Many people in Colorado Springs drive by the large Myron Stratton Home property located on the south side of the city off Highway 115 but have no clue of its history or how it functions today. The fact is that the mysterious property still serves the same function its founder Winfield Scott Stratton dreamed up over 100 years ago.
The Myron Stratton Home organization started with funds from Stratton’s million-dollar estate after he appointed trustees to carry out his plan of using his fortune to help less fortunate people in the area.
In the early days, the home served as an orphanage and a home for disabled and elderly people. Now, the facility has changed the way it operates a bit, but it is still home to an assisted-living facility and local non-profit organizations.
The Story of Winfield Scott Stratton
Stratton was born in Indiana in 1848 and he spent most of his younger years learning carpentry working with his father. In 1872, Stratton moved west and started his own carpentry business in Colorado Springs where he earned $3 per day. Once he arrived, he quickly developed a passion for gold prospecting and he took classes in metallurgy at the Colorado School of Mines and geology at Colorado College.
Stratton became more serious with his gold prospecting hobby when a local Bob Womack claimed to find gold near Cripple Creek. In 1891, Stratton filed a claim for the Independence Mine near Victor. At first, the mine did not produce what was expected and Stratton listed it for sale in 1893. But, after doing a final inspection he found a vein of gold in the mine that he and his crew had missed.
The sale fizzled out and Stratton began pulling millions of dollars of gold out of the Independence Mine. He averaged an income of about $1 million per year before he sold the mine in 1899 for $10 million.
Even though he was rich, Stratton lived in a small home he had built in downtown Colorado Springs and lived a very modest life. He gave a lot of his money to improve the city including building a streetcar system, a baseball park, and buying bicycles for the city’s laundry ladies according to the “Colorado Biographies: Winfield Scott Stratton”.
Despite Stratton’s vast fortune, he lived a rather lonely and depressed life. He was married once but the marriage only lasted a few months. In his later days, he drank excessively, which ultimately ended his life in 1902 at the age of 54. Upon his death, Stratton’s will established trustees and was specific that his estate goes to helping people in need.
The Myron Stratton Home’s Beginnings
According to the Executive Director of the Myron Stratton Home Daniel O’Rear, many people think that Myron Stratton was the famous carpenter and gold prospector, but the home is actually named after Winfield Scott Stratton’s father.
“He (Winfield Scott Stratton) was very specific he wanted the home named after his father,” O’Rear said. “It is kind of an interesting fact that when he left home in Indiana he tried to shoot his father, unfortunately. So personally I think it was a little bit of a redemption later on in his life for him to name it after his father.”
After Stratton passed away, over 20 women in the area fought for Stratton’s multi-million dollar estate saying that they were secretly married to him. However, after almost a decade of legal battles the courts ruled that none of the claims were valid and that Stratton’s estate would be turned over to his trustees to construct the Myron Stratton Home.
At one point, the organization owned land from Cheyenne Mountain High School to Fort Carson. The facility was built in a way where it was completely self-sufficient as it had its own power plant, farms, reservoir to water the crops, dairy, and chickens.
The home originally was split into sections, one for orphanages and one for the elderly and disabled. According to O’Rear, people who were orphans have come back to the property to tell stories about living in the facility. O’Rear said that the orphans there were treated very well and they were all given a free college education.
The Home Still Functions in a Similar Manner
In the 1980s, Colorado as a state switched from using orphanages to the foster care system that is in place today. After the orphanage closed, the organization was tasked with figuring out a way to still utilize that part of the property in a way that kept along with Stratton’s visions.
The trustees went to court for help on the matter in 2006 and they ended up choosing to offer free rent to TESSA, Peak Vista Community Health, and Partners in Housing. “Those three were selected because they were doing the mission that Mr. Stratton had told us to do,” O’Rear said.
“Basically we had a choice, we could try to create our own programs or support those who were already doing these programs very, very well.”
The property that is not rented by the non-profits for $1 a year is still used for housing for senior citizens. The senior housing portion includes an assisted-living center that houses 30 residents. Another 84 residents live in independent living apartments on the property. Those who live in the senior citizen section enjoy amenities like free transportation, meals, and cheap rent.
[…] to give back much of his wealth to the city of Colorado Springs, highlighted in the article, “Winfield Scott Stratton’s Dream Still Exists as the Myron Stratton Home.” In 1901, Stratton purchased the street railway systems and spent approximately $2 million […]