John Cleveland Osgood, president of Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, built Redstone (1898, 7,180 feet) as a model company town where coal was made into coke for the furnaces in Pueblo. Remains of 144 of some 250 beehive ovens still line Colorado 133 in this Crystal River valley village framed by red sandstone cliffs.
For his experiment in paternalism, Osgood had CF&I's Sociological Department demolish existing shacks and shanties in 1902 and build Swiss chalets for the workers and their families. Theodore Boal and Frederick Harnois, architects of the Denver Country Club and of mansions for prominent Denverites, designed eighty-four cottages, an inn, a company store, a bachelors' lodge, a clubhouse (demolished), and Osgood's mansion. Each cottage varied in its design, color, and shingle and bargeboard frosting. Each had a lawn and vegetable patch. The Redstone Historical Museum, 364 Redstone Boulevard, is housed in a log cabin relocated from the rich Coal Basin district six miles west.
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