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Washington Hall

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1861, William Z. Cozens. 117 Eureka St.

This simple hall started out as a hewn log jail constructed in 1861 by Sheriff Billy Cozens, a skilled carpenter whose own modest board-and-batten house survives at 201 East First High Street. After clapboard siding and a second story were added in 1864, it was named Washington Hall. The Miners' Court, and later the Territorial District Court, convened here, as did other county agencies and several religious congregations before they erected their own churches. Crowded political meetings wore out the second floor, which collapsed in 1871, depositing 200 Republican conventioneers in the clerk and recorder's office below. The hall was rebuilt to withstand much heavier loads. In 1900, when county offices were moved to the new courthouse, Central City bought Washington Hall as a city hall. The cramped first floor houses an antique safe, while the upstairs houses the Gilpin County Art Association Gallery.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Central City Opera House
Masonic Temple (Register-Call Building)
Teller House
St. James Methodist Church
McFarlane Foundry Rehearsal Center

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Washington Hall", [Central City, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-GL05.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 192-192.

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