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 and brother and his 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. For a period of 36 years, 1921 to 1957, 810 Washington was home for our church (see picture below).
Finally, after much planning and prayer, the Lord's hand guided us to our present location where the first service was conducted four days before Christmas on December 21, 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 to 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 time frame 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.