623 14th Street
Golden, CO 80401

The Linder Cottage was originally built in 1867 by William A. H. Loveland as the barn for his first home in Colorado.  Originally covered in board and batten siding, it stood in back of the Loveland Cottage that still stands at 717 12th Street.  Loveland, after whom the city and mountain pass are named, was a famed Colorado pioneer who built the first railroad into the Colorado mountains and who was the first chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Colorado School of Mines, among many other things.  Today the structure is one of just three known remaining structures Loveland himself built, along with the Loveland Block (1122 Washington Avenue) and the Loveland Fire Station (the rear building of 506 9th Street) that he gave to the City . This building continued serving the home as others occupied the place, including famed saloonkeeper Col. Parker B. Cheney.  In 1872 Loveland sold the barn to Charles Garbareno, a prominent hotelier who operated the City Restaurant hotel at 1211 Washington Avenue (now Spirits in the Wind Gallery).  The fence lines were redrawn to incorporate it into his hotel property.  The popular immigrant from Monte Bruno, Italy, converted the structure to serve as servants' quarters for his hotel, giving it more windows than it originally had.  The hotel, famous for Charley's pasta and ice cream, passed through other prominent hands including Archie M. DeFrance, fellow Italian John Chiovenda, and Sheriffs Sidney S. Poe and Carlos W. Lake as it became the Avenue Hotel. In 1909 John H. Linder, owner of downtown's largest hardware store in the same block, acquired the building and moved it to its present location.  The noteworthy craftsman transformed it into a private home, giving it ornamental brick siding, an addition, and arched windows.  It continued serving as a private home until the 1980s, when it was converted back to commercial use, which it has remained ever since.  It remains in a decently preserved condition today, much as Linder had crafted it, with evidence of its further antiquity in the back of the original building. Today the Linder Cottage is one of just 29 buildings remaining from when Golden was the Territorial Capital of Colorado, having been built by one of the most prominent pioneers of Colorado.  It is connected in one way or another with the lives of several of Jefferson County's important citizens, and is the only remaining intact design of Linder, who created other Golden places.  It is very much worthy of historical recognition and should be preserved for generations to come. — Rick Gardner