The following information was provided by Golden
historian Richard Gardner.
The School of Mines was founded by famed
Episcopal Bishop George Maxwell Randall in 1871 as one of 3 schools of his
Colorado University Schools campus, which stood where the Lookout Mountain
School for Boys is now. Other schools were Jarvis Hall (1870), a military and
grammar school, and Matthews Hall (1872), a seminary.
The first classes were held at the Territorial
School of Mines in 1873. The school was deeded over to the Territorial
government in 1874 due to spirited controversy over continuing government
subsidy of a religious-owned institution.
The school was moved to its permanent campus in
1880 after the sister schools were destroyed by fire--one by accident, one on
purpose.
Guggenheim Hall (pictured below) was built in
1905, complete with furniture, as a gift from Colorado smelting magnate Simon
Guggenheim. The building's eventual design is radically altered from its
original concept, and made to fit with the Mediterranean style of Stratton Hall
on campus. The current design was originally supposed to have a clock tower.
It was replaced in the last design stages by a gold domed cupola.
CSM is the first and oldest publicly-owned
institution of higher education in Colorado.
