Golden – The fate of the historic building that houses the popular Old Capitol Grill appeared bleak seven months ago.
On Nov. 3, 2005, flames shot through the roof and smoke cloaked downtown Golden when roofers accidentally started the two-alarm blaze.
The two-story red-brick building, which was constructed in 1863 with an addition completed in 1866, played host to the Colorado Territorial Legislature before the state capital moved to Denver in 1867.
It’s been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996.
Today, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the structure is on the mend – and in a few ways, is better and more authentic than before.
“It’s been a heck of a job,” said Rick Gardner, Golden’s resident historian. “It’s a long time coming, but you have to be patient about these things.”
The casual-dining restaurant on the first floor could open in August, said Brian Hunt, who has owned the Old Capitol Grill for a decade.
“I am so looking forward to it,” Hunt said. “Everybody is asking, ‘When are you going to reopen?’ You can’t keep a secret in Golden, so when we get a date, everyone will know.”
The restaurant will feature the same layout, with new booths, floors, paint, some kitchen equipment and bar.
Most of the staff of 35, who have gotten jobs elsewhere, also want to return. The menu, with a few tweaks, will be the same.
One of the building’s owners, Skip Ahern, said the second-floor offices probably will be ready for occupancy at the end of September.
“It’s coming along, but just not as fast as we hoped,” Ahern said.
The main roof is nearly complete, and support beams have been replaced. A sprinkler system will be added and heating and cooling systems upgraded.
Baking soda was used to clean smoke damage off bricks on the south end. Bricks that tumbled into Miner’s Alley and 12th Avenue have been seamlessly reset in the walls.
“It’s as if there was never a fire,” Gardner said of the brickwork. “It’s one of the best matching jobs I’ve ever seen.”
Five to eight layers of flooring laid down over 140 years were removed after being soaked with water used to douse the fire.
As the flooring was torn up, artifacts of yesteryear emerged.
“There were some goodies – essentially trash – were found beneath the floorboards behind where the safe is,” Gardner said.
Items included handbills from the Methodist Church listing service times with H.C. Faltz as minister; bottles and cans from the first floor’s stint as a mercantile, and parts for kerosene lamps.
Most of the $1.3 million in damage has been covered by insurance. A $30,000 grant from the Golden Civic Foundation is restoring seven chimneys missing from the building’s south side for more than 60 years.
William A.H. Loveland, one of Golden’s founders, built the structure the year the telegraph linked Denver to the East.
The stately row of chimneys was added in 1866 and extended to lofty Victorian heights a few years later. But Gardner said foothills winds made the chimneys sway, posing a threat to those on the sidewalks below. So the mercantile’s owner trimmed them down to stubs in 1939.
“With disaster comes opportunity,” Gardner said, “to give the building some of its old elegance again.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
