Legacies
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."
Read more about this topic: Charles Francis Colcord
Famous quotes containing the word legacies:
“The legacies that parents and church and teachers left to my generation of Black children were priceless but not material: a living faith reflected in daily service, the discipline of hard work and stick-to-itiveness, and a capacity to struggle in the face of adversity.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)