In April, the Golden and District Historical Society requested that Town of Golden council hold off on their intent to sell the historic Wixon House.
With hopes of converting one of Golden’s oldest and most significant buildings into a doctor’s museum, the Historical Society needed some time to find out if purchasing and converting the residential home into a museum was feasible.
At the most recent Town council meeting, August 20, Historical Society executive director Colleen Palumbo informed council that it would not be pursuing their interests in the Wixon House.
“After they researched it, looked into it, it wasn’t going to be feasible,” Town of Golden CAO Jon Wilsgard said. “So, they wrote us a letter saying ‘thanks for holding off on any process, we’ve essentially found out this isn’t going to be able to happen.'”
The delay of the sale for the interest of the Historical Society has not affected the Town. The process is lengthy, and has taken many years to get to this point.
In 1994, the Town of Golden established a bylaw stating the building is a municipal heritage site, and has upkept the property since then. The bylaw outlines that owners of the property would not be able to alter the structure. Any new owners of the building would be required to preserve much of its heritage features and structure.
“You can’t go paint the thing yellow and put vinyl siding on it,” Wilsgard added.
The Wixon House, at 812 9th Street S., was built in 1893 for Golden’s first doctor, and was sold to Arthur Wixon in 1912. It remained in the family until 2007, when Arthur’s daughter Ruth gifted it to the Town of Golden when she passed away at the age of 91. Ruth took care of the building and worked to preserve it because she knew how much it meant to the community.
It has been open to the public on a number of occasions, and the Golden Historical Society has toured the community through the inside. At one time, the gardens were maintained by the Golden Food Bank Society, which used them to grow food and as a community garden.
The Town of Golden will continue to try to sell the property, as directed by council.
“It wasn’t inconvenient for us to wait for them on that decision,” Wilsgard said. “We’re still moving forward as directed by council to come up with some conservation guidelines for it; heritage guidelines that will accompany the house when it is eventually sold so it will retain its character to a certain degree in the future.”
