PRIME DOWNTOWN GOLDEN RETAIL FOR LEASE

In booming Golden, the need for expansion of the building came quickly. An 1869 newspaper article mentioned a New Year’s ball at Harrison’s hall upstairs, which drew seventy couples and featured a Denver band and a catered supper.

The Harrison Block is closely tied to Golden’s early commercial development by providing three storefronts on the first story. The upper story held a large hall and later boarding rooms and offices. The building is also closely associated with Duncan E. Harrison, who erected it and operated his own businesses in it, a drugstore in the central storefront from 1886 to 1919.

Duncan Edward Harrison was born on a ship at sea in 1829 while his parents moved their family from Scotland to Canada. The Harrisons spent a few years in Canada and then moved to Iowa, where Duncan grew up and worked as a carpenter, joiner, and pattern maker. At thirty, he was among the “Fifty-Niners” who came to present-day Colorado to find their fortunes in mining.

Harrison was first located in Gilpin County and worked in mining before acquiring the property in Golden City in 1859. He built a log cabin on this site before the present building. His wife, Mary B. Mills, was hailed as “one of the best known of the women pioneers of Golden.” Born in Vermont in 1835, she married Harrison in 1854 and became the mother of five sons.

In the early years in Golden, Mr. Harrison continued to pursue mining interests and engaged in contracting, working on “many buildings in the city, including brick buildings on Washington Avenue.” Historian Wilbur F. Stone called him “one of the real builders of Golden.” He served on the first board of Jefferson County Commissioners, was a charter member of the Golden Masonic Lodge, and actively promoted the town. Duncan Harrison loved dancing, and after erecting a large hall in the upper story of this building, he sponsored balls and offered a dancing academy, described as the first in Colorado.

The Harrison Block attracted such enterprises as the Post Office Book Store, A.J. Hoar’s restaurant and day-board hotel, Dollison & Townsend’s market, and McEachern & Worth’s liquor, tobacco, and cigar store in the 1870s. Harrison also operated a store offering fruits, confections, nuts, and groceries. Prosperity in business allowed the Harrisons to construct a “fine residence” at 4th (now 14th) and Arapahoe, opposite the School of Mines campus in 1871.

The hall in the Harrison Block became a roller skating rink in 1872, but in the same year, Harrison divided it into six offices. In 1883 he established the “City Drugstore” in this building, described as “one of the most prosperous lines of business in the city” in 1893 and “one of the leading commercial establishments of Golden” by historian Wilbur F. Stone. Items for sale in the drugstore included a large stock of patent medicines and drugs, five-cent cigars, paints and oils, malaria poison, and “sundries.”

Mrs. Harrison died in 1908. In 1920 Duncan Harrison shared his house with his son, Louis B. Harrison, his wife Rose, and son Duncan E. In 1921 Jessie Harrison Jones was identified as conservator of the estate of Duncan E. Harrison, who was deemed “mentally incompetent.” In June 1924, Alpine Drug leased the entire Harrison Block, and its owner planned remodeling and improvement of the building. Duncan E. Harrison died at age 95 and was buried in Golden Cemetery in 1924. He was hailed as a “pioneer of 1859” and a “prominent businessman of Golden.

The 1893 Golden Globe Industrial Edition called Harrison’s Block “a fine block” and described it as “an imposing block of three business places, double story, substantially built of Golden brick.” By 1895 a millinery was operating in Suite 1206.

In 1900, Suite 1206 was a boot and shoe store, 1208 held a drugstore, and a fancy goods shop occupied Suite 1210. In 1904 H.S. Mather’s photo gallery was here, and in 1906 Suite 1206 was the site of a combined boot and shoe and millinery shop. The center suite held a drugstore, and the south store sold notions.

In 1909 Harrison & Lyon sold their shoe store to S.A. Barton of South Dakota, who moved his family to rooms over the store. Harrison & Lyon retained the millinery department. In 1918 the notions and drugstore remained, and a jewelry store operated in Suite 1206. A “Tour of Historic Golden” indicates that “Creekside Jewelers, originally established by G.L. Muffley in 1902, has spent most of its history in this storefront.”

In 1919 Jessie and D. Harrison and William McColl were listed as owners of this building in assessor records. By 1938 two stores were present, with the south store (1208-10) twice the size of the north (1206). The larger store housed the Alpine Drug Co. (E.F. Kronke, owner, and Harry Hoffman, manager), and the smaller was the site of Tierney Jewelry, operated by James Tierney and Public Service Company. The upstairs held the five-unit Broad Apartments.

In 1939 Fred Bryant and J.D. Slater organized Golden Shoe & Leather Co. in the building. In 1941 the apartments were managed by Karl M. Buehler and consisted of six units. The first-story stores were the same. In November 1944, Victoria and Darrell Hudson became owners of the building. In 1947 the upstairs contained five apartments and the offices of Frank J. Reinhard, Jr., attorney and the Golden Outlook operation of George Barley. The first story included Tierney Jewelry and the Alpine Drug store, now owned by E.W. Hiatt.

The 1950 city directory listed the Broad Apartments (2 units) on the second story, along with the Golden Industrial Bank, Frank J. Reinhard, and other offices. On the first-story, the building held: 1206-Tierney Jewelry Co., Wendell G. Plummer, owner, and Alpine Drug Store, operated by L.L. Lakey and L.E. Oxelson, partners.

In 1960 the building housed Plummer Jewelry in Suite 1206, Dr. E.A. Bader, optometrist in Suite 1208, and Modern Beauty Shop and Osa-Mae’s Dress Shoppe in Suite 1210. The upstairs held offices and the Broad Apartments.

By 1962 the Corn Cabin, selling popcorn and candy (Kenneth E. Neuhauser), operated in Suite 1210, and in 1966, Modern Beauty Salon, operated by Violet Boulware, took over the space. The upstairs held seven offices.

In 1968 the apartments and Jefferson County Public Library administrative offices occupied the upstairs. Suite 1206 still housed Plummer Jewelry and Suite 1208 Dr. E.A. Bader. Suite 1210 contained the Eula Beauty Box, Eula Welch, owner. Jefferson County Public Library’s processing department also had space here.

Thomas G. Plummer, Ernest A. Bader, Harold G. Williams, and Herman J. Victor purchased the building in July 1969. An entity known as Avenue Associates became the owner in August 1969. In 1971 the upstairs held: Baker Perkins, Inc.; Cotter Corp.; Laborers’ International Union of North America; and Williams Realty Investment. Plummer’s Jewelry remained in Suite 1206, as did Dr. E.A. Bader in Suite 1208 and Del’s Tonsorial Parlor (barber) moved into Suite 1210 where it still operates today.

In 1989 the building was known as the Hudson Building, and signs on the front indicated three businesses: the tonsorial parlor, the optometrist, and Plummer’s Jewelry. Thomas G. Plummer became the sole listed owner in 1989, with Donna J. Plummer being added to the property title in 2000. Mr. Plummer again became the sole listed owner in 2005. In 2009 Donna Plummer was the owner.