Colorado National Guard Armory

Armory
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	Golden, Colorado
Built:	1913
Architect:	James H. Gow
Architectural style:	Castle
NRHP Reference#:	78000860
Added to NRHP:	December 18, 1978

Another view of the armory building

One of the most unusual landmarks of its region, the Colorado National Guard Armory, known commonly by locals simply as the Armory, was built in 1913 by the Colorado National Guard as an armory, quarters, mess hall and auditorium 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 (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). In years after the building served in part or whole as a hotel, offices, industrial bank, and student housing. During the influenza epidemic of 1918 the building became an emergency hospital for ill patients used by the Red Cross, and in 1933 it became the local headquarters of the Civil Works Administration, the federal depression era agency which created several area improvements. Today the Armory serves as Colorado School of Mines student housing with offices and shops.

Cobblestone Castle

The Armory was designed by prominent area architect James H. Gow, originally in a design that was meant to be made of brick. However, cost-cutting measures led the Guard to switch the building to a free and plentiful local resource, cobblestone, which would make the building more distinctive and famous. 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. However, it has remained standing for over 90 years to this day.

Fun Facts

• The Armory was listed in Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the largest cobblestone building in the United States.
• Actor Gene Hackman is one of its previous owners, according to Jefferson County property records.
• Although its cornerstone, at the northeast base corner of the second level, appears out of plumb, this is actually an optical illusion created by the cobblestone construction.
• Reputedly the building may have been inspired by Col. Joseph C. Taylor's fondness for the Royal Military Academy buildings at Sandhurst, England. It may also be inspired by the castle emblem of Company A, engineers.
• The historic post office walk-in safe 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 cobblestone, fieldstone and other native stone, a unique local architectural movement that continued into the 1940s.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Jefferson County, Colorado

References

Golden Landmarks Association