As you drive into Redstone, one of the first buildings you'll see is an early 20th century mining cottage. The humble abode is pale yellow with pale red trim, and despite its age, the home is in pristine condition. The Redstone Historical Society was recently able to secure grant funding to purchase the cottage and turn it into a museum for their generous array of local artifacts.
Tucker Farris is a board member of the Redstone Historical Society, and he says the home has belonged to the Durrett family since the forties, but they aren't the only ones interested in seeing it preserved.
"When we were in our grant writing procedures, there was this assumption that we would have two to three letters of support, maybe from a local business or so. And we returned well over 200 letters of support from the community, from businesses, from people internationally, out of state, across the state. And it really showed like a community engagement for this project.
And that has extended into private donations as well. It just seems that. In the world of historical preservation, there's sometimes buildings that people want preserved, but it's a small group and this is sort of everybody from Redstone to Marble to Carbondale, to Aspen, to Glenwood. It's valley-wide and international. So I think that really helped us along with that."
The History Colorado State Historical Fund awarded the RHS a $250,000 acquisition grant, and then Pitkin County offered a matching grant of over $200,000. But the RHS's work is not done yet. They still need to acquire a conservation easement through the state to ensure the building is never demolished or modified before they can buy the home for the final price of $875,000. Once that's complete, they can start talking about what collections and artifacts they want to bring in. And Redstone's artifacts are a unique privilege. Among their collection are personal items from Redstone, founder and coal baron and John Osgood and his second wife, Alma Regina Shelgren, remembered for her generosity and altruism.
"My favorites are already on display at our current Log Cabin Museum which is across the street from the general store. We have an original evening gown of Lady Bountiful and John Osgood's tuxedo. And we also have a first edition of one of his wives novels on display. So those are some of the little things.
And I've not been to many of our storage outposts to see everything. But I've heard legends of very cool things. We have- and it's unique in terms of historical societies too- because a lot of times when people start museums, it starts with photographs and paper documents. And that represents a large amount of things, but a small percentage of what we have, because we have actual artifacts from the mining era and not just railroad ties or mining equipment, but we have sort of that gilded age opulence from the castle as well. It really tells the story of Redstone from all angles all the way up to the present."
Farris says the goal is to have the museum open to the public by the fall, although there is not yet an official date, and they still need the community behind them.
"While we've sort of climbed over these big hurdles and obstacles and funding for acquisition, we will still be needing to work on fundraising for maintaining the museum. And we're planning some kind of member event later on to get folks into a membership drive to really continue that operation into a museum state. And it's, it's a big task. It's a big jump up into professionalism. So we're, we're really looking forward to continuing to engage with the community on this as well."
More information on this museum and the Redstone Historical Society is available at historyredstone.org.
