GOLDEN - It ended not with a bang but with a windbreaker.

A polar fleece one, to be exact, for which longtime Foss Drug Store employee Craig Kidwell, 51, paid a bargain $6.50.

"I didn't even really need it," acknowledged Kidwell, who spent 18 years working for the iconic Golden store before leaving five years ago to run a gold mine outside town. He returned two months ago to help with the sad task of closing the store.

"I wanted the last sale to be mine, for sentimental reasons," he said.

And with that sale Friday afternoon, Foss Drug Co. closed out a 94-year run on Golden's Washington Avenue, a victim of changing consumer tastes and shopping patterns, and competition from nearby national chains that the locally owned drug and general store simply couldn't overcome.

Only the liquor store will remain in operation. Foss has been selling spirits from the very beginning, even throughout Prohibition, thanks to a loophole in the law that permitted drug store sales of alcohol for "medicinal purposes."

The fate of the remainder of the 50,000-square-foot building remains undecided. Of the onetime 50 employees, roughly nine will remain to handle liquor sales.

"I'm sure there are lots of things we could have done differently," said Bob Lowry, who has owned a majority share of the business since longtime owner F.A. "Heinie" Foss sold him part of the store in 1986.

"We just tried to react to changes in the marketplace," Lowry said. "We certainly made a lot of changes over the years to try and keep moving forward."

But Lowry sensed that this time there was nothing he could do to forestall the inevitable. Lowry had declined almost all requests for interviews since the impending closing was announced in May because he couldn't trust himself to keep from crying when he talked about it.

"I could feel it coming on," he said, though he declined to say exactly when he realized closure was imminent. "Our income statements were reflecting it. You could see the national trends. It was only going to get harder and harder to make the store profitable."

Things were different in 1913 when Henry J. Foss - the elder Heinie - bought out the little drug store that had been operating on the corner of 12th Street and Washington Avenue since 1903. (Originally, it was on the other side of the street, but moved to its present location in 1913.) He renamed it Foss Drug Store, and it has carried the Foss name ever since, though it was called Foss General Store for a time.

The senior Foss died in the flu pandemic of 1918, but town historians say his dying wish was that his wife, Dorothy, would keep the store open so his son could inherit it. At the time, the younger Heinie was barely a year old.

The store remained open, though legend says Dorothy, who later married a Colorado School of Mines professor, once had to hock her wedding rings to meet payroll.

Heinie Foss finally took over the store in 1937 and oversaw a number of expansions and renovations, the most recent in 1993. Over the years, Foss Drug housed a soda fountain, restaurant, a furniture store, an appliance store, a general store, a nostalgia store, a chocolate factory and, of course, a pharmacy.

Between the drug counter at Safeway and the opening of a new Wal-Mart and Walgreens, most Golden residents had long since stopped filling their prescriptions at Foss Drug. But the news of the store's closing nevertheless hit the community hard.

"It feels like the bottom dropped out of the world," said Mary Curtis, who lives in Lakewood but has been coming to Golden nearly every day for the past 30 years to volunteer at the Golden Pioneer Museum.

"It was almost like Heinie Foss was the godfather of the community. He could supply our every need. And if he didn't have it, he could get it."

"It's sad," said Donna Plummer, 70, who was born in Golden and who, with her husband, ran a jewelry store that shared the block with Foss Drug. "It's been a fixture in town my entire life.

"It was a very good meeting place. If you wanted to tell somebody where something was in downtown Golden, you'd tell them where it was in relation to Foss Drug. Everybody knew where Foss Drug was. Now, we won't have that landmark anymore."

Others bemoan what the loss of Foss Drug may mean to Golden's identity.

"This is a place that loves its historic places," said Barbara Mills, business manager at the Golden Pioneer Museum. "And we're losing that small-town feel. Now, everybody's just holding their breath, hoping at least the building will stay. We don't want to become just another bedroom community."

Lowry said he's had inquiries about the building, and he's vetoed some of the proposals for it.

He doesn't want to see the building turned into office space or condos. He's holding out for offers that will bring more retail trade to the block.

Foss Drug timeline

• 1903: E.L. Gallinger and Fred M. Root open the Gallinger-Root Drug Co. at 1219 Washington Ave. in Golden.

• 1904: After Root's death at age 42, Gallinger sells the store to Earl L. James and Jud Hohl, who rename it Golden Pharmacy.

• 1906: The sheriff repossesses the store when it fails to pay its creditors. Shaw Drug Co. of Denver acquires the store.

• 1907: Shaw sells the store to A.W. Thormann, who renames it Thormann Drug Co.

• 1909: Shaw sells the store to Henry Langenhan.

• 1913: Langenhan moves the store to a new building across the street at 1224 Washington Ave. But in September, just a month after moving in, Langenhan dies suddenly of a stroke.

• Oct. 15, 1913: Langenhan's widow sells the store to Henry J. Foss.

• 1918: Foss dies in the flu pandemic. His wife, Dorothy, assumes management of the store.

• 1920: The store expands for the first time.

• 1920s: Foss opens a chocolate factory and ice cream soda shop, using excess butterfat that the Adolph Coors Co. generates after it stops making beer and switches to malted milk during Prohibition.

• 1937: Dorothy hands management of the store over to her son, Frederick Allen "Heinie" Foss, who has just received his pharmacy license.

• 1941: The store expands for a second time and renovates for a more art deco appearance, including a red neon sign.

• 1946: Foss opens an appliance store down the street. After determining that the appliance store is too difficult to run separated from the main store, Foss sells it and determines never again to acquire noncontiguous space.

• 1951: Foss annexes the whole building at 1224 Washington Ave., tripling the store's size.

• 1959: Foss extends the drugstore all the way into the alley and purchases the neighboring Tramway Depot, which is demolished to allow room for expansion.

• 1961: Foss adds more space to the building and renovates it to give it a Western feel. The lunch counter is upgraded to a full restaurant, the Carriage Room, located in the new second story of the addition.

• 1971: Foss begins producing Ski Country decanters, porcelain art decanters initially intended as souvenirs for the Colorado Winter Olympics. When voters say no to Colorado hosting the Olympics, the store switches to a wildlife theme for the decanters.

• 1982: Heinie turns 65 and cuts back to part time. Bob Lowry is hired as pharmacist and later becomes president and majority owner.

• 1987: Foss expands again into the neighboring Opera House Block.

• 1993: The Foss Mural, featuring characters and landmarks from Golden's history, is painted.

• 2001: The restaurant, which had become the Golden Ram, closes and the space is rented to Bikram's Golden Yoga and the Miners Alley Playhouse.

• 2007: Foss Drug closes, although liquor sales continue.Sources: Golden Transcript, Golden Pioneer Museum, Golden Historian Richard Gardner

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