Like many who sought personal fortunes in the Colorado Gold Rush, John C. Churchhouse traveled to the Rocky Mountains seeking to cash in on the mining of precious metals. With Asahel Haines and John Huggins, the English-born adventure-seeker set out with an ox team along in 1859. He was soon joined by his wife, Mary Ann, settled a ranch in Golden and changed his surname to Churches. The home he built in 1862 became a half-way house for travelers and their livestock. The semi-arid climate of the west posed some hardship, so Churches developed an irrigation system that collected snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains and created the Ralston reservoir, which in turn, fed a series of irrigation ditches providing a steady source of water for the ranch.
Churches’ Ranch became a welcome rest stop for travelers, where they could feed and water their horses and livestock, fix their wagons and obtain provisions for their journeys. John was a popular fellow in the region and became a leader in area politics until his death at the age of 87 in 1910. Mary Ann joined Mary Ann Wadsworth in 1881 to form a women’s suffrage movement in Colorado. She died in 1889, four years before a state referendum allowed women to vote in the Centennial State.
John Churches’ sons carried on in the livestock business for several decades. In 1937, the Denver Water Board bought the Churches property and built Ralston Reservoir. Churches house, stone barn and several other buildings are still standing. Jefferson County acquired the land in 1989 for the City of Arvada. The 48.9-acre ranch was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 23, 1998. The farmhouse renovation was finished in 2006 and the barn renovation was completed in 2009.
