This week, guests can stay at the newly renovated Redstone Castle. It’s now a boutique hotel and events center, following two years of renovation. Arts and culture reporter Christin Kay toured the property with the new owners.
The renovation was meant to restore the castle as faithfully as possible. Many of the 66 rooms appear exactly as they might have when John D. Rockefeller or Teddy Roosevelt stayed there, with original Tiffany lamps and some original furniture.
The new owners, Steve and April Carver, own the Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs. The Carvers are committed to respecting the property, but April Carver said, they feel like it should be shared with other people.
"This property needs to be used by the public. It needs people in it, it needs life in it. For too many years it didn’t have enough life," she said.
When the Carvers were working with Pitkin County to re-zone the property for events and hotel guests, they argued that the only way to really maintain the castle in the long-term was to have it generate income through holding small-scale events and operating a small hotel.
The Redstone Castle is nearly 115 years old. A coal and steel magnate, John Cleveland Osgood, built it and invited wealthy, powerful people at the time to stay there. Osgood died on the property in the 1920s. The bedroom where Osgood passed away can be toured, but is not available as one of the suites that can be rented overnight.
The IRS seized the property from its owner in the 2000s after he was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme. However, federal law says that if the government owns a historic property, it has to do its best to preserve and protect it, and so conservation easements were placed on certain rooms in the mansion.
Owner April Carver says that they were one of only three bidders for the property. She said she believes people stayed away due to the easements and the prospect of working with a historic preservation officer to maintain the property.
