Jarvis Hall (Colorado)

Javis Hall (on the left) in 1871.

Origin

Jarvis Hall was a liberal arts, grammar and military college at Golden, Colorado spearheaded by missionary Bishop George Maxwell Randall of the Episcopal church in 1869. It was named after its greatest benefactor George A. Jarvis from Boston. First located as the centerpiece of the Colorado University Schools campus, its building under construction was blown down by a windstorm in 1869, then was rebuilt stronger in 1870 and the college officially opened.

History

Among the notable students taught at Jarvis Hall included Francis William Loveland and prominent architect James H. Gow. A fire caused by a defective flue burned Jarvis Hall down on April 4, 1878. After an arson attack on sister school Matthews Hall four days later, professor in charge Thomas Lloyd Bellam combined the schools as one Jarvis Hall and relocated to the Loveland Block in downtown Golden. Later that same year he built a new Jarvis Hall with his own funds, which still stands today at 921 19th Street in Golden, and opened it to women as well, making it a liberal arts and commercial college. Among the notable events at its new home was the marriage by Bellam of favorite student Ella Reynolds to Means in 1879 in the Jarvis Hall parlors. After years of wrestling by Denver residents within the church to move Jarvis Hall there, they finally succeeded in 1882. The college there resumed being a boys school, and its final incarnation there burned in 1904.