Laramie Architecture - Clues to a Naughty Past

Laramie began life in 1867 as a hell-on-wheels tent town preceding the Union Pacific Railroad construction. The UP was crawling up the Gangplank between Laramie and Cheyenne, and Laramie was established as a future train stop and to supply the railroad’s insatiable need for wood and water. Where UP crews went, so did liquor and ladies of lesser repute. Laramie’s downtown architecture is testimony to that past.

Today, Laramie is a generally quiet town, home to the University of Wyoming. Take a visit to Laramie’s downtown, a haven for locally owned restaurants and stores, for a glimpse into that wild past. As you stroll around downtown, particularly between Ivinson Avenue and Garfield Street, and from First Street east to Third Street, the older buildings have a large bottom floor with big windows overlooking the street. Look up to the second floor for a clue to the building’s past. Many second stories have narrow windows set at regular intervals. These second floors were establishments that many gentlemen, upon exiting the trains, would look for. The respectable businesses on the first floor were often supported by the activities on the second floor. 

Second Story Book Store, under second red canopy.

Laramie’s venerated locally owned bookstore, Second Story Books (105 E Ivinson Ave), is housed in a classic example of this type of building. The owners cleverly used the internal architecture to showcase both their books and Laramie’s raucous past. The entry stairs lead up into a great room, where one can imagine the gentlemen gathering. Around the edges of the great room are the cribs, where lonesome doves plied their trade. The Second Story uses the cribs for different genres of books and period antiques. The bottom story was probably an associated restaurant. According to historian Carol Lee Bowers, establishments like this were considered high-class operations. The gentlemen were expected to purchase dinner and at least one bottle of champagne or liquor before retiring upstairs. The Buckhorn Bar and Saloon, across the street from Second Story Bookstore has a similar setup and likes to keep up Laramie’s former hell-on-wheels reputation.

One of the alley apartments

Bower’s third tier of soiled doves, those not protected by a house or a madam, inhabited cribs in the alleys. The alleys particularly between Ivinson and Grand, and First and Second Streets was home to many of these smaller operations, and many of the former cribs are now sought-after apartments. The hallmarks of this operation are narrow stairs leading to a landing with a narrow window next to the door. Laramie’s alleys are safe to explore during the day and early evenings. 

Prostitution played important roles in Laramie’s past. One was that of informal bankers. Because prostitutes were often the few women who had money of their own, they made loans to respectable women unable to get bank loans. In addition, when city fathers found coffers running low, they would raid downtown, fine the ladies and replenish city finances. The heyday of formal houses of ill repute in Laramie was short. In 1889, Laramie’s prostitutes had been driven off main streets and Laramie settled into western domesticity.