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Brief History of the
Golden Seventh-day Adventist Church
Two years before the turn of the 20th century, a meeting was
held in Golden on the lot at the corner of 13th and Washington
Streets. A little boy, seeing the big tent, thought a
circus had come to town and urged his family to attend.
This boy, his mother, brother aunt and her family joined the
Seventh-day Adventist Church as a result of these
meetings. From 1903 to 1909, a home Sabbath School was
conducted in the little boy's home at 530 Arapahoe Street.
Later that boy grew up to be a Seventh-day Adventist minister,
Elder Prout.
The Golden Seventh-day Adventist Church was formally organized
in 1910 and met in a rented upstairs hall on Ford Street until
1917. The old Grange Hall at 10th and Jackson was the next
meeting place from 1917 to 1919. At this time, the
membership was about 31. Then the old Swedish Church at
501 Washington Avenue was pressed into service from 1919 to
1920. Many present and former members of the Golden SDA
Church will fondly remember the old building at 810 Washington
which was our church home from 1921 to 1957, a period of nearly
36 years.
Finally, after much planning and prayer, the Lord's hand guided
us to our present location where the first service was conducted
two days before Christmas on December 23, 1957. The newly
built church was dedicated on December 9, 1961.
In the summer of 1997 we began a major construction project that
gave us room to expand our ministries. The back of the church was remodeled and an addition put on that
included an extended sanctuary, a sound/satellite room, a new
mother's room, a new entryway, the pastor's office, the library,
the two main bathrooms, the upstairs rooms and a pathfinder room
downstairs. This
renovation was completely paid for in February of 2005.
Comments and Picture
from Historian Rick Gardner (September 2009)
Here is the only image
I've ever seen of the original Seventh-day Adventist Church,
when it was on Washington Avenue. The photo is from a
publication promoting Jefferson County in 1950. The church
built this building around 1922 when the Golden school district
purchased the church's prior home to raze it and its block to
build the new Golden High School (now American Mountaineering
Center). It was, as you can see, a bungalow styled church, but
it was built as a church nevertheless.
There's no reason I can see why the history provided me (above)
shouldn't be true; the most conflict I can see right now is
minor. I have photos of two of the early church homes, which
were the First Christian Church building at the northwest corner
of 10th and Jackson (referred to as a
grange hall, which by then it might have been) and the Swedish
Lutheran Church building at the southeast corner of 5th and
Washington. I've studied them a lot, and have in my possession
the final brick from the Swedish church (it is the oldest
remnant of any Lutheran chapel in Colorado; it stood from
1874-1933). The First Christian Church I believe was the first
congregation of the Disciples of Christ in Colorado, a chapel
built in 1873, which continued until they moved out around
1907. In 1908 it became the Electric Theatre, our first movie
theater, soon renamed the Gem, which after two more homes built
its permanent new home in 1911 still standing at the southeast
corner of 13th and Washington. When the Christian church was to
be destroyed the Adventists took its windows with them and
installed them in the new building.
Based on the timeframe of information I'd say it is most likely
the Adventist tent stood on one of the western corners of 13th
and Washington. The southeast was then part of a stable and the
northeast was then the terminal of the tramway line.
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