George Rainsford is part of the Capitol Avenue Bronze Project.
George Rainsford is important in the history of the city of Cheyenne and state of Wyoming both because of his singular contribution to the architectural character of the city and because he is an emblem of the state’s social character during its golden age in the 1870s-90s. If Henry James or Edith Wharton, the great novelists who chronicled America’s Gilded Age, had chosen to write about Wyoming during this time, Rainsford would have been a central protagonist.
Like many of the grandees of Cheyenne and Wyoming commercial, political, and social life during the golden age, Rainsford was born on the east coast, in New York City. The son of a prominent city banker, he was educated in Europe where he studied architecture. After working for a prominent NYC architectural firm and like many men of his age and social standing, he decided to venture west, not at first to practice architecture but to start a ranch and try his hand at horse breeding.
He formed the Diamond Ranch – named after the small diamond brand he used on the left jaw of his horses – near Chugwater, Wyoming. He bred world famous Clydesdales and Morgans, and achieved remarkable success. One of his Morgans, named Spartan, won the stallion prize at a prominent horse show at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1883.
But Rainsford is not remembered primarily as a horse breeder, bur rather as the architect and namesake of the Rainsford Historic District in Cheyenne. The roughly 30 square block, or 192 acre, district is bound to the west by Warren Avenue, named after Francis E. Warren; by Morrie Avenue to the east; by 17th Street to the south; and by 22nd Street to the north. As the state of Wyoming’s application for inclusion of the Rainsford District on the National Register of Historic Places describes, the district contains “a variety of design elements through unusual combinations of style including Stick, Italianate, French, Classic, Greek, Gothic, Romanesque and Shingle. These combinations demonstrate the Victorian talent for borrowing and combining to create something never before seen; a vital expression of the eclectic spirit.”
The Rainsford District was where the cattle barons, often preferring large city cottages or manses to the prairie life, lived out lives of considerable opulence when measured by western standards. Large houses and horse carriages, sedulously manicured laws and European style gardens dotted what is now seen a grittier part of Cheyenne. Rainsford designed many of these buildings. Bankers and merchants, aspiring politicians and monied heirs and heiresses lived here, socializing at the nationally known Cheyenne Club, also designed by Rainsford. Laramie County was the wealthiest county in the United States in the 1870s and many of the people who made it so lived in houses designed by George Rainsford.
Many of the people honored by the Capitol Avenue Bronze Project lived here: Esther Hobart Morris, Francis E. Warren, and Nellie Tayloe Ross, and Willis Van Devanter lived in houses in the Rainsford District. To catch a glimpse of Cheyenne in the golden age of the 1870s, one need only walk the streets of the George Rainsford’s neighborhood.
To learn more about the Capitol Avenue Bronze Project, visit this link . For more information about each artist, sponsoring a bronze, or becoming a donor/supporter at any level, please contact Harvey Deselms at Deselms Fine Art, located at 303 E. 17th Street Cheyenne. Email is deslemsart@aol.com or call at 307 432 0606
