A preservation initiative of the Golden Landmarks Association
"Pullman
House - A Survivor Of Yesteryear"
1940 painting by
Herndon Davis
Image courtesy Denver
Art Museum
This project is a continuing effort to resurrect the historic log house of George M. Pullman, the famed sleeper railcar maker who lived in Colorado during the 1860s. The Pullman House was originally built near Golden around 1860 as a way station at the crossroads leading to the most famous gold fields in the region. It was purchased by Pullman and associates who assembled its land, the Cold Spring Ranch, together with neighboring parcels into 1,600 acres, which became among the best-known way station ranches in Colorado Territory. Pullman used this ranch and other businesses to raise the money he needed to realize his dream of creating the famed Pullman Palace Car Company.
The Pullman House is a legend of Golden's heritage, with a
remarkable journey and story to tell. It was built as a way station of the Colorado
Gold Rush, made of hewn pine logs of the mountains. For 106 years this building
stood, passing through the hands of George Pullman, a prominent hotelkeeper,
and two Jefferson County sheriffs. It was enlarged to 5 times its original
size, and became many different colorful things. It served as a way station
for stagecoaches, team-drawn wagons, trains, and automobiles. Where pioneers
once paid in gold dust became a place to buy television sets. The march of modernization
spelled doom for the frontier structure in 1965, and three newspapers including
the Rocky Mountain News and Denver
Post proclaimed its destruction. However, the logs of the original
structure in fact survived, having been numbered, dismantled and spirited up
to the mountains of Central City, where they lay in state for 32 years. In 1997
they were returned to Golden, then lay in storage at Camp George West until
they were burned in an arson fire in 2009. And yet the house has not been fully
wiped out, with logs salvaged from the wreckage. The adventure of the Pullman
House continues!
More
Pullman History
The historic Pullman Village, which was the company town George Pullman built outside of Chicago starting in 1880. Now a designated national historic landmark district. Quite a far leap from a frontier log ranch house.
The non-profit foundation who
have worked since 1960 to save, preserve and restore the many historic places
in Pullman Village.
Copyright © 1997-2011 by Richard Gardner