Freelan Oscar Stanley, and his twin Francis Edgar Stanley, were born on June 1, 1849, in Kingfield, Maine. Although the family was not wealthy, education was highly valued and knowledge of science, poetry, and music was encouraged from a young age.
At nine years old, Freelan and Francis started their first business together, refining and selling maple sugar. They used their profits to purchase wool cloth for school suits. At age 11, their great-uncle, Liberty Stanley, taught them the age of violin making. By 16 years old, Freelan had manufactured three violins, and continued to make them throughout his life. Stanley’s violins are still collected today.
Freelan and Francis began their collegiate education at Western State Normal School (now University of Maine, Farmington), with the intention of becoming educators. Francis dropped out, but Freelan continued his education at Hebron Academy and then Bowdoin College. Freelan Stanley became headmaster of the high school in Mechanic Falls, Maine, and there he met Flora Jane Record Tileston, a teacher and pianist, whom Stanley married in 1876. In 1881, Freelan was struck with tuberculosis. Believing that survival depended upon a less sedentary life, Stanely turned to manufacturing, and opened the Stanley Practical Drawing Set Factory. However, the business was destroyed by a fire in 1882.
Meanwhile, Francis married Augusta May Walker and opened a portrait studio. Francis’ first technique was “crayon” or charcoal, supplemented with his “improvement to the Atomizer,” a forerunner of the modern air brush, which Francis patented in 1876. In 1882, Francis began experimenting with photography, and developed a passion for the art form. When Freelan’s factory burned, Francis suggested the twin borthers work toegehr to create a new photographic product. By 1885, the Stanley brothers had established the Stanley Dry Plate Company, in Lewiston, Maine.
While the primitive dry photo plate had been invented by Richard Leach Maddox in 1871, most photographers were still using a wet plate collodion process. By perfecting their factory process, and marketing nation-wide, the Stanley brothers quickly dominated the market for factory-made photo materials, amassing a small fortune. In 1890, the brothers moved their business to Watertown, Massachusetts, and bought homes in Newton.
Adjacent to the Stanley factory in Watertown was a bicycle factory by Sterling Elliott. Francis became fascinated by the new bicycle craze. However, his wife fell off a bicycle and swore she’d never ride one again. Francis promised to build something that they could ride in comfort.
Francis began to build an automobile, and determined that steam was the most practical propulsion method. By 1897, Francis had built his first automobile, using wagon and bicycle parts from Sterling Elliott’s factory. In 1898, the Stanley brothers took the car to the Boston Auto Show in Charles River Park. The crowd was so impressed that Freelan became committed to his brother’s passion for steam cars, and the brothers began to produce the cars on order as the Stanley Motor Carriage Company.
In August 1899, Freelan and Flora became the first motorists to reach the top of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in New England. In November 1899, Freelan gave President William McKinley a tour of Washington, D.C. in a Stanley automobile, which was the first time a sitting President had ridden in an automobile.
The same year, John Brisben Walker, editor of Cosmopolitan, expressed interest in purchasing the Carriage Company. The brothers asked for a good deal more than they thought Walker would be willing to pay, out of reluctance to sell: $250,000 in cash. Walker accepted, with financing by “Asphalt King” Amzi L. Barber. Walker and Barber managed the company for several months, while the Stanley Brothers stayed on as consultants. However, Walker and Barber parted ways after several months, and created two separate car companies. Walker’s company, the Mobile Company of America, moved to Tarrytown, New York. Barber’s Locomobile Company of America grew more successful after switching to a gasoline internal combustion engine, and moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Freelan and Francis Stanley decided to start again from scratch. Their name was no longer in use, their former factory had been vacated, and the patents were owned by Locomobile. The Stanley brothers modified and improved their original designs. By 1901, the brothers began production of a new Stanley Motor Carriage under their old name. The original Stanley auto patents were purchased back from Walker in 1903 for $20,000. In 1905, the Stanleys sold their dry plate company to rival George Eastman, of Kodak, and Eastman dissolved their company.
In 1906, with driver Fred Marriott at the wheel, the Stanleys’ “Rocket Racer” broke the land speed record, achieving 127.66 miles per hour over one kilometer at Ormond Beach, Florida. The record would not be broken for over 100 years, until August 2009.
In 1903, Freelan Stanley’s tuberculosis resurged and threatened his life. The most highly recommended treatment course was fresh, dry air, with lots of sunlight and a hearty diet. Like many other tuberculetics, Freelan Stanley resolved to take the air of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado as treatment.
Freelan and Flora arrived in Denver in March 1903, and he visited with Dr. Bonney the next day. Stanley arrived in Estes Park on June 30, and by the end of the summer, his health had improved dramatically. Impressed by the beauty and grateful for his recovery, he decided to return every summer and acquired property in Estes Park. He began the construction of a summer home, called Rockside, in Estes Park. Stanley designed a basement with space for a billiard table and a detached garage with a violin workshop and a turntable, so that the steam car could exit without reversing. Rockside remains standing today west of the Stanley Hotel, and has been restored as a historic home.
By 1907, Stanley and his wife had become enamored, and resolved to turn Estes Park into a resort town. In 1907, construction began on the Stanely Hotel, designed to cater to wealthy urbanites. To power the hotel, Stanley constructed the Fall River Hydro-Plant, which brought electricity to Estes Park for the first time. When it opened, the hotel had a fully electric kitchen and steam laundry, a hydraulic elevator, electric lights and telephones, and 48 guest rooms. The steam car played a pivotal role in the hotel’s operation; to transport visitors to and from the hotel, Stanley created a 12-seat model which was marketed as the “Mountain Wagon” and became popular at other resorts.
Stanley and his hotel helped develop Estes Park. In 1904, Stanley organized and partially funded the paving of the Big Thompson Canyon Road to Loveland, and in 1907, the paving of the St. Vrain Road. In 1906, he became president of the Protective and Improvement Association, and in 1907, the first president of the Estes Park Bank. In 1917, Estes Park was incorporated. Stanley’s largest grant, in 1936, is now occupied by the man-made Lake Estes, the fairgrounds, the town’s elementary and high schools, and the Estes Park Museum.
Stanley is also known for his role in the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park. To help sustain the natural beauty and wildlife of the Estes Valley, Stanley organized the Fall River Fitch Hatchery in 1907 and the introduction of a herd of elk from Yellowstone National Park in 1913, the offspring of which are now abundant in the Estes Valley. He also forged a friendship with naturalist Enos Mills. Mills traveled the country, campaigning for the protection of the Rockies of Colorado. In 1915, Woodrow Wilson signed the order establishing Rocky Mountain National Park.
In 1917, at the age of 68, Freelan and Francis stepped down from management of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company. Francis and Augusta visited Freelan’s property in Estes Park for the first time. The following year, Francis was killed while driving a Stanley automobile on a country road in Massachusetts. In 1918, Freelan sold his interests in the motor carriage company to his nephew-in-law, who continued to produce steam-powered vehicles until the company closed in 1926.
Stanley became a trustee of Hebron Academy in 1911, and was president of the board from 1914 until his death. In 1926 he endowed the school with funds to build the Stanley arena, the first enclosed high school hockey rink in the United States. In Estes Park, he served as president of numerous organizations to improve and develop the town.
Though the Stanley Steamer had been superseded by combustion-powered models, in 1933 Stanley called on Henry Ford at Ford’s factory in Dearborn, Michigan. During the visit, Ford bough several of Stanley’s violins.
By 1926, Flora Stanley’s eyesight had deteriorated such that she was uncomfortable in places she didn’t know well. Though the Stanleys continued to travel between Newton, Massachusetts and Estes Park, Freelan began to consider retiring from public life and selling the hotel. In 1939, Flora died soon after suffering a stroke at Rockside. Freelan returned to Estes Park in 1940, but inconspiculously. In October 1940, after returning to Newton, Stanley died of heart failure at 91 years old.
Freelan and Flora did not have children, but remained close to their nieces and nephews, and were known to be kind to the children of Estes Park and those who visited the Stanley Hotel. Stanley showed a sense of humor, posing for photographs as “your Western man” in a ten-gallon hat and woolly chaps, and as the “King of Estes Park” with a tin canister on his head for a crown, placed there by local children.
In 1994, Dumb and Dumber was filmed at The Stanley Hotel.
In 2015, a hedge maze was built on a lawn and event area to honor the set piece in Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining (though the novel features topiary animals rather than a hedge maze).
In 2016, the Stanley Hotel announced a competition for a sculpture for the center of the terrace in front of the hotel. Sculptors Sutton Betti and Daniel Glanz won the competition with a sculpture of Freelan Stanley holding one of his violins.
In 2013, Stephen King published Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. The film adaptation, which had its climax back at The Overlook Hotel, was released in 2019, more than 100 years after the construction of the franchise’s inspiration, The Stanley Hotel.