First Presbyterian Church of Golden and Unger House

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First Presbyterian Church of Golden and Unger House

The First Presbyterian Church of Golden and the Unger House are two buildings in the Foothills Art Center in Golden

Golden, Colorado

The historic City of Golden is a Colorado municipalities#Home_Rule_Municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, Colorado, United States....
, Colorado

Colorado

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. Together they were listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation....
in 1991, and are the most prominent landmarks of Golden's Court House Hill neighborhood.

main building of the Foothills complex, the historic First Presbyterian Church was originally built in 1872 as the southeasterly portion of the present building.

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The First Presbyterian Church of Golden and the Unger House are two buildings in the Foothills Art Center in Golden

Golden, Colorado

The historic City of Golden is a Colorado municipalities#Home_Rule_Municipality that is the county seat of Jefferson County, Colorado, Colorado, United States....
, Colorado

Colorado

United States

National Register of Historic Places

First Presbyterian Church & Manse

The main building of the Foothills complex, the historic First Presbyterian Church was originally built in 1872 as the southeasterly portion of the present building. Originally is was a small east-west oriented chapel with Gothic stained glass windows and brick buttresses, for the congregation founded in 1870 by the famed circuit riding minister Sheldon Jackson

Sheldon Jackson

Reverend Sheldon Jackson was a Presbyterian missionary who also became a politician. During this career he travelled about 1 million miles and established over 100 Mission s and Church bodyes in the Western United States....
. The church was built on land donated by William A.H. Loveland. In 1898 the growing congregation hired prominent area architect James H. Gow to redesign and add onto the building, which transformed it into a roughly cross-shaped chapel with northeast corner bell tower

Bell tower

A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more Bell s, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells....
, with smooth new facing brick enabling the whole to match. The place continued serving as the First Presbyterian Church until the congregation outgrew this space and moved to south Golden in 1958. The fledgling Jefferson Unitarian Church, led by C. Leon Hopper, then took over the church building, and worshipped here for 10 years until moving to their own home east of Golden in Applewood in 1968. By that time, Golden sidewalk art sales were calling attention to the need for an area art center of its own, which led to the creation of the Foothills Art Center, which took over the already artistic space. It has since become one of the renowned art exhibition places of Colorado

Colorado

The State of Colorado is a U.S. state located in the Mountain States of the United States of America. Colorado may also be considered to be a part of the Western United States and Southwestern United States regions of the United States....
.

The Manse of the complex is the northeast wing of the Foothills gallery complex. It was built freestanding in 1892 as the home for the minister of the First Presbyterian Church. It is a Queen Anne-styled home with upper story fishscale siding and onion dome tower. Through additions added in 1898, 1920 and 1947 the main church was linked to this building. It now serves as the main entrance to the Foothills Art Center.

Unger House

The Unger House, also historically known as the Rubey House, is a brick house which stands south of the First Presbyterian Church building on Washington Avenue. It was originally designed and built in 1899 by prominent Golden builder Perre O. Unger. It is Edwardian style, featuring a northeast corner tower

Tower

Towers are tall human-made structures that are always taller than they are wide, usually by a significant margin. Towers are generally built to take advantage of their height, and can stand alone or as part of a larger structure....
and ornamental front porch. Built as a speculation, it was sold in 1900 to banker Jesse W. Rubey as a home for family matriarch Ella M. Rubey. Around 1990 the home was purchased by the Foothills Art Center and now serves as their gift shop.