REDSTONE'S KINDRED SPIRIT
Gustav Stickley
by Deb Strom
As we all know, Redstone is a unique place and has a unique story. One important chapter involves Gustav Stickley, the man who handcrafted the original furniture of the Redstone Inn, Clubhouse and Bighorn lodge. The Inn still has one of the largest collections in the country of his early work, with over sixty pieces. Stickley is the best known artisan of the American Arts and Crafts movement. His turn-of-the-century furniture was a dramatic departure from the baroque and machine made Victorian pieces of the late 1800s. Speaking of his bold designs, Stickley wrote: “I want them to be beautiful—not with superficial prettiness of applied ornament, but with the inherent decorative quality which comes from good proportions, mellow finish and harmonious decorations.”
Each piece in the Inn is personally signed with the Dutch inscription translated “I do my best.” This was Stickley’s promise that he would produce the highest quality furniture that he could. His work represented a simple natural lifestyle fit for a new century. His work directly influenced the Bauhaus movement. It is amazing how functional and durable the remaining pieces are. They have endured Colorado’s dry climate and 118 years of hotel use.
Compare the 1902 Stickley motto “I do my best”
to the twenty-first century Nike slogan “Just do it.”
Like Redstone’s founding father, John Cleveland Osgood, Stickley was a self-made man. Born in the Midwest, he was forced to leave school after the eighth grade. Yet, at the pinnacle of his career, he commanded the seven-story Craftsman Building on fifth Avenue, New York City. It had four floors of furniture, a whole floor dedicated to gardening, a floor housing a permanent ‘Home Builder’s Exposition’ and the Craftsman Restaurant which served meals with food grown at Stickley’s farm estate, Craftsman Farms.
What destiny brought Gustav Stickley’s furniture to Redstone in 1902? We will never know whether the two men met, or for that matter, how Osgood came to select in 1902 the then fledgling furniture company for what must have been a substantial furniture order in the first year of operation. What is certain is that both enterprises embodied the spirit of Redstone.
While John Osgood was developing “The Redstone Social Experiment” with its colorful cottages and recreation-education centers for the miners, Stickley was in upstate New York committed to not only a different style of furniture, but to creating an older business structure for his company. Named United Crafts, the company was modeled after a medieval guild, with Stickley himself as the master craftsman.
So there was a philosophical kinship that brought this furniture from far-off New York into this remote valley. Furniture brought here not only for the miner’s comfort, but for their edification. It is not farfetched to think that Osgood was similarly motivated when he selected Stickley furniture for his new utopian experiment. This village is more than one man’s vision; it embodies the cutting edge spirit of the era.
