Category: Colorado Architecture - Buildings and Bridges

Description: Barney Lancelot Ford (January 22, 1822 – December 22, 1902) was an escaped slave who became a wealthy businessman and civil-rights pioneer in Colorado. He is a member of the Colorado Black Hall of Fame, the Colorado Business Hall of Fame, and has a stained-glass portrait in the House Chamber of the Colorado State Capitol. The Barney Ford House Museum is in downtown Breckenridge, CO. This Museum tells the remarkable story of Barney Ford who escaped slavery and eventually became one of the most prosperous businessmen in Colorado in the late 1800s. He and his wife moved to Breckenridge in 1882 and then back to Denver in1890 where they lived until his death. The Rocky Mountain Wa Shonaji Quilt Guild was privileged to install an exhibit of quilts at the Barney Ford Museum in 2008. I chose the Barney Ford House because it is a hidden gem sometimes lost in the archives of African American History and the state of Colorado.