Photo of The Brotherly Relief Colony in Edgewater from Craig Hospital.
Did you know that what would become Craig Hospital began as a tuberculosis tent colony in Edgewater in the early 1900s?
According to Craig Hospital’s history, “Diminishing financial resources, often unusable roads, high rentals and the demands of Frank Craig’s daily tuberculosis medical treatments, forced him to move to the Denver area. On June 10, 1907, he erected a single canvas tent on a small piece of rural property located west of Denver, in an area known as Edgewater, near the city of Lakewood. Doing this he unknowingly established what was to become Craig Hospital.”
During this time the tent colony was known as “The Brotherly Relief Colony.”
Alice Rohe, a writer for the Rocky Mountain News, would be instrumental in raising awareness of the needs at the Brotherly Relief Colony. On November 27, 1910, she wrote, “Truly the quality of mercy is not strained for it has fallen like the gentle rain from heaven upon the bleak fields at Edgewater and has made the flower of hope, the blossoms of comfort spring in the Brotherly Relief Tent colony.”
Now we are doing more research to find out the location of the Edgewater tent colony from 1907 to 1911 after which it moved to Colfax and Harlan.
Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.
Interesting piece! Thanks.