A Very Merry Time!

Hello Holidays! Once again Candlelight Walk brought too many visitors to count to all three of our sites. Many thanks to all the volunteers and performers who braved the cold to help out. We can’t make this event happen without the help of our dedicated volunteers who did everything from greeting visitors to passing out cider to roasting up those chestnuts  everyone loves.

 

My Swiss-cheese brain meant it took multiple trips to the grocery store to purchase all the supplies. As it turns out it’s a good thing I went back for more. We had so many people through all three sites we ran out of everything before the evening was even over.

 The Maple Street Trio performed at the Golden History Center and brought a very festive feel to the environment. This year we started a new tradition of cooking wassail over the fire at the Clear Creek History Park. Dave and Mark almost burned their hands off on more than one occasion, but I’m sure they’ll agree people loved the experience and it was well worth the risk of losing a few fingers.

 Next year promises to bring even more fun and flavor to Candlelight Walk. Thanks again to everyone who helped and to everyone who visited us!

 And if you missed out on Candlelight Walk be sure to stop by the Astor House Museum for Holidays at the Astor House. The front desk staff will be happy to greet you with a cookie and a few fun activities to teach you more about the holidays in Golden in the late 19^th century.

–Jessica Lira, Student & Public Programs Coordinator

New Lighting in West Gallery at GHC

Last week during the Candlelight Walk, we debuted our new track lighting system in the West Gallery. We are very excited about the beautiful changes that it brings to the space. The warm gallery lights allow the photos and artifacts on display to really pop. Plus, the Edison Price lighting is museum quality, can be easily adjusted, and light levels can be adjusted to protect the historic images we have on display. Be sure you come to the History Center to see “Golden in Focus” before it closes on December 31, 2011!

West Gallery with old flourescent lights.

West Gallery with new lighting.

Starting January 2: New Hours, More Access

Three main points from our new strategic framework, GHM 2016, are to: 1) offer greater access for our visitors to our facilities, 2) offer more engaging experiences with history, and 3) be wise stewards of our resources.  One of the ways in which we’ve worked towards accomplishing those strategies is by reviewing our hours of operations.

Under our present situation, the Golden History Center and the Astor House Museum are open a combined total of 3,506 hours annually. The museums operate during the summer (the three months between Memorial Day and Labor Day) Tuesday-Sunday. During the low season (the nine months between Labor Day and Memorial Day) the museums are closed Sunday.

Over the past year, we have been closely observing our attendance at all three sites to better understand use. And here is a glimpse at what we found:

• Of our approximately 20,000 annual visitors, about 50% visit during the summer months of June, July and August.
• 25% of our guests visit in the “shoulder seasons” which include May, September, and October.
• The remaining 25% of visitors attend in the six months between November-April, with a notable spike in December around Candlelight Walk.

Also, for the past several years, only the grounds of the Clear Creek History Park have been open to visitors. With the notable exceptions of events and summer camps, the buildings were largely closed to the public. Previous years’ best-guess estimates of the annual visitation of the History Park were placed at around 6,100 annually.  However, with the help of City of Golden Planning Department, we placed infrared counters at each of the four entrances to the park. We discovered that during the period between May 24 and June 20 the History Park welcomed over 2,200 for just those four weeks!

So, as a response to this data, we are implementing new operating hours effective January 2:

Summer Season: May 1 – Oct. 31 (AHM, GHC &CCHP)

Tues. – Sat.             10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Sun.                        Noon – 4:30 p.m.

Winter Season: Nov. 1 – April 30 (AHM & GHC)

Wed. – Sat.             11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Sun.                        Noon – 4:30 p.m.

Changing our operational hours will allow us to save some time during our slower season and put those resources towards staffing the History Park with living history interpreters all summer long. Additionally, we are lengthening our summer season to six months from three. Lastly, while we are reducing our hours slightly at the Astor House and History Center during the winter season, we are still keeping the same number of days, but changing from Tuesday to Sunday as our open day to better serve families who tend to visit on weekends.

We are very excited about our new hours and the ability to serve our visitors better. With the additional staff at the History Park during the summer, we will increase our total operations 20% to 4,225 annual hours. I could go on and on about how we are going to improve the experience at CCHP during the summer, but we’ll leave that to another blog post.

Nathan Richie

Denver has a brand new museum

Sometimes those of us in the museum world get to take advantage of little perks, like sneak peeks to new exhibitions, or behind-the-scenes views of top-secret collections never seen by the public. Today was one of those lucky days.

This morning I toured an entirely new museum a day before it opens to the world: the Clyfford Still Museum. It is Denver’s newest place to see art, and it’s conveniently located next door to the Denver Art Museum at 13^th and Bannock.

A stunning two-story building with abundant natural light that complements beautiful wooden floors, the Clyfford Still Museum features 10,000 square feet of exhibit space. On display are just over 100 of Still’s works from a 60-year career, selected from a total collection of 2,400 items.  Of particular note are three sculptures, several room-sized paintings, and a large number of smallish drawings.

In addition to the obvious attraction of art, at the street level of the building, an interactive touch-screen display guides visitors through a timeline of Still’s working years. The multiple monitors use side-by-side comparisons of historical events and art-world happenings to provide perspective for the timing of Still’s work. It’s a very slick and well-made production. For those not interested in technology, take a close look at some of the artist’s personal effects like his baseball glove or smock.

So whether you want to count yourself among the first to ever walk through a brand new museum, or you just want an enjoyable journey through Abstract Expressionism, go visit the Clyfford Still Museum. It opens on Friday, November 18, 2011.

 If you’ve never heard of the artist or you need a refresher, here’s a portion of a documentary about Still’s life and work.

What’s in a Name?

The Imperial has a nice ring to it-sounds like a classy and elegant sort of place to spend a night. It turns out that our beloved Astor House once operated as the Imperial, somtime around 1913, at least. While studying a few old photos of the Blizzard of 1913, I stumbled upon a shot of 12th St. with the Astor House building in the background. The eastern end of the building is clearly marked with a sign that says The Imperial. If you study the photo you may be able to see it for yourself. 

The Imperial in the background at 822 12th St. The building to the right of the guy with the snowshovel is Golden's old City Hall and fire station. Photo courtesy of Dan Mayo.

This is a great discovery because, now, armed with another name for our establishment at 822 12th street, we have the ability to research other primary source materials for specific citations or references to the Imperial. After a preliminary search through some early issues of the Colorado Transcript, we found several advertisements. One from 1917 says:

Nicely furnished room for rent at The Imperial, corner Twelfth and Arapahoe.

So, to answer the question, what’s in a name? A lot. For now, we’ll add The Imperial to our growing list of others (Lake House,  Castle Rock House, Boston House, and Marshall House) for the stone building at 822 12th St.

Mark Dodge, Curator

An historic house on Armistice Day

Since tomorrow is Veterans’ Day–or Armistice Day, as it used to be known–I was reminded about a cool little museum in Washington DC that I think is worth a visit. Woodrow Wilson, our nation’s 28th President, is little regarded today, but was leader of the United States during one of the most transformative eras in our history. Wilson was from a well-heeled Virginia family and began his career in academics (history nerds like myself enjoy pointing out that he had a PhD in history). After serving as President of Princeton University and then Governor of New Jersey, he was narrowly elected President in 1912–essentially because Teddy Roosevelt played a Perot-like spoiler role in the election, causing a fraction in the Republican vote. After one bumpy term, Wilson was again narrowly elected in 1916 and, after promising to keep the US out of WWI, plunged the country headlong into Total War.

Wilson was deeply involved with negotiating the Armistice Accord that ended WWI on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” His signature element of the Peace was the formation of a League of Nations–forerunner to the United Nations–and an element that was never ratified by Congress. While on tour promoting his peace plan, Wilson suffered a major stroke in Pueblo, Colorado. At the end of his term, Wilson left the White House deeply unpopular. He retired to a beautiful house in DC’s Kalorama district where he died in 1924.

One of the reasons why I love visiting historic houses–especially those inhabited by great leaders like Wilson–is to catch just a glimpse of their humanity. Wilson’s house, while quite opulent for its day, seems pretty modest by many of today’s measures. Possibly my favorite room is his library and office where he wrote, reflected and even broadcasted speeches. Another great space is the parlor on the second floor filled with personal items given to him by world leaders.

Wilson profoundly changed the United States and oversaw the country during its transformation from emerging power to world leader. The Woodrow Wilson House is definitely worth the visit.

Theremins, Boomwhackers and Internet Radio, Oh My!

This Saturday, Nov. 5 is Night at the Museums in Golden. From 5 – 8 p.m., folks can visit museums in town for free. Golden History Museums will be participating and presenting some unique experiences to correspond with the Turn it Up!: Golden’s Musical Memories exhibit. Here’s a quick run-down of what you can do at the Golden History Center (GHC) and the Astor House Museum (AHM) tomorrow night.

Build your own theremin and play our boomwhackers
The theremin is a unique instrument that can sound like a DJ scratching a record, a violin or a bass. One of the first entirely electronic instruments, it isn’t actually touched when it’s played. Instead, theremins use antennaes and hand movement at varying intervals to control the sound. While we won’t have a full-sized theremin here for you to play, we will have all the wires, speakers and sensors for you to build a small theremin to try out.

Jessica brought in a prototype she made to a staff meeting earlier this week. All of us were immediately intrigued and started messing around with it (to Jessica’s consternation). I can attest that it is lots of fun to experiment with these mini-theremins. Young and old alike will have fun with these. We even found an interesting tie to Colorado with the theremin. One of the most famous psychadelic rock bands from the 1960s, Lothar and the Hand People, formed in Denver in 1965 and featured the theremin as a key instrument to create their ethereal music.

Another way to make your own musical memories tomorrow night will be with our boomwhackers. These fun plastic tubes are pitched to a specific note. To play them you just whack them on the ground. They are colorful and great for young kids, in particular.

Internet Radio Comes to GHC
Research and collections guru Mark Dodge brought the long history of radio broadcasting at Colorado School of Mines (CSM) to light for us a few months ago. We thought it would be fun to connect the history of the radio station at CSM to their current internet radio station. So tomorrow night we’ll have some CSM disc jockeys here to broadcast live from the GHC. We’re excited to welcome these fine college students to showcase their broadcasting talents from the museum.

Fun crafts and activities at AHM
The Astor House will get into the Night at the Museums action by featuring some interactive Victorian parlor games. Kids can also try rolling out “dough” and cutting cookies. We’ll also have some warm cider to keep you going on what is sure to be a cool evening.

Be sure to check out the other museums in town as well. The American Mountaineering Museum, the Foothills Art Center, the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, the CSM Geology Museum and Coors Brewery Tours will all be free and most of the sites will be offering special activities. Please join us this Saturday for a great Night at the Museums in Golden!

Golden ROCKS!

If you have yet to visit the Golden History Center to see and hear Turn it Up: Golden’s Musical Memories, don’t worry, you still have time. And even though it opened in June, new leads and stories on additional Golden music makers continue to come to light. Recently, Ann Camey brought a few new connections to my attention.

Golden’s Futile Five are already highlighted at the museum, but another group of guys out of Golden High formed the Fabulous Carpetbaggers in the early 1960s. The original lineup for this rock and roll band included: Glen “Flak” Wilson on keyboards, George “Graz” DeGrazio on guitar, Jim “Money” Krug on drums, Todd “Toad” Lowther on guitar, Paul “Parrot” Perry on bass, and Dave “Barns” Barnhardt on guitar.  A few of the members from this group are still playing pure unadulterated rock and roll in the area under the name “The Blank Brothers”. Their most recent CD is titled None of Your Business.  

At about the same time, another of Golden’s own, Doug Lubahn, was gearing up to make his own mark on the musical world beyond Golden.  After graduating from Golden High in 1965, Doug left town for Aspen where he became a ski instructor by day and bass player by night (as a kid, Doug studied the French horn, but switched to bass guitar at age 14). While in Aspen, Doug was discovered by Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas, who convinced him to move to LA where good bass players were in demand. In 1967, Doug found himself playing bass with “The Doors”, and recording Strange Days, the first of three studio albums he worked on. During his time in LA and NYC, Doug crossed paths with a number of well-known musicians like Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Ted Nugent, and Billy Squire. He even let Jimi Hendrix jam on his bass during a “Clear Light” show.

 

Doug published a book a few years ago titled, My Days with the Doors and Other Stories. I’m in the process of getting a copy for the museum. Maybe the museum can also get the electric bass he used while recording Strange Days? Just because an exhibit opens it doesn’t mean the fun stops.

 

If you know about another musical angle I’ve missed-please share.

 

Rock on!

Mark Dodge, Curator

Book reviewed by Center for Colorado and the West at Auraria Library

Earlier this month our republished book, A Woman’s Life in Golden, was reviewed by Kathryn Ordway, author of Colorado’s Rodeo Roots to Modern Day Cowboys and member of the Jefferson County Historic Commission.

The book contains 27 first-hand accounts of life in Golden, Colorado, and was originally published in 1980.

Ordway wrote, “A modern reader can easily track the progress of Colorado through the stories of these women. The book is a great read for one who wants to glimpse into the past and understand the trials and tribulations of women carving out a life on the edge of the mountains. The fact that it provides a rare woman’s perspective makes this book a must read for Colorado history, although an index would have made it a more accessible resource for those working in Colorado history.”

We love the book too and think you should have a copy for yourself, and maybe another one for a gift. Though it was out of print for some years, it is now available for only $12.95 (plus tax) at the Golden History Center, 923 10th St. in Golden.

Golden Lions Rebuild Chicken Coop Fence at the Clear Creek History Park

Yesterday four intrepid gentlemen from the Golden Lions Club came out to the Clear Creek History Park to rebuild one side of our chicken coop’s fence. Ken Park, Larry Skaggs, Kevin O’Connor and John Spice joined forces (armed with hammers, levels, drills, and shovels) to remove the decrepit and rapidly rotting south side of the coop fence.

Golden Lions Club members level the new posts at the CCHP chicken coop.

The worst of the work was digging out the old cement footing to make sure we could dig down deep enough for the new posts. Once the posts were in, the guys put in cross braces and then stapled new chicken wire across the length of the fence. Then they stacked fieldstone along the bottom of the fence to thwart the chicken-eating varmints. The job clocked in at just under six hours total to complete, and it looks fantastic.

So, from all the staff at GHM and our flock of chickens, we thank the Lions (in particular Larry, Ken, John, and Kevin) for lending their expertise to rebuilding the fence at our coop. Swing by to check it out soon!