Theodosia Ammons

A little more from the Colorado Chautauqua...

Theodosia Ammons was an early resident at the Colorado Chautauqua. A professor at Colorado State in domestic arts, she was hired to teach on the Chautauqua faculty and built a "model cottage" at the park. She was especially interested in designing a home that would make life easier for the women who lived there.

Her cottage, called the Gwenthian Cottage (her sisters were Gwendolyn and Anne, so the name is a combination of their three names), is one of the best examples of a cottage as it was early in the century. Theodosia's great-niece showed me around.
The three sisters had another sister and a brother (who happened to be governor of Colorado). The three sisters have top billing over the mantle.
The porch was the center of the home -- facing in to the chautauqua activities rather than out at the beautiful view of the Flatirons. An ingenious invention - a bit of railing that slides right into doorway - eliminating the need for a gate and still keeping the architecture. This turns the porch into a big play-pen. Might look good on the front of Hors d'oeuvre or Bay Winds.


I left Colorado yesterday, am in Iowa City for a day, then on to see Katy and Shridhar, before returning to Bay View for further research there.