HomeMy WebLinkAboutAUNTIE STONE STREET NAMING PLAT - 54-89 - - STREET RELATED DOCUMENT (2)Devent Services 0
Planning Department
November 15, 1989
Mr. George Galida
Construction Manager
Poudre R-1 School District
2407 Laporte Avenue
Fort Collins, CO. 80521
Dear Mr. Galida
As you are well aware, the street in front of the new Olander School, in the
Horsetooth West Master Plan, is designated by the City's Transportation
Department as a collector street. Also, since the property owner, Mr. Scavo,
did not plat the school site and dedicate the public right-of-way, this task falls
upon Poudre R-I School District. With Poudre R-1 exempted from the subdivi-
sion requirements, the conveyance of the right-of-way will be accommodated by
a separate instrument. It is my understanding that Rick Richter from our
office is facilitating this transaction.
Since the Master Plan and the separate dedication instrument do not indicate a
street name, the City's Department of Development Services has responded to a
request to name the new collcctor street. The request was forwarded to an ad
hoc street name selection committee. This committee was bound by City Ordi-
nance that all new collectors and arterials be named from an approved list that
has been adopted by City Council.
Through the selection process, the committee chose to .name the new collector
as STONE STREET. This name was selected primarily because of the educa-
tional and historical significance of Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone, a pioneer
who arrived in Fort Collins in 1864. According to our records, she started the
City's first school in her own cabin with 14 students. Enclosed please find the
historic biography of "Auntie" Stone.
It is our hope that you pass this information to the principal of the Olander
School. Also, please be aware that Mrs. Margaret Rogers, volunteer at the Fort
Collins Museum, takes on the character of Auntie Stone as an instructional
-- -----program for- visiting --childrert.-----She---has--been--informed- of---the---street--- name--
selection, its proximity to the school, and would be available for a presentation.
Finally, the City Code requires that a public street be "accepted" in a formal
action. It is our interpretation that your granting of a deed does not allow us
to formally accept a public street. Therefore, formal action, in .the form of a
resolution, will be presented to the City of Fort Collins Planning and Zoning
Board on December 18, 1989. The resolution will not require any action on
your part. As always, please call if you have any ..questions or concerns.
Sincerely:
Ted Shepard
00 LaPorte Avenue - P.O. Box 580 - Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 - (303) 221-671 50
City of Fort Collins
Services
"Auntie" Stone
Elizabeth Hickok Robbins Stone, an important pioneer woman in our commu-
nity, was born in 1801 in Hartford, Connecticut. After being widowed with
eight children to support, she remarried Lewis Stone in Minnesota in the
1850's. They moved west to Denver to run a restaurant after the Indian
Outbreak of 1862. In 1864, as the soldiers were moving to a new site down-
stream from Laporte, she and her husband arrived to build a cabin on the
Denver Road (Jefferson Street) and run a boarding house for the officers.
A good cook, she mothered the soldiers out at the end of nowhere and they
adopted her, nicknaming her, "Auntie" Stone. She was the first white woman
to be a permanent resident of the fort, and her cabin, now in Library Park,
is the only building surviving from those days. In 1866 she was widowed
again, but she elected to stay in the evolving new town and mothered the
community as.she had the soldiers. She started the first school in her
cabin and recruited her niece Elizabeth Keays to be the first schoolteacher
of fourteen children. She opened her cabin as a hotel taking in boarders.
Many notables came and ate there including General Sherman. When the fort
closed i'n 1867, she became the first businesswoman by going into partner-
ship with the gunsmith, Henry Clay Peterson. Together they built the first
brick kiln and flour mill in 1869. Through her later years she continued
to be involved in all things in the community. Her parties, gaity, and
friendliness were enjoyed by everyone, and when women in Colorado received
the vote in 1894, Auntie exercised this right at 93 years of age. The bell
on City Hall tolled ninety-four times in December, 1895, to mark the pass-
ing of this favorite pioneer who, in the days of the fort, had been known
from Julesburg to the Green River as "Auntie."
by Carol Tunner, Historic Preservation Specialist
Excerpts from "Fort Collins Yesterdays" by Evadene Burris Swanson and oral
_---_i-nterview-with-Mrs Ernest_IMargaret— "Aurrtime-Stone" Rogers; -- - - -------___ _ -
)00 L Porte Avenue • F.O. Box S0 • Fort Collins, CO y05'_=-il380 • '0 h 50