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Goosetown Tavern:
sole remnant of Golden's German district
11/14/97
Editor's note: A flurry of
preservation activity hit Golden this week as word
of the pending sale of Sam's Land Tavern to Coors
Brewing Co. spread.
Coors spokesman Jon Goldman said the
sale is expected to close in December and there are
no plans for what to do with the property. "Everyone
around here has a great fondness for Sam's Land and
will miss the greasy hamburgers," Goldman said.
Meanwhile, the following history was
submitted along with letters calling for its
restoration.
by Richard Gardner
Contributing writer
Hard times have befallen the historic
Goosetown Tavern in east Golden, which was expected
to be purchased by Coors Brewing Co.
The Goosetown Tavern's early history is
lost to Golden today, despite the fact that, with
the recent closure of El Bronco Bar in Denver, it is
truly the oldest remaining tavern in the Denver
metropolitan area.
It was, nevertheless, of great notoriety
and color, beyond that which most may be able to
recall.
The tavern was originally built in 1873
by German immigrant Julius Schultz, who had arrived
with his wife, Rosa, in 1868. Built during Golden's
largest per capita building boom to date, it was
listed late in 1873 as a one-story bakery, costing
$1,500 to build, with capital help from Andrew Wall.
That year, Schultz himself installed the
ornate back bar, which still exists to this day, and
opened for business.
Then known as Schultz's grocery, the
grocery and bar were one of many noted
establishments at the far eastern end of Golden,
known as Goosetown.
Goosetown, a name of disputed origin,
was Golden's German district, built up around the
rail yards in the early 1870s by German immigrant
workers and speculators catering to them.
Nondescript frame buildings housing
these working-class families shot up everywhere,
prompting George West, founder of the Transcript, to
criticize the developers, saying, "It's better to
build a small house that looks presentable than a
large one that does not."
Golden's first growth-limiting
ordinance, intended to ban frame buildings for the
sake of fire safety, passed shortly thereafter in
1874. Five years later Goosetown received a frame
firehouse.
Schultz's establishment was not among
the cookie-cutter homes, however. It was, in fact,
an elegant establishment, sporting an ornate
woodwork front veranda facing Vasquez Street, named
for the French fur-trading party of the Golden
Valley in the 1830s. Golden's German workers,
primarily working at the smelters, Coors or the
railroad, often congregated at the tavern, and it
was at the heart of the immigrant community in
Golden. During its early history, like many bars, it
doubled as another establishment, such as a bakery,
grocery or restaurant.
There are no known accounts why bullet
holes have materialized within the tavern, but
Goosetown was the rowdiest part of Golden, with
fatalities chalked up to the nearby Omaha,
Pennsylvania and Burgess House hotels. It definitely
was not for the faint of heart.
Schultz sold off the establishment in
1900, building Golden's first edifice of the 20th
century downtown at 1118 Washington Ave. The
building passed through the hands of fellow Germans
Gustav Schneller and Casper Hofmeister, before
arriving in the hands of Nels Dahlberg, of
prominence in Golden's Swedish immigrant community.
The transition from German to Swede
management did not affect the bar's bottom line,
however, as it continued to faithfully serve
Golden's working-class public. It passed to the
hands of son Oscar, and slowly the building began to
lose its heady Victorian appearance. During
Prohibition, Oscar weathered the hard times by
converting the place to selling soft drinks,
primarily to workers now producing malted milk
across the river at Coors.
Goosetown itself fell into decline, with
its buildings becoming run-down fire hazards. In
1912 the last smelter went out of business, and in
1927 the works of the railroad itself were
demolished. Golden's German community never rebound,
and Goosetown passed to a new clientele.
When Sam Wayland purchased the historic
tavern, he renamed it Sam's Land Tavern, but its
aged neon sign remained largely unchanged.
The building itself has remained a time
capsule, unchanged in configuration since the turn
of the century, having lost its ornate front but
kept its inward history. Today it is the oldest bar
in the Denver area, and quite possibly the oldest in
Colorado.
Goosetown over time was transformed into
a sea of parking, replacing mostly anonymous
historical buildings, leaving the Goosetown Tavern
intact.
The Goosetown Tavern is the last of the
German-built places of Golden's German district. It
is the icon of a community now virtually lost to the
Golden of future ages.
The tavern is among Colorado's
longest-lived businesses.
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