialists, built this country mansion in 1916 in the Tudor Revival style as his summer home upon Lookout Mountain. Built of local granite and pine, it includes a carriage house, well house, gazebo and barn on its 110-acre site. In 1968 the lodge was given by the Boettcher descendants to Jefferson County, and has since been used as one of the area's premier event centers.

BRADFORD
1859, Michael Kelly (1872 addition)
Killdeer Lane off North Ranch Road
State Register

What was intended to be the town of Bradford City was originally not within Jefferson County at all, it lying south of the original 1859 border of Bear Creek. Prominent Denver businessman Robert B. Bradford, from St. Joseph, Missouri, originally came here in 1859, and built a simple one-story house of hand-chiseled stone blocks from the nearby hogback and laid claim to a sizable ranch, whose scenery was described appreciatively by traveler Bayard Taylor during his travels through the region in 1867. Here Bradford sought to capitalize on the gold rush trade by building the Bradford Road from Denver, zigzagging up the steep hill above this valley and up to the St. Vrain, Golden City & Colorado Wagon Road, and establishing a town and toll station at the foot of the hill. While such a shortcut was a good idea, the hill proved treacherous to travelers and plans fizzled. Bradford left for a time to become a Major in the Confederate Army, but returned to make a success of his ranch. In 1872 he hired Michael Kelly who with Tom Rafferty quarried more stone nearby to build an impressive, Georgian-style country mansion of 3 stories, which 3 strikes of lightning prompted Bradford to cut down to size not long thereafter. It was given a new top of a hipped roof, and its gorgeous mahogany grand staircase remained to aid Bradford in entertaining his guests. After Bradford died in 1876, the ranch passed through several owners including James Adam Perley, his son, and onetime Rocky Mountain News/Denver Times/Denver Republican owner John C. Shaffer, from Chicago, who turned it into his own personal showplace. It complimented his other place, the great manor house of the massive Ken Caryl Ranch, which Bradford’s place was annexed to during the 1930s. Later the Bradford House was abandoned, and was burned only to the shell of its outer walls in 1967. From that point this limestone building remained a ruin, until Johns Manville purchased the Ken Caryl Ranch to develop during the 1970s and braced the walls of Bradford’s building with steel to keep the walls from falling, which have since been fully stabilized. Today the Ken Caryl Ranch Master Association is the careful custodian of this pioneer landmark.

BUFFALO BILL'S GRAVE & MUSEUM
1917, Edwin H. Moorman (1921 Pahaska Tepee)
987 Lookout Mountain Road
National Register - November 15, 1990
State Register

In 1917, the largest funeral in Jefferson County history took place as William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who worked as a teamster in this area to support his family as a young teenager, was laid to rest. Reputedly stating his desire before death to be buried atop either Lookout or Genesee mountains, Lookout was where he was buried. Four years later the City and County of Denver built Pahaska Tepee as a permanent home for his western showmaking legacy (1883-1912). This building is a 2-story rustic log and slab lodge, stick style trim, with 2nd-floor balcony. Built with pine lags, hand-split shingles with stone chimneys, this building has welcomed visitors to the Buffalo Bill Museum for many years. In the 1978 museum addition next door they may see western memorabilia, and paintings by Robert Lindneux, Charles S. Stobie and Charles Schrevogel. Decades after his death, the Buffalo Bill Museum remains among the most-visited in the Denver area with over 500,000 annual patrons from around the world.

CABRINI SHRINE
1909, Frances Xavier Cabrini/Thomas Ekrom (1914 Queen of Heaven Orphanage)
20189 Cabrini Boulevard
National Register - January 14, 2000 (Queen of Heaven Orphanage)
State Register - 1999 (Queen of Heaven Orphanage)

Mother Cabrini, the first American citizen saint canonized by the Catholic church, established this place as the summer getaway for the many needy Denver orphans that she helped live a better life. From her summer camp program beginning in 1909, Cabrini designed and built the large stone orphanage on a hilltop between 1912 and 1914. Including a chapel and sleeping rooms, the Orphanage summer camp continued to serve until the late 1960s. For years Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini and the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart labored among the less fortunate, beginning in Italy and coming to the United States, helping orphans, poor Italian immigrants, poor miners, prisoners, and many more. Among other significant sites at this shrine include the heart of white stone that Cabrini made herself, as well as the famous living water spring Cabrini pinpointed out of the barren waste in September 1912, which has never since stopped or frozen. John J. Campbell, a pressman at the Denver Post, worked with a special committee to build the 373-step stairway to the shrine, with a 22-foot marble statue of the Jesus Christ (1954), Stations, and a road. Elsewhere the grounds are decorated in rustic stone style in its shelters, campsites, and comfort stations. Cabrini herself in life founded 67 clinics, orphanages and hospitals, and was canonized as America’s 1st citizen saint on July 7, 1946. During the 1950s, Monsignor Della Chioppa from Rome was so inspired by the shrine he recommended a chapel be built to Our Lady at the spring, which had a grotto modeled after the Great Shrine of Lourdes (1929). Later in 1960, with too much water flowing down the hill, Mother Ignatius Miceli (Mother Iggie) asked Adolph Coors III if he had a tank they could use. The Colorado National Guard transported it there, but Ad Coors never lived to see it, as he was murdered just a week later. When the Queen of Heaven Orphanage closed in 1970, the Sisters moved to their summer home, and a new convent and chapel were built for them. The Sisters have since looked after retreatants and the many pilgrims who travel to the shrine (estimated at 200,000 annually from across the world). The original building was renovated in 1986, as a place for retreatants to stay and wander from among the beautiful mountain countryside. On August 13, 1993, Archbishop J. Francis Stafford (future head of the Pontifical Council for the Laity) dedicated a bronze statue in the garden behind the convent, created by artist Ilia Rubini of Codogno, Italy, depicting St. Cabrini with two children.

COLORADO RAILROAD MUSEUM
1958, Robert Richardson
17155 West 44th Avenue
National Register - Galloping Goose #2, #6, #7 (February 14, 19, 28, 1997)
State Register - D&RG Coach #60, D&RG Caboose #49, D&RGW Locomotive #346 (all 1990s)

Railroad ultra-enthusiast Robert Richardson took it upon himself to establish a museum dedicated to Colorado’s rich railroading history, choosing this spot along the historic lines of the Colorado Central Railroad for its home. Here he built a sizable cinder block rendition of a 1930s-era railroad depot now complimented by a handsome brick depot design 1998 library. Around the acres of the museum are 64 examples of the finest and most unusual railroad vehicles known to Colorado, as well as historic railroad architecture, immense archives, photograph collection, a great miniature railroad in the basement, and a railroad loop around the grounds for steaming excursions on special occasions. Even the most local piece of railroad history, the wooden tramway stop from across the street from this location, is now here. In 2000 the first new roundhouse built in Colorado for many years was built on the east side of the grounds, faithfully historic in design but quite modern in technology, for use in maintaining the many pieces of vintage rolling stock. Many of the Railroad Museum's exhibits themselves have been given high historic designation, including its fleet of gasoline motorized rail hybrid Galloping Geese (1931, 1934 and 1936, Rio Grande Southern Railroad). Also part of the collection are the famous streamlined locomotives of the California Zephyr (1955, General Motors).

COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES GEOLOGY MUSEUM
1871, Arthur Lakes
1400 Maple Street

The CSM Geology Museum housed in the west wing of Berthoud Hall is Jefferson County’s first and oldest museum, originally a natural history museum known as Jarvis Hall Museum established in 1871. Originally split between the Territorial School of Mines and Matthews Hall, many of its early exhibits were damaged in the arson destruction of Matthews Hall in 1878. Afterward the museum has remained in the sole possession of the School of Mines, having been housed in the Hall of Chemistry, Hall of Engineering, Guggenheim Hall, and Berthoud Hall since it was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1939. In 2005 it moved to a new building at 13th and Maple Streets. This museum has devoted its energy to becoming one of the world’s most renowned showcases of geology, and houses among other things Irwin D. Hoffman's set of six murals depicting the history of mining, since the ancient Greeks to modern times, painted for the Golden Gate Exposition of 1939.

COORS BREWERY
1873, Elmer Johnson (1934 Brewhouse)
Golden

The largest brewery complex on the face of the earth began very humbly, when orphaned stowaway German immigrant turned Denver bottler named Adolph Coors teamed up with Denver confectioner Jacob Schueler to open the Golden Brewery in November 1873, in the abandoned stone and brick Golden City Tannery (1867, Henry Clements & John Pipe owners). A success from the start, this brewery grew by leaps and bounds, soon having its own beer gardens (Golden Park) as well as adding building after building. Coors bought out his partner and turned the brewery into Jefferson County’s 1st skyscraper, a beautiful Romanesque Victorian brick edifice soaring several stories in the air (Phillipi & Smith, contractors), whose copper brew kettle still remains in front of the brewery today. After the brewery survived the Flood of 1894, Coors rebounded and after the turn of the 20th Century a tall landmark smokestack with the red lettering "COORS" appeared and the brewery began taking over as Golden’s dominant industry. In 1916 Prohibition brought the plant to its knees, and its entire stock was thrown into the river, and Coors briefly considered moving to California. However, under the leadership of son Grover Coors, a successful chemist who with his wife's help formulated his own superior brand of malted milk, the plant shifted into malted milk production and continued to thrive into its second generation. After the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 Coors contructed a fleet of trademark Castle Rock "C" designed freight cars for trains, which was great advertising from coast to coast. Starting in 1934 with a new brewhouse complete with four Chicago-manufactured copper kettles, new concrete buildings began replacing the historic Victorian structures. Expansion and modernization were key and the brewery grew fast, including its south-side 1952 multicylindrial concrete building constructed to store 1,500,000 bushels of Moravian malting barley. Today the immense Coors Brewery dominates Golden’s eastern horizon, a collection of great concrete megaliths purposely designed of concrete slabs set within steel framing to allow for putting in or removing a piece of machinery simply by removing a panel. The trains coming to the brewery hand their cars over to Coors' own railroad, which transports the cargo inside the great complex itself, where entire trains are lifted bodily upon movable tracks to transfer cargo. Aside from the oldest remaining building, the workers who designed and built this brewery complex, a marvel of nearly seven decades of industrial engineering, may remain unknown to the public forever, as all such design work is now done in-house at the brewery.

FOOTHILLS ART CENTER
1872 (Church), 1892 (Manse), 1899 (Rubey Residence)
809 15th Street
National Register - March 14, 1991
State Register - 1990
Golden Register - 1990

The small but proud congregation of the First Presbyterian Church of Golden first built what is now the Foothills Art Center, now the southeastern part of the present Gothic Revival chapel, in 1872. Founded by the circuit riding minister Sheldon Jackson in 1870, the congregation prospered and added a number of additions, including James H. Gow's renovation of the chapel, with additions and refacing, to its present bell-towered appearance in 1898. In 1892 the congregation built the home of the presiding ministers, the Manse (now the art center's entrance building), a similarly ornate onion-domed house with fishscale siding. The Victorian house gift shop next door, originally designed and built as a speculation house by Perre O. Unger in 1899, was purchased the next year by prominent Golden banker Jesse W. Rubey as a home for his aged mother, Ella M. Rubey, matriarch of the prominent Rubey family in Golden. In 1958 the Presbyterian church moved to a new location, and for 10 years the chapel became home to the Jefferson Unitarian Church. In 1968 it became home to the Foothills Art Center, for which these three buildings are now used as a world-renowned art gallery.

GOLDEN PIONEER MUSEUM
1939, Works Progress Administration
1011 10th Street

In 1939 the Works Progress Administration spent $75,000 to create this as the Jefferson County Museum, originally covering all Jefferson County in its mission. Originally it was located in the old North School building, but after WPA funding ran out the museum was closed in 1941. In 1953 the Mount Lookout Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution offered to revive the museum, and it reopened in 1954 in the old Jefferson County Courthouse in its old District Courtroom. When the County government sold off the old Courthouse for development museum ownership passed to the City of Golden in 1958, and it moved to the west wing of the new Golden Municipal Center, reopening in 1961 as the Golden DAR Pioneer Museum. In 1996 the museum moved to its 4th home when the old Golden Library building became available next door, and it was renamed the Golden Pioneer Museum, and has remained ever since. Today it houses the premier collection of Golden-area artifacts, including the collection of the Jolly Rancher candy company, which originated in Downtown Golden.

GREEN MERCANTILE
1898, J.W. Green
17706 Jefferson County Highway 96
National Register - October 1, 1974
State Register

"J.W. Green Dealer in Everything" was how pioneer and Virginia native J.W. Green advertised himself from his frame mercantile store among the people of Buffalo Creek. He lived up to his name, but unfortunately his store along with much of Buffalo Creek burned in 1898. Undaunted, he started over, building this new fireproof flat-roofed store with granite from the Serrie & Geddes Quarry nearby. The great blocks were hoisted into place by a team of mules, a jim pole, with six strong men. Two stories tall, it has walls two feet thick, along with original interior fixtures and a 14-foot-high pressed metal ceiling. Its front consists of a central segmental-arched double-doored entrance flanked by windows with three squared windows above. Inside still remain the original display cases, cash register, and the area’s first telephone booth. Today Green’s grandson Donald operates the store, which has also been known to serve as the post office, polling place, community center, dance hall, and Colorado & Southern Railroad ticket office for Buffalo Creek.

HERITAGE SQUARE
1957, Marco Engineering Inc. (Wade B. Rubottom & Dick Kelsey art directors)
18301 West Colfax Avenue

The second theme park in the world began as Magic Mountain, an educational theme park based on America's western heritage. Spearheaded by prominent Wheat Ridge businessman and father Walter Francis Cobb, it was to include a Cavalry entrance, Centennial City downtown, as well as the narrow-gauge Magic Mountain Railroad, Fairgrounds, Storybook Lane, Forest River area, and the Magic of Industry futuristic exposition. The park was designed by a team of 5 Hollywood art directors headed by Wade B. Rubottom (from MGM, of such films as "The Philadelphia Story") and Richmond "Dick" Kelsey (from Disney, of such films as "Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Bambi", "Dumbo", "Alice In Wonderland", and afterward "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"). Its contractor, Marco Engineering, was headed up by noted theme park creator Cornelius Vanderbilt Wood, who was the original vice-president of Disneyland. The core Centennial City, Cavalry and Railroad areas were built, but questionable finances spiraled it into bankruptcy. The park re-opened in 1971 as Heritage Square, a theme shopping village centered on Centennial City. Today park patrons may see the best-preserved piece of early theme park history anywhere, with special buildings based on historic Colorado styles such as Gothic, Second Empire, Pueblo, Greek Revival, and more, with whimsical embellishments and forced perspective (the show business art of making things appear taller and larger than they are) making this a rare example of Storybook architecture.

HIWAN HOMESTEAD
1886, John "Jock" Spence
4208 South Timbervale Drive
National Register - April 9, 1974
State Register

In 1886 this peeled log mountain lodge near Bear Creek Canyon was established when the former owner of the land, Scottish carpenter Jock Spence, was commissioned to build it. He had sold the land to Mary Neosho Williams, widow of Brigadier Gen. Thomas Williams, and she over a quarter century created her vision of a 17-room log lodge with two octagonal towers. The best-known work of Spence, it features a staircase of quarter logs, built-in hutches and bookcases, eyebrow dormers, diamond-paned windows, log decks, hand-carved owls, 17 fireplaces, and over 200 examples of Spence’s trademark stairstep design. Originally called Camp Neosho, the home passed to Williams’ daughter, Dr. Josepha Williams, who had married Episcopal Canon Winfred Douglas in 1896. The west tower in the upper floor houses Douglas’ unique private chapel, with hand-hewn logs and vaulted and beamed ceiling. Douglas was particularly known for his promotion of rustic and Native American arts and crafts. Upon this property’s purchase by Darst E. Buchanan in 1938 it became known as Hiwan Homestead. As rural development closed in on this landmark came the fortunate formation of Jefferson County Open Space, which in 1975 purchased the home and turned it into a museum, housing a regional Jefferson County historical archive and operating with the aid of the Jefferson County Historical Society and Evergreen Garden Club.

JEFFERSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE
1966, Robert Laramay
Colorado School of Mines campus, 17th and Arapahoe Streets

The oldest remaining building constructed as a Jeffco courthouse stands today as the Hall of Justice upon the grounds of the CSM campus. When the space of Jeffco’s second courthouse (1952-99) was outgrown the Commissioners decided to build the Hall of Justice, completed in 1966. It is a four-story building built with structural concrete topped by stately broad arches, with brick texture paneling between its great columns flanked by tall narrow windows serving as its openings to the outside world. Inside consists of two wide central artiums from top to bottom ringed by courtrooms with central catwalks between, quickly redesigned with narrow railings after a child nearly plunged from the top floor during the place’s first week in operation. Designed to be expandable with two more floors, the Commissioners discarded it anyway in 1993. Today the building is used by organizations and classrooms affiliated with the School of Mines.

JEWISH CONSUMPTIVES RELIEF SOCIETY
1898
1600 Pierce Street
National Register - June 26, 1980 (Historic District)
State Register - 1980 (Historic District)

Dr. Charles David Spivak, a noted Russian immigrant, physician and geneologist and the first person inducted into the Jefferson County Hall of Fame, in 1898 established the the Jewish Consumptives Relief Society (JCRS), built to treat victims other institutions considered past too ill to benefit from treatment for the White Plague. Incorporated in 1904 and destined to its original mission for 50 years beyond, this tuberculosis sanitorium started with only 6 frame and canvas tents with a 1-story administrative building. Over time it developed into a nationally prominent 105-acre campus, with 34 buildings of many ages, uses and styles. Surrounding a central esplanade, the campus, designed to create a sense of peace and solitude, includes the Neusteter Rehabilitation Building (1926 – William E. & Arthur A. Fisher); Texas Pavilion for Women (1927); post office and cooperative store (1926 – Harry James Manning); and the TriBoro Dining Hall (1936). Preserved with care at the southern end of the campus is one of its original tents; across from it stands the humble Isaac Solomon Synagogue (1911, Fishers). The first Jewish house of worship in Jefferson County, it is a small red brick building with ogee arches and creamy terracotta. This well-preserved complex became home to the American Medical Center in 1954, its enemy shifting from tuberculosis to cancer, and its synagogue became a museum to the place’s legacy. In 2003 the complex was sold again, and has become the permanent campus of the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.

LAKEWOOD HERITAGE CENTER
1976
797 South Wadsworth Boulevard
National Register - September 10, 1981 (Peterson House)
State Register - 1981 (Peterson House)

Jefferson County’s first history park, a museum-type place of refuge for endangered historic landmarks, traces back to 1971, when five high school students, Brent Schlueter, Pam Exon, John Young, Lloyd Wagner, and Terry Thompson, discovered plans for the development of the land surrounding the historic Belmar Estate. At part of their Citizen’s Action Lab they decided to make preserving the once fabulous Belmar grounds their semester project. A sizable campaign developed, and a vote two years later decided for the City of Lakewood to purchase the 127 acres of land. Members of the Lakewood Centennial-Bicentennial Commission were attracted to this land in 1974 when they began looking for a site for their still newly-incorporated city to house its first museum. The calf barn at the southeast corner of the land got their attention, and they proposed that it be converted into an ongoing exhibit area. The calf barn was renovated by local architect Robert Douglass into a changing exhibit area on the first floor with an upstairs gallery. He added a skylight and custom-designed stained glass window. The Belmar Museum formally opened to the public on August 1, 1976. Upon its opening, according to the Lakewood 25th Birthday Commission, Mayor Jim Richey reminded the crowd to remember that Lakewood’s history did not begin with its 1969 incorporation, but was deeply rooted in the past far beyond that era. Belmar Village was designed specifically as a place of refuge for Lakewood area historic landmarks of value which became threatened. The park’s original plans called for historical interpretation from 1859 through World War II, and the Village was ran as part of Lakewood’s Department of Community Resources. Soon enough, more landmarks began to arrive (including the Wide Acres Trolley Stop and Glen Creighton Pump House), and plans changed in the 1990s for the park to become a village more completely depicting the total history of the city of Lakewood, known as the Lakewood Heritage Center. These plans included a replica art deco movie house as a visitors center, with exhibit space and an educational wing; elsewhere are planned 4 historical learning centers. These include a Family Farm Center (concentrating on area farming history); the Belmar Estate Center (about area affluent families and their country retreats); the Colfax Hub (recreating West Colfax Avenue’s commercial development of the mid-20th Century); as well as performances at the Gazebo and Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Amphitheater. Helping lead efforts is Lakewood Legacy, a nonprofit fundraising community organization led by Bill Shanley. Completion of the Heritage Center has been projected by 2009. Among the historic treasures now exhibited here are Gil's & Ethel's Barber Shop (1948, moved from Denver in 1998); Hallack-Webber House (early 20th Century, moved within Lakewood in 1958, moved here in 1980); Lane's Tavern (replica of the original 1920 tavern on Colfax, fixtures moved here in 1998); Peterson House (1872, moved from Bear Creek in 1986); and the Ralston Crossing Schoolhouse (1868, moved within Arvada in 1950s, moved here in 1990s).

LOCKHEED MARTIN SPACE SYSTEMS
1956, The Architects Collaborative/N.G. Petry Construction Co. (1976 Space Systems Headquarters)
12275 South Colorado Highway 121

The home of Atlas and Titan rockets stands right here as the headquarters of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Astronautics. The complex began in 1956 when Johns Manville began building here, and it became Martin Marietta's rocket factory, and today Lockheed Martin's operations. This complex is where Lockheed Martin satellites and Titan and Atlas rockets for the government and for private industry have been built, and it holds the leadership of Lockheed's space program. The world not being enough for ever-ambitious Jefferson County, it now sends its products to Mars. The headquarters building was the joint design of Harry Weese, T.C. Enradi, Robert Geddes, William LeMessurier, Sheelhe and Gebrats with landscape architect Hubertus J. Mittman. It won the praise of Architectural Record in September 1977 for its "low, wide feel...occupying the site sparingly...as splendidly as a Greek temple." It is joined by an entire complex of buildings making up the Jeffco campus of Lockheed Martin.

LOVELAND BLOCK
1863, Duncan E. Harrison
1122 Washington Avenue
National Register - May 16, 1996
State Register - 1996
Golden Register - September 24, 1992

Possibly Colorado's oldest remaining brick commercial building, the Loveland Block was built by the partnership of William Austin Hamilton Loveland and the Golden Masonic Lodge (Colorado's 1st Masonic organization) in 1863. It was the second home of Loveland's mercantile, which would be among Colorado's longest-lived businesses in history, 1859-1978. The building was expanded in 1866 to accomodate the Colorado Territorial Legislature which met in the upper floor from 1866-67. Afterward it served at various times as the headquarters of the Colorado Central Railroad, Jefferson County government, emergency home of Jarvis Hall and the State School of Mines, and the Babcock Hotel. For 57 years the mercantile was operated by the German immigrant family of Nicholas Koenig, who remodeled its storefront in 1905 (Perre O. Unger, contractor). The building is also the area's oldest remaining movie house, after the original Golden Theatre was operated in the historic Representatives Hall from 1908-10. In 1922 the third floor added in 1868 was demolished and storefront changed to its present appearance (Michael Sweeney, contractor). In 1992 it was joined together with the neighboring Coors Building (1873/1906, Baeressen Bros./Perre O. Unger) and now serves as the Old Capitol Grill.

LUTHERAN HOSPITAL
1932, Frank W. Frewen Jr./Frank M. Kenney
8300 West 38th Avenue

On August 9, 1905 an association dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis purchased 20 acres of land to establish the Evangelical Lutheran Sanitorium. Jeffco’s 2nd facility of its kind, it started humbly, originally consisting of 15 tents built to house victims of the epidemic. One such tent, a frame structure with pyramidal roof and canvas upper walls, remains carefully preserved behind the Blue House, an ornate Dutch Colonial Revival frame house that serves as a restaurant on the medical center’s campus. After the sanitorium was established, Lutheran congregations from all over the nation gave to it, and in 1932 what had become a hospital moved into its new, grand Renaissance-styled brick edifice. This handsome hospital consists of a central 4-story front-gabled main core topped by a romanesque-arched corbelled cornice, with a central arch framing a triple-window design over a projecting 3-arch collanade. From this central focus spans great 3-story wings of highly ornamental brickwork design, each culminating in a 4-story tower leading to ornate 3-story buildings matching the core’s design. The eastern of these is the Chapel, featuring many series of small roman-arched windows and a grand rose window design. Even its cornerstone is ornamental, featurining a white floral design surrounding a red heart with a cross on top. This building has been expanded on the rear many times, but retains most of its detailed architectural integrity.

MORRISON TOWN HALL
1874
110 Stone Street
National Register - September 28, 1976 (with Morrison Historic District)
State Register (with Morrison Historic District)

Built in 1874 to lead the town founded by the Morrison, Stone, Lime & Town Company, this is one of the rather few downtown Morrison frame buildings to have survived the floods and fires the place has known. Through time it's continued to lead resilient Morrison, best known for its award-winning sandstone that won the Centennial Award at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, which graces many noted landmarks around the region.

WHEAT RIDGE SODDY
c . 1864, James H. Baugh & Brother (probable)
4610 Robb Street
National Register - May 16, 1996
State Register - 1996

One of Jeffco’s most unusual works of design is also one of its earliest, built by James Baugh or possibly his brother sometime prior to 1864, according to dating on its tall prairie grass rezomes and roots done by the Denver Botanical Gardens. It is a sod house, very rare in a region with abundant lumber and building material, a one-story building with hipped roof, plastered walls and narrow double-hung windows. It is possible it predates the nearby Baugh Farmhouse (1859, James H. Baugh and brother) but there is no way of confirming this at present. The Soddy remained part of the Baugh Farm layout for over a century, until encroaching development placed the structure in jeopardy. Callahan, the developer, recognized the value of the place and supported sparing it. Thus citizens organized the Save Our Soddy (S.O.S.) campaign in 1972, which was co-chaired by Claudia Worth and Barbara Kline, with the goal of raising $19,000. After S.O.S. raised $3,000 the City of Wheat Ridge decided to make up the difference, and this place has since served as one of Jefferson County’s most unique museums.

STONE HOUSE
Early 1860s, Joseph Hodgson
West Yale Avenue & 2800 South Estes Street
National Register - May 1, 1975
State Register

Joseph Hodgson of New York, along with a man named Woodcock, were the first gold rushers to locate a claim on Bear Creek on June 24, 1859. Hodgson came west with his brother William, who also staked his own claim here. Not long thereafter, Hodgson built this house which is now the oldest building in Jeffco’s largest metropolis and Lakewood's first building on the National Historic Register. Joseph Hodgson between 1860 and 1864 constructed this side-gabled house with 18-inch thick cobblestone walls, with windows and doors framed with nearby hogback sandstone. He personally selected the cobblestones from the bed of Bear Creek, carefully matching them in size and color. Hodgson also built a rear attached shed of the same rock, and this house served his 640-acre Bear Creek farm. Hodgson finally gained official title to this land in March 1866. This building has since been restored in 1975 under the direction of Langdon Morris.

FORT WESTERNAIRE
1949, Lakewood Youth Council
15200 West 6th Avenue

One of the most famous organizations dedicated to horsemanship around, the Westernaires were originated in 1949 by the Lakewood Youth Council with Elmer Wyland as instructor-director. It is a nonprofit precision drill organization for Jeffco children aged 9 to 19, training youth in western riding and drills and many specialty acts as well as taking care of horses. The organization takes pride in showing and teaching its Western heritage and in teaching children the values of teamwork and dedication. With its master plan in process in 2003 Fort Westernaire now encompasses one outdoor arena and two indoor arenas, stables for its livery horses, classrooms, museum, caretaker's quarters, and club store. Being noted for their skill, the Westernaires have appeared in many television shows and feature films, including "Stagecoach", "How The West Was Won", and "Centennial".