page_title: Freelan Oscar Stanley
section_title: Estes Park, Colorado
hierarchical_section_title: Freelan Oscar Stanley / Estes Park, Colorado
caption_attribution_description: English: Estes Park Main Street in 1912, EB Marshall
context_page_description: Freelan Oscar Stanley was an American inventor, entrepreneur, hotelier and architect. He made his fortune in the manufacture of photographic plates but he is best remembered as the co-founder, along with his twin brother Francis Edgar Stanley, of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company which built steam-powered automobiles until 1920. He also built and operated the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.
context_section_description: In 1903, at the age of 54, Stanley was stricken with a life-threatening resurgence of tuberculosis. The most highly recommended treatment of the day was fresh, dry air with lots of sunlight and a hearty diet. Therefore, like many "lungers" of his day, he resolved to take the curative air of Rocky Mountain Colorado. Perhaps this decision was influenced by his familiarity with John Brisben Walker, who had been a property investor in Colorado since 1880 and a resident of Morrison, Colorado after selling Cosmo to William Randolph Hearst in 1905.
  He and Flora arrived in Denver in March and were followed shortly by his Stanley Runabout which was shipped by train. After one night at the famous Brown Palace Hotel, Stanley arranged an appointment with Dr. Charles Bonney (MD, Harvard, 1889), the preeminent American expert in the disease. Dr. Bonney, a great advocate for home treatment, recommended he leave the hotel for a rented house at the first possible convenience. Stanley spent the remainder of the winter at 1401 Gilpin Street but, when his symptoms had not improved by June, he determined to summer in the Colorado mountains. Bonney recommended Estes Park whose climate he compared with that of Davos, Switzerland, a posh resort for European tuberculetics. On June 29, Stanley saw Flora off by train and stagecoach while he set out in his steam car. Having gotten lost and spent the night in Boulder, Stanley arrived a day later, on June 30. During their first summer the couple stayed in a primitive cabin rented to them by the owners of the Elkhorn Lodge. Over the course of the warm season, Stanley's health improved dramatically. Impressed by the beauty of the valley and grateful for his recovery, he decided to return every year.
  By the end of the summer of 1903, Stanley had acquired property in Estes Park and, with the help of English architect Henry "Lord Cornwallis" Rogers whose acquaintance the Stanleys had recently made, he began the construction of Rockside, his home in Colorado. Completed in 1905, the Stanley cottage was built with four bedrooms, gracious living areas and a modern kitchen, so that Flora could entertain summer guests. Stanley, whose primary leisure activities involved billiards, violins and steam cars, designed a basement with space for a billiard table and a detached garage with a violin workshop and a turntable, so that the steam car could exit front-wise rather than in reverse. The front door opened onto a veranda facing south with a view across the Estes Valley towards Long's Peak. Dr. Charles Bonney apparently approved of his patient's design choices and included images of the house in his book, Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Its Complications of 1908. It remains standing today west of the Stanley Hotel as a private home.
  By 1907, Stanley had all but recovered and he returned to Newton for the winter rather than Denver. However, he and Flora had become enamored with the beauty of the Colorado mountains, often comparing them in speeches with those "rock-ribbed" hills "ancient as the sun" of William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis. Not content with the rustic accommodations, lazy pastimes and relaxed social scene of their new home, Stanley resolved to turn Estes Park into a resort town. In 1907, construction began on the Hotel Stanley, a grand hotel catering to the class of wealthy urbanites who composed the Stanleys' social circle in Newton. Construction was steel frame with clapboarding on a granite foundation. Although executed to Stanley's specifications, the structure was built with the professional aid of Denver architect, Theilman Robert Weiger.
  To power the new hotel, Stanley constructed the Fall River Hydro-Plant which consequentially brought electricity to Estes Park for the first time. Upon opening, the hotel had 48 guest rooms, each pair sharing one bathroom. It had a fully electric kitchen and steam laundry, a hydraulic elevator, and electric lights and telephones throughout. Near the main structure, Freelan built a Concert Hall complete with a Steinway Grand Piano as a gift for Flora. During the day, 
caption: Main Street, Estes Park, CO, 1912
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