This article was written by Mike Robinson-Johnson and was shared on his Facebook page December 10, 2025.
The Moschetti Store and Florence American Legion have ties together at a townsite many have forgotten about.
The buildings were originally built in 1903 in Radiant, Colorado. The American Legion would begin it life as the Company Store, and the Moschetti Grocery would begin its life as a two-room company owned home.
Radiant was a camp and town owned by Victor-American Fuel Company located about 3 miles south of Coal Creek. Being a company owned town meant that unless you worked in the Mine or had a business in town you could not live there.
125 miners and their families lived in 80 company homes. These homes were as basic as you could get at the time with no modern accommodations. Most were two- or three-room homes heated by coal stoves and lit by kerosene lamps.
Radiant saw its fair share of issues, as EVERY coal town at the time did. During the major mine strikes of 1913-14 the Santa Fe railroad bridge coming from Rockvale was burned down, and the guard that was later stationed to protect the new bridge, was murdered.
In 1915, Radiant’s name was changed to Pyrolite, partially due to the occurrence of another town already in existence, Radium. Mail carriers were getting confused by Radium and Radiant and requested a name change as Radium was the older establishment at the time.
The mine eventually closed in 1929 after producing an average of 800 Tons/day. Victor-American shut the mine down, and the town emptied as families and miners had no choice but to find another form of employment and living. The homes and buildings remained standing abandoned.
The year after the mine closed, in 1930, the government leased the townsite and renamed it Kenwood. Kenwood was a homeless camp during the Great Depression, until the 1933 creation of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). FERA then kept the lease on the town and remaining buildings and renamed the camp Kenmore. They began bussing transients from Pueblo, Denver, Colorado Springs, and any of the surrounding smaller towns like Florence, Penrose, and Canon City to the camp.
One Condition of the camp was you had to work or go to school via government funded programs. In order to increase moral, they even had a baseball team that would play against other Fremont County community teams like Rockvale, Penrose, and Florence.
In 1937 with end of the FERA, economic conditions slowly improving, and most of the family’s drifting out of camp, the camp was closed. The remaining buildings and lumber would be sold at auction and moved, or donated. The remaining, unsold buildings would be destroyed and the land sold off.
Enter the Nicola and Nicoletta Moschetti. The Moschetti’s had a family farm just outside Canon City in the Lincoln Park area and were doing alright when they had heard news Radiant and some of its buildings were going to be sold.
They saved some money and went to the auction and purchased the old house in 1937 for $100 and spent another $150 to have it moved into Lincoln Park to their little family farm off of Chestnut Ave. They had the farm, and had the produce coming off the land, but didn’t have a storefront, and the old mine house would be perfect. It had the big open space in the old living room/kitchen for a store space, and the old bedroom would work for an office.
The Moschetti Grocery was born in 1937. Selling local goods, and their own produce from the Farm, they would become a staple of their neighborhood for years to come.
Nicola and Nicoletta would have 7 children working the farm and the store including a young Rose Moschetti.
Rose was 9 when her parents bought the store, and she would eventually become the owner and operation of it. After the farm produce would decline Rose would keep the store stocked with candy and soda for the local kids nearby, and small everyday items like bread, soup, and other small items for the other households. This would help keep the store open until the mid 2000’s when her health would decline making it almost impossible to maintain.
The store closed, and after Rose’s death in 2011 has remained reletavely unchanged on the exterior. Today is sits on the side of the road on Highway 115 on private property.
The old Victor-American Company Store would be donated to the American Legion and serve at the Florence Eagle’s Hall. It still stands today on the corner of Front and Petroleum in Florence. Several private homes in Florence, and Canon also were moved from Radiant at the camp’s closure.
Today the old townsite of Radiant/Pyrolite/Kenwood is on PRIVATE PROPERTY with ZERO ACCESS. However, some of the buildings are still able to be seen in their new homes. The American Legion in Florence, and Moschetti Store on Highway 115 in Canon City are just two great examples.
This particular spot holds a few special memories for myself, as my Aunt Jan lived just down the street and would often have yardwork fo me to do so I could earn a single dollar for a soda and laffy taffy. I would run in and tell Mrs. Rose “My Aunt Janice said to tell Great Aunt Rose Hi!” and I would always get an extra banana laffy taffy for free. Little 6-8 year old me just never understood what that had meant or why I got a free candy until later.
Thank you, Great Aunt Rose, for making a memory that’ll last forever, and a banana Laffey Taffy addict.Photo by Mike Robinson-Johnson
Photo source: Fremont County Historical Society’s ‘Coal Camps of Fremont County Colorado’ Fremont County Heritage self guided tour