As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I walked around Golden, Colorado this past Wednesday to soak up the atmosphere and take a few photographs, some of which can be seen in the above collage. I just love Golden. It has retained it's 19th century charm despite only being 20 minutes away from downtown Denver. It was, in fact, the first territorial capitol of Colorado from 1862 until 1867, when scumbag politicians from Denver got the capitol moved there (you see - the more things change, the more they stay the same). The legislature met in the building that is dead center in the collage, now called the Old Capitol Grill. The legislature would meet upstairs and then adjourn to the first floor for a few libations. The place still has a glassed in parlor in the back where the women had to sit, so as not to become corrupted by the tavern atmosphere. I imagine that policy has changed by now, but you never know. After all, Colorado just voted to make slavery illegal this past November (I know - I was surprised too). The top left photo in the collage shows the Astor House, a rooming house built in 1867, where many of the legislators stayed. It featured the very first bathtub in town, and the landlady charged the town-folk 25 cents each to use it, making more money doing that than renting out rooms. And the house in the above right of the collage belongs to one of my personal heros. From the looks of it, it appears to be from the 1860s or 1870s, but the important thing is that the owner was somehow able to convince his wife to let him put a beer garden in the backyard. It is called the Golden City Brewery, and is the second largest brewery in town after some place called Coors. Now how great is that?
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