Historical Commission

Jefferson National Register Historic Sites

designated by Department of the Interior

compiled by Jefferson County Historical Commission Planning and Zoning, 100 Jefferson County Pkwy., Suite 3550, Golden CO 80419

Rockland Memorial Community Church and Cemetery

It is unclear when exactly construction of the Rockland Community Church began. Various reports indicated that the church was built around 1878. At that time, three prominent members of the Mount Vernon Canyon community decided the area had grown enough in population to support their own church. Henry Wilson Chiles, from County, Virginia, donated the land with the condition that it would be used for church and burial activities. Mr. Chiles stated that the church would be for the community at large, with no particular denomination controlling the church. The Church’s primary architectural style would be classified as “Pioneer Victorian”, with minimal ornamentation. The structure used rough sawn timber for the walls, floor and roof structure. The exterior finish is painted 6” shiplap wooden siding with the original single hung sash windows that are operable and protected with operable shutters. The interior is a single-room sanctuary with a wooden floor and a one-step raised alter and alter rail. The interior is finished with plaster, a wooden wainscot, and a board and bead coffered ceiling. The cemetery contains about 120 souls dating back to 1881. New wooden crosses and plaques mark the graves without headstones. The Rockland Community Church and Cemetery has been in operation for over 120 years, and is one of the oldest churches in . The National Register of Historic Places listed the church and cemetery on August 5, 2009. 54 Brook Forest Inn

Brook Forest Inn near Evergreen started out as a small cabin that is now the main portion of the Inn’s lounge and parlor rooms. The cabin was originally constructed in 1909 on a 350-acre homestead claim. After renovating the old cabin, building some additional structures, planting crops and landscaping the grounds, the Brook Forest Inn opened in 1919. At that time, the owners of the Inn, Edwin Welz, of Vienna, Austria and his wife Giggi of Switzerland began renovating the Inn to incorporate a European flare and create what they referred to as their own “Little Switzerland.” Later additions included a section with white quartz rock in a Gothic design that included medieval turrets. The Brook Forest Inn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance as a good example of Rustic design with Bavarian and Gothic influences. The Inn is also an important example of a successful tourist resort and local entertainment venue in the Evergreen region and has played a vital role in tourism in Evergreen and along the Front Range. On July 29, 2009, the Brook Forest Inn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties in recognition of this property’s contribution to the heritage of the State of Colorado.

55 Golden Cemetery

Golden Cemetery was established by the Town of Golden on October 6, 1873, as one of the state’s earliest memorial parks, or garden cemeteries. The Golden Cemetery is significant for its association with the exploration and settlement of Golden, and providing an essential need for the new community. It is the final resting place of several significant persons in the history of Golden and Jefferson County including Edward L. Berthoud, George West, and George Morrison. The cemetery is also important for its association with the development of funerary art and planned and landscaped community cemeteries in Colorado between the 1870s and mid-1900s. Golden Cemetery is architecturally significant for its early 1930s WPA Rustic style Shelter House. The Shelter House was erected in 1933-34 by the Civil Works Administration (CWA), in conjunction with the City of Golden, to replace an inadequate wood frame building constructed in 1888. Construction of the new Shelter House was part of a concerted Depression-era effort to beautify the cemetery. Golden Cemetery is Jefferson County’s 4th funerary site designated on the National Register, and it is Jefferson County’s first complete burial ground recognized, with over 8,000 gravesites. On April 18, 2012 the Golden Cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

56 James H. Baugh House

The James H. Baugh House located at 11361 W. 44th Avenue in Wheat Ridge. It one of the oldest log structures still standing in Colorado and is the earliest extant building from the 1859 settlement period of Jefferson County’s Clear Creek Valley. James H. Baugh was one of the very earliest settlers in the Wheat Ridge area who established a farm in the fertile Clear Creek Valley and helped promote local agricultural commerce. The Baugh House is an excellent example of a Late Victorian farmhouse with a high degree of integrity along with the original Pioneer Log cabin beneath the Victorian-era clapboard. Character- defining features found of the Late Victorian style include the one-and-one-half stories, gabled roof, decorative shingles, and porch with spindles, Tuscan columns, and gabled dormers. The Pioneer Log cabin found inside a portion of the house contains hand-hewn logs, V-notching, and wood and sapling chinking, all character defining features of the Pioneer Log style. The James H. Baugh House was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 2012.

57 Staunton State Park

The Staunton State Park, located at 11559 Upper Ranch Drive, Pine vicinity, is a Rural Historic Landscape located north of Shaffer’s Crossing on U.S. Highway 285 and approximately six miles west of Conifer or forty-five miles southwest of downtown , Colorado. Today the Staunton Ranch, along with several surrounding parcels, is known as Staunton State Park, which includes nearly 3,800 acres. The Staunton Ranch accommodates three Rustic style cabins (Staunton, Blaine, and Richardson) with two intact cabins significant for the type, period or method of construction. The Ranch includes several associated privies; a bath/shower house, a mill bunkhouse with associated privy, a collapsed sawmill site, cabin foundations and building ruins, crop terraces, and a cable and a pulley system with original equipment. The cultural resources are scattered primarily throughout the Jefferson County section of the property and are accessible by one-lane dirt roads. Overall, the entire property retains a high degree of integrity for a rural historic landscape as it relates to feeling, setting, association, location, workmanship, design, and materials. Its mountainous view sheds, grassy meadows, native vegetation, and boundary demarcations, primarily continue to exist as they did when Rachael and Archibald Staunton purchased the property in 1918. The Staunton Ranch was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties on December 4, 2012.

58 Fruitdale School

The Fruitdale Grade School, located at 10801 W. 44th Avenue in Wheat Ridge, is locally significant for education due to its association with the Fruitdale and later Wheat Ridge area children as the only school serving the community from 1927 until its closure in 1978. The school is also significant under social history as the primary gathering space for the Fruitdale community. Fruitdale Grade School is locally significant as a good local example of an Art Deco style as applied to a school building and designed by well-known Denver architect Temple Buell. Character-defining features include zigzag brickwork on the cornice and in the brick detailing above the entrance doors, detailed basket-weave brickwork separating the first and second story windows, and the multiple-pane windows. A small 1954 one-story addition to the west is also significant as an example of a mid- century school with elements of the Prairie and International Styles. The Fruitdale School was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 2013.

59 Conifer Junction Schoolhouse

Conifer Junction Schoolhouse, referred to by locals as the Little White Schoolhouse, sits on a one- acre lot in the unincorporated community of Conifer. A nearby barn, built sometime in the 1930s, housed the animals that the teacher and students rode to school. The school functioned as a one-room schoolhouse until the growth necessitated a larger school in 1965. The Little White Schoolhouse was continuously used from 1923 to 1965 for grades 1-8. The Conifer Junction Schoolhouse replaced a previous schoolhouse, which was in an abandoned reform Mormon church. In 1965 the Jefferson County School District converted the Little White Schoolhouse to a preschool, which operated until 2012 when it was sold to the Conifer Historical Society and Museum. The school provided a central gathering place for dances, box socials, and other community events over the years, including church services. Conifer area families probably came together to help a local builder construct the school. Its two floors include a classroom and two cloakrooms, with a basement kitchen, office, and bathrooms. The school and the 1930s horse barn are good examples of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements architectural style. The low-pitched hipped roof, the overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails, the porch with sturdy columns, and the single-story design help emphasize its horizontal look. The entry porch, with three doors that lead into the main room, and the protruding cloakrooms make this schoolhouse distinctive. On February 10, 2014, the Conifer Junction Schoolhouse at 26951 Barkley Road was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (5JF.5107).

60 Bradford – Perley Site

Although only the walls of the Bradford house and the foundation of the milk house remain, the Bradford-Perley Site it is considered historically significant in the area of transportation for its association with Robert Bradford and the Bradford Wagon Road. Robert Boyles Bradford first arrived in Denver shortly after many gold seekers and emigrants arrived. In 1860 he claimed property in a meadow alongside his Bradford Road, about four miles south from Morrison, with hopes of creating a town to rival Denver or Golden. Robert Bradford, with his partner W. H. Middaugh, planned and constructed the toll road to the west of Denver to transport miners, settlers and supplies to the mining communities of Tarryall, Fairplay, Breckenridge and other settlements. On Dec. 7, 1859, the General Assembly of the Jefferson Territory (predecessor to ) issued a charter, to the Denver, Auraria and South Park Wagon Road Co., of which Bradford was listed as president of the company. The road was later called the Denver, Bradford and Blue River Road Co. (locals simply referring to it as the Bradford Road). The wagon road opened in February 1860. The Bradford-Perley Site is also considered a significant part of the exploration and settlement of Jefferson County due to its association with settlement of Bradford City (commonly known as Bradford) and the local history of what became the Ken-Caryl Ranch. On Feb. 2, 2015, the Robert Boyles Bradford Property – Bradford-Perley Site – in the Ken Caryl Ranch vicinity was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

61 Medlen School

The 1886 District No. 17 School Medlen School is historically significant for its long association with the education of South Turkey Creek area students. It is also significant for social history as the school building served as a community center, and the teacherage served as a community library after it was no longer used as a teacherage. Additionally, the Medlen School is architecturally important as a good example of a one-room schoolhouse in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements style as applied to the schoolhouse and associated buildings. The Medlen School is also significant for its potential to yield information important to Jefferson County history. The school building meets the registration requirements of the Schoolhouse Property Type as defined in the Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF) Rural School Buildings in Colorado. As noted in the MPDF, rural school buildings are eligible for not only education, but also for social history as a focus of community life and the primary gathering point for a wide variety of social and community events. The 1886 District No. 17 School – Medlen School – was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 4, 2015.

62 Romano Residence

The Romano Residence is located at 16300 S. Golden Road in unincorporated Jefferson County. Originally built in 1924 by Capt. Leo Rundstein of Camp George West, the home was constructed out of local fieldstone and cobblestone. Created as a high style rustic Craftsman Bungalow, it includes a low-pitched gable roof, exposed rafter tails, full-width front porch, battered porch piers, multi-pane windows and deeply overhanging bracketed eaves. In 1927, Rundstein sold to Emery Barlock who was known in Golden as the first person to open a cash store. As a side business, he ran a small mink ranch on the property. Prominent Italian immigrants Samuel and Albina Romano purchased it in 1929. They operated the La Romana fur ranch on the property and built the Golden Market next door. The Romano Residence is a well-preserved example of the “Golden Rustic” architectural movement of the 1910s to 1940s, which comprises a distinctive collection of buildings and structures in the Pleasant View, Golden, Fairmount and west Lakewood areas. Designed in styles relating to the Arts & Crafts movement and featuring native materials including wood and locally collected stone, these buildings and structures have no common architect, builder or developer. They represent a grassroots localized architectural movement. The Romano house is one of the most intact examples of this due to its excellent state of preservation. It was among the very first Jefferson County Landmarks designated on Sept. 8, 2003. The Romano residence was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 26, 2016.

63