The Colorado National Guard Armory, known commonly by locals simply as the Armory, is a landmark in

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Unusual in its construction, it was at one time the largest

cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fro ...

building in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was built in 1913 by the

Colorado National Guard The Colorado National Guard consists of the Colorado Army National Guard and Colorado Air National Guard, forming the state of Colorado's component to the United States National Guard. Founded in 1860, the Colorado National Guard falls under t ...

as an

armory Armory or armoury may mean: * An arsenal, a military or civilian location for the storage of arms and ammunition Places *National Guard Armory, in the United States and Canada, a training place for National Guard or other part-time or regular mili ...

, quarters, mess hall and

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

for the Guard's Company A of Engineers. When it was completed in 1914, the Company was housed in this building's second and third floors while the first-story garden level was available for rental to the public. The Armory's original uses included: Golden's

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

(northeast first-level storefront); photo shop (northwest first-level storefront); barracks, mess hall, weapons storage and drill hall (second level); auditorium (third level); and map room (

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

). In subsequent years the building served in part or whole as a hotel, offices, industrial bank, and student housing. During the

influenza epidemic of 1918 The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

the building became an emergency hospital for ill patients used by the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

, and in 1933 it became the local headquarters of the

Civil Works Administration The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a short-lived job creation program established by the New Deal during the Great Depression in the United States to rapidly create mostly manual-labor jobs for millions of unemployed workers. The jobs were ...

, the federal depression era agency which created several area improvements. Calvary Episcopal Church is the current property owner. Today the Armory houses Cafe 13, a local coffeeshop, on the first floor. The second floor is

Colorado School of Mines The Colorado School of Mines, informally called Mines, is a public research university in Golden, Colorado, founded in 1874. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, and mathematics, with a focus on ener ...

student housing which is administered by the church. The remaining first floor, third floor, and fourth floor tower are home to Connects Workspace, Golden's only coworking space.

Cobblestone Castle

Cornerstone on Colorado National Guard Armory, Golden, Colorado

The cornerstone for the building was laid 14 June 1913. Built in 1913 and 1914, partially during the height of the

Colorado Coalfield War The Colorado Coalfield War was a major labor uprising in the Southern and Central Colorado Front Range between September 1913 and December 1914. Striking began in late summer 1913, organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) agai ...

, a strategic building for “observation” was desired. The Armory was designed by James H. Gow, originally in a design that was meant to be made of

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

. Cost-cutting measures led the Guard to switch the building to a free and plentiful local resource,

, leading to the building’s distinctive and famous appearance. Some 3,300 wagonloads weighing 6,600 tons were hauled by Lawrence W. Billis from Clear Creek to this site, and as it rose some locals predicted it would collapse. Although its

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over time ...

, at the northeast base corner of the second level, appears out of plumb, this is an

optical illusion Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...

created by the cobblestone construction. Reputedly the building may have been inspired by Golden resident Col. Joseph C. Taylor's fondness for the Royal Military Academy buildings at Sandhurst, England. It may also be inspired by the

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

emblem of Company A of Engineers. Taylor's name–along with that of then-

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Elias Ammons Elias Milton Ammons (July 28, 1860 – May 20, 1925) served as the List of Governors of Colorado, 19th Governor of Colorado from 1913 to 1915. Born in 1860 in Macon County, North Carolina, he is perhaps best remembered for ordering United States ...

Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

John Chase, and G.M. Lee–appear engraved on a stone along the building's eastern face. It was listed in

Ripley's Believe It Or Not ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' fea ...

as the largest cobblestone building in the United States. Actor

Gene Hackman Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...

is one of its previous owners, according to Jefferson County property records. The historic

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

walk-in

safe A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and ...

can be visited by the public in its lower level. Its lowest walls are several feet thick, owing to the massive load above them. The Armory was the first of many area buildings of its time constructed primarily in rustic

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

and other native stone, a unique local architectural movement that continued into the 1940s.

References

Golden Landmarks Association
{{commonscat, Colorado National Guard Armory Infrastructure completed in 1913 Buildings and structures in Golden, Colorado Colorado School of Mines Armories on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Post office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado University and college dormitories in the United States Towers in Colorado Cobblestone architecture Military installations in Colorado 1913 establishments in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Jefferson County, Colorado

Cobblestone Castle

See also

References