The Quaintance Family

Another tidbit retrieved from an earlier version of this website.

No more than an introduction to this historic local family can be attempted in this small space, but the Quaintances deserve a significant place in Morrison’s history, as they have in Golden, where Brough Quaintance had established himself even before Adolph Coors arrived. His family built the Castle Rock Scenic Railway up the west side of South Table Mtn., an enterprise that was later doomed by the arrival of the automobile, and the building of a road, the Lariat Trail, up nearby Lookout Mountain.

Mary Ross Quaintance, for whom our small downtown park⁽¹⁾ is named, was 14 years old and attending the old Morrison schoolhouse the day school was recessed to allow townsfolk to hear soprano Mary Garden sing at Red Rocks. That was in 1911, long before Denver acquired land for the park from her father, John Ross, in 1927 or built an amphitheatre there (1936-1941). Mary remembered visionary John Brisben Walker, who sometimes came to the Ross home for dinner, and she was home from school, sick, the day Walker’s castle on Mt. Falcon burned.⁽²⁾ Mary Ross married a son of Brough Quaintance, Arthur D. Quaintance, an attorney in Golden and Denver, in 1919. Mary Ross Quaintance died in 1980⁽³⁾, but is well remembered for her remarkable knowledge of the history of our area.

John Ross, Mary’s father, was one of Morrison’s early businessmen. The stone building next to our new park was his hardware store back in the 1900s, and the family lived in the house at 106 Stone St. that is now occupied by Professional Meetings, Inc.

Reprinted from The Town Crier #4, July 1999
Published by the Morrison Action Committee

⁽¹⁾ Quaintance Park was a small, short-lived “pocket park,” built by townspeople from an unused partial lot tucked between the Ross Hardware building (#11) and the Tom Lewis Home (#10).

⁽²⁾ These stories are reported by Georgina Brown, who interviewed Mary for her book Shining Mountains, published in 1976.

⁽³⁾ Mary Ross Quaintance dies at 82 (Canyon Courier Feb 13, 1980)
Mrs. Mary Ross Quaintance, whose family has owned Tiny Town for approximately half a century, died at her home in Golden on Friday, Feb. 1, She was 82. Mrs. Quaintance, the widow of Arthur O. Quaintance who died in November, 1959, was born Aug. 8, 1897 in Morrison, the daughter of longtime Morrison residents, John and Mary Ross. Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Maryanna Q. Johnson of Lakewood and Mrs. Leo (Patricia) Q. Bradley of Golden; four grandchildren and one greatgrandson.