John C. Churches (1823-1910), traveled by ox team with Asahel Haines and John Huggins to the gold fields in 1859. The family surname, Churchhouse, was changed to Churches after the family settled on a ranch in Golden. The home built in 1862 was used as a half-way house for travelers and their livestock. Churches built an irrigation ditch out of Ralston Creek and a reservoir in the area. He was the first Worthy Master of Enterprise Grange. He and his wife Mary Ann served in the Colorado State Grange and in Darden Pomona No. 1 Van Bibber Creek flows west to east across the northern edge of the surveyed area of Churches Ranch. In 1881, Mary Ann Churches and Mary Ann Wadsworth were active in the women suffrage movement in Colorado and were urged to attend a meeting to discuss the political and social status of women. Virg and Gent Bennett of Mount Vernon and the Churches boys gathered their cattle at Glencoe and drove them to the Union Stockyards in 1901. 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.

The farmhouse renovation was finished in 2006 and the barn renovation was completed in 2009. Click here to see a gallery of the renovation.