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American Heritage Center, Laramie History Subject Guide: Buildings

This guide serves as a brief overview of some of the collections and exhibits that were used during the American Heritage Center's Summer Exhibit Series for Laramie's 150th Anniversary in 2018.

Buildings in Laramie

In its early days, Laramie was known as a “Hell on Wheels” town. Within two weeks of the Union Pacific Railroad reaching Laramie on May 4, 1868, shanties of boards, logs, ties, and canvas popped up around the tracks with 400 town lots also having been sold.

With the Union Pacific providing jobs through the construction of shops and a roundhouse, soon the town included a public school, three churches, and a national bank. By 1890, these buildings had increased to include an electric light plant, rolling mills, soda works, planning mills, a brewery, flour mill, glassworks, brick kilns, stone quarries, a railroad tie treatment plant, and a soap factory. Public buildings had expanded to include a courthouse, city hall, territorial prison, and various mercantile establishments.

As Laramie grew, new buildings were constructed and many of the plans for those buildings eventually would end up at the AHC. These early blueprints and other documents show an ever growing Wyoming town.

Image: Ivinson Hospital, 1916-1973, box 112, Coll. # 9921, Hitchcock & Hitchcock Records, University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center. 

Building Collections

Gladys B. Beery Papers, 1868-2008

Acc. #12556

Gladys Beery was a Laramie, Wyoming, author and historian. Her books included "Front Streets of Laramie City" (1990); "Mule Woman" (1992), a fictional book based upon Laramie history; and "Sinners and Saints: Tales of Old Laramie City" (1994.) She also wrote a regular column for the Laramie Boomerang titled “Historic Homes” (1976-1980s), which featured detailed histories of Laramie-area houses and their owners. She wrote numerous short stories in a variety of genres, some of which were published in books and magazines. Beery was born in Nebraska in 1913. She, her husband Lloyd, and their three children moved to Laramie in 1956. She retired in Greeley, Colorado, where she passed away in 2008.

The Gladys Beery Papers include research files for her books and other publications. The focus of the research is the history of Laramie, Wyoming, houses and buildings, as well as residents and personalities of note. Research files consist of hand-written notes, newspaper clippings and other printed sources, legal documents, maps, photographs, interviews, and written summaries. Also included are files on the communities of Horse Creek, Elk Mountain, Centennial, Rock Creek, Fort Sanders, and Fort Fetterman. Other files relate to walking tours of Laramie and the development of the Wyoming Territorial Prison into an historic site and theme park. Numerous manuscripts of her published and unpublished books, short stories, and newspaper columns are included in the collection. Included with the manuscripts are related correspondence, publishing information, and publicity. There is also biographical material about Gladys Beery and her family.

James Ehernberger Western Railroad Collection, 1849-2016

Acc. #10674

James L. Ehernberger was a dispatcher for the Union Pacific Railroad and a published historian of railroad history in the western United States. He collected railroad records and related historical material as well as negatives, photographs, maps, schedules, and materials documenting railroad history in the West. He had a special interest in the steam engine and its history in the West. He was active in the Union Pacific Historical Society and other railroad enthusiast clubs. His histories include: "Sherman Hill, Union Pacific" (1973), "Smoke Over the Divide: Union Pacific, Wyoming Division" (1965), and "Union Pacific Depot: An Elegant Legacy to Cheyenne" (2001).

The James L. Ehernberger western railroad collection documents railroad and other transportation history primarily in Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain region, with the most extensive record set covering the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Collection also includes Ehernberger's Wyoming postcard collection.

Hitchcock & Hitchcock (firm) Records, 1907-1996

Acc. #9921

Wilbur A. Hitchcock (1886-1930) came to Laramie, Wyoming, in 1908 hoping to find relief from asthma. He graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1912 and in 1916 he received a degree in civil engineering from the University of Colorado. Wilbur Hitchcock taught civil engineering at the University of Wyoming from 1912 through 1921. In 1921 he resigned his position as professor of civil engineering to open an architectural office in Laramie.

Wilbur’s sons, Eliot and Clinton, would eventually build their own firm, closing it for World War II. The practice was reopened in 1946. Between 1946 and 1987 Hitchcock & Hitchcock designed many distinctive buildings across the Rocky Mountain region mostly for the University of Wyoming and in Laramie, Wyoming. The firm was dissolved in 1989.

The Hitchcock & Hitchcock Records, 1907-1996, include architectural drawings, sketches, and blueprints by both Wilbur A. Hitchcock and the Hitchcock & Hitchcock architectural firm. The early drawings done by W.A. Hitchcock and William Dubois include a number of buildings on the University of Wyoming campus and throughout Albany County. The drawings done between the years 1938 and 1987 include those sketches by the Hitchcock & Hitchcock firm and miscellaneous prints by other architects. The sketches and blueprints show many different styles and types of structures ranging from mechanical inventions to residential homes. These drawings are particularly valuable in examining the styles of architecture used throughout these years and the approach that the architects took in developing plans for commercial, public, and residential buildings as well as for buildings and other structures of the University of Wyoming.

T.A. Larson Papers, 1870s-1997

Acc. #400029

T. A. (Taft Alfred) Larson was a highly respected and popular professor of history at the University of Wyoming from 1936 to 1975. He was hired by the University of Wyoming as a temporary lecturer for one year. Larson then attended the University of London. He was asked to return to the University of Wyoming to teach, and, among other classes, he was assigned the duty of teaching Wyoming history. This was the beginning of his scholarly fascination with Wyoming history. In 1943, Larson entered the Navy, and during his service he wrote a history of the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He was discharged in 1946. Upon his return to Wyoming, Larson began writing "Wyoming’s War Years: 1941-1946," which was published in 1956.. T. A. Larson was head of the History Department from 1948-1968, and he directed the School of American Studies from 1959-1968. Larson retired in 1975 and was elected to the Wyoming State House in 1976. He was appointed to the Joint Appropriations Committee during his first term and remained on that influential committee throughout his tenure in the House. He served four terms, retiring in 1984.

The T. A. Larson papers contain biographical material, correspondence, manuscripts, subject files, notes, recordings, and maps. Most of this material comes from his years as a professor of Wyoming history at the University of Wyoming from 1946 to 1975. Other materials come from his years of service as a Wyoming State Representative from 1976 until 1984.  A collection of subject files includes general western, Wyoming, and University of Wyoming subjects. Women suffrage materials are included throughout. 

Exhibit Images

Week 1 Buildings Exhibit

Week 2 Buildings Exhibit