page_title: Charles Francis Colcord
section_title: Legacies
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Francis Colcord / Legacies
context_page_description: Charles Francis Colcord was a cattle rancher, U.S. Marshal, Chief of Police, businessman, and pioneer of the Old West. The community of Colcord, Oklahoma is named for him.
  Colcord's life spanned the American Civil War, the taming of the west, the cattle drives, the Land Runs, the Wright brothers' flight, World War I, Wiley Post, Will Rogers and Charles Lindbergh, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the transition of Oklahoma City from a frontier prairie to a booming metropolis with skyscrapers, oil fields and airplanes. On December 30, 1934, a resolution adopted by the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce stated,
  "Affluence came to him but left unspoiled his native gentleness and simplicity. Always he was modest, humble, democratic, generous, just and kind. He remembered the less fortunate friends of his early days."
context_section_description: Colcord built the Colcord Building, now known as the Colcord Hotel, which was the first skyscraper in Oklahoma City. It was also the first steel-reinforced concrete building in Oklahoma, because Colcord had seen the devastation to lesser buildings in San Francisco following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resulting fires. Originally designed with two wings, only the east wing and connecting elevator/stair segment were constructed. Architect William A. Wells was a protégé of Louis Sullivan, a founder of the Chicago School style of architecture. Sullivan designed the molds for the decorative terra cotta ornamentation on the first, second, and twelfth floors of the Colcord. The building survived Oklahoma City's Urban Renewal efforts and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Developer Paul Coury, with the help of investors including Beck Design and Manhattan Construction, have transformed the office building into a boutique hotel adjacent to what will be the state's tallest building, the new 51-story, 274 metres/900 feet Devon Tower. The Colcord Building is now owned by Devon Energy. Colcord also built the Commerce Exchange Building and the Biltmore Hotel.
  When he died Oklahoma City named the new Civic Center after him. His dedication to the city and his cowboy origins landed him in the Cowboy Hall of Fame.
  Colcord built one of Oklahoma City's first great mansions in 1901 at 421 Northwest 13th Street, beginning the development of what was soon Oklahoma City's finest "suburban" neighborhood. Colcord's three-story pillared Georgian home with its beveled-glass windows, mirrored ballroom, and carriage house was demolished in 1965 and replaced by a now-failed insurance company building. Alarm of the demolition of the Colcord mansion led to the establishment of a historical preservation district in what became known as "Heritage Hills" and the preservation of the nearby Henry Overholser mansion and other monuments to the early days of the city. In their book, "Vanished Spendor", Jim Edwards and Hal Ottaway (Abalache Book Shop Publishing Co. 1982), gives the following description of the home:
  Built and designed by William A. Wells, this mansion was almost an exact replica of Mr. Colcord's father's home in Kentucky. It had twenty-five rooms, besides halls, nooks, closets, and baths.
  In 1959, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
caption: Colcord Building, Oklahoma City
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