From Baird’s corner to Corthell and King P.C: 153 years of history at 221 South 2nd St
One of the hallmarks of downtown Laramie is the abundance of historic buildings owned and maintained by long-standing local businesses. The structure on the northeast corner of 2nd St. and Grand Ave. is a quintessential example of this proud tradition.
The first two decades
As the initial owner of the downtown lots, the Union Pacific Railroad was eager to sell, and investors were eager to buy. The two lots now comprising 221 South 2nd St. are platted as lots 21 and 22 of block 191. They were first sold in August of 1868 for $400 each to investor John Gibbon. He then sold two thirds of his investment in December 1868 for the nice return of $1000 and the other third for $1000 in October 1869.
The buyer of the two-thirds portion was Alexander Huyett, who mortgaged the property to build a grocery stand on that premier downtown location. But he soon skipped town and reneged on his debts, hightailing it to mines in Utah and South Dakota. In foreclosure proceedings, the property was purchased by tailor John Baird in 1874.
Baird had arrived in Laramie in 1871. He and his wife Mary first set up a tailor’s and millinery shop on the corner of 2nd St. and A (now Ivinson Ave.). Upon their purchase of Huyett’s foreclosed property, they moved one block south, erecting two buildings for the tailor and millinery businesses, which became popularly known as Baird’s corner. The 1880 census shows the Baird family of six living at 221 South 2nd St.
The remaining portion of lot 21 originally owned by John Gibbon changed hands several times and was eventually owned by N.K. Boswell.
Albany County National Bank
In January 1887, a group of Laramie investors led by Ora Haley received word that the comptroller of the federal treasury had authorized the establishment of the Albany County National Bank. Operating in temporary headquarters, they immediately developed plans for a large two-story building. They purchased the west facing parcels of lots 21 and 22 from Baird and Boswell for a total $8,000, sold the existing buildings “for cheap,” and successfully nabbed the Colorado architect Fred Hale, who was finishing construction of the first UW building, now known as Old Main. W.H. Holliday was chosen to be the contractor. When Boswell returned from South Dakota to clear the title with Alex Huyett, all was set for construction to begin in March 1887.
The Laramie Boomerang eagerly reported the progress of the bank building, noting such mileposts as the arrival of lumber, the choice of brick, the erection of the galvanized iron front and the marble column that would support the stone portico, the artist’s work on the stone ornaments, and installation of vault doors. They wrote long articles about the details of the corner entrance, the tiling, the staircase to the second floor, and the size of the building (48 by 64 ft.). The projected cost was $30,000. Construction was completed in mid-September.
The Boomerang’s effusive praise of the building was not misplaced. Its Italianate cornice, the segmented arches over the windows, the elevated portico, and iron front pieces were architectural showcases. The bank occupied half of the main floor. The other half, entered at street level, was designed to be a store, leased to such businesses as dry goods, drug, and bookstores. The second level was accessed by a six-foot wide staircase at the 2nd St. entrance between the bank on the right and store on the left. Upstairs there were seven offices with electric lights, modern bathrooms, telephones, closets, hot water, and steam heat.
Through the next two decades, the upstairs offices were occupied by insurance, real estate, medical, architectural, and legal professionals. For a while beginning in the 1890s, Stephen Downey and his attorney sons Sheridan and Corlett occupied a suite of offices on the north side of the building. With the benefit of historical hindsight, the most important early tenant of an upstairs office was attorney Nellis Corthell, who moved into a south-facing office upon completion of the building.
Corthell was a young attorney who had read the law with Downey and been admitted to the bar in 1883. He, his wife Nellie, and his seven children would become leading citizens of Laramie for half a century and more. Significantly, the practice that he established in 1887 is not only the oldest still-existing law firm in the state of Wyoming but also one that has been housed in the same building for 134 years.
The 1918 Hitchcock remodel
After nearly twenty years of operation in half of the first floor, the directors of the Albany County National Bank decided to mark their success with a substantial remodel that would force out the store on the north portion and open the entire first floor for bank operations. They commissioned Wilbur Hitchcock, a popular architect who was making his mark designing homes and buildings in Laramie. Hitchcock was married to Nellis Corthell’s fourth child, Gladys, and he was well known to the institutions that financed the housing industry in Laramie.
In 1918, Hitchcock had just finished a remodel of Old Main on the UW campus, working with the contractor Jim Allison from Cheyenne to remove the imposing tower that unfortunately was unstable. Notably, Hitchcock was the architect who remodeled both buildings that Fred Hale had designed and completed in 1887.
To fulfill the plan of completely reworking the first floor, Hitchcock redesigned the façade of the building, since the staircase would be moved from 2nd St. to the back entrance on Grand Ave. Experimenting with minimalist style, he removed all traces of the Italianate roof and the iron frontispieces, opting for a symmetrical front outlined by vertical pilasters and horizontal stonework. Choosing an oatmeal-colored brick for the façade, he painted the south side of the building to match and added a few pilasters but kept most of the 1887 design on that side, including the segmented arches over the windows.
Some lament, when comparing photos of the 1887 building and the 1918 remodel, that the original Fred Hale design has been lost to Hitchcock’s geometric façade.
The inside, however, was an entirely different story. Hitchcock was able to take advantage of the full 65-foot width of the building to create an open first floor plan. He designed a tin ceiling accented by wood beams and moldings. Marble pillars topped with ionic capitals supported the second floor. The first floor was filled with light from windows topped with lead-paned arches.
An entire set of Hitchcock’s designs for this remodel is available at the American Heritage Center. With every detail of the façade and interior fully documented, these designs are a treasure for architectural historians.
Changing its name in 1918 to the Albany National Bank, this financial institution resided at 221 S. 2nd St. for another thirty-two years until it merged with First National Bank in 1950. It had been on the corner of 2nd and Grand for a total of sixty-three years.
Albany Mutual Building Association
Founded in 1892, the Albany Mutual Building Association’s mission was to help its members to finance the building of houses, a mission which was successfully accomplished almost immediately. Officers of the AMBA were close associates of the bank and its tenants. Occasionally, in its first thirty years, its headquarters was housed in one of the second-floor offices of the bank building. Corthell, Hitchcock, and the bank’s head cashier Eli Crumrine were sometimes members of its board of trustees.
When they purchased the entire building in 1950, the AMBA etched its name and foundation date on the front of the building and conducted business on the main floor for nineteen years. Then, at some point the AMBA became the Laramie Savings and Loan Association, which sold the building in 1969 to attorney John King.
Corthell and King takes over
Since its founding in 1887, the Corthell law firm had steadily grown from occupying one office at the beginning to three in 1918, eventually taking over most of the second floor. Nellis Corthell’s son Morris joined the firm around 1915, and Morris’s son-in-law John King joined in the 1950s, so three generations of Corthells and numerous partners and associates had worked for the firm.
When senior partner King formed a corporation to buy the building in 1969, he decided it was time that Corthell and King occupy the entire two floors. Consequently, the first floor was remodeled to add five enclosed offices. The ceilings were lowered to accommodate modern wiring and the HVAC systems, and windows were updated. A corporation of Corthell and King attorneys has now owned and maintained the building for fifty-two years.
The building’s anatomy
An architectural tour of 221 South 2nd St. reveals the evidence of its 134-year history and its occupants. The second floor remains closest to the 1887 design with much of its footprint of seven offices undisturbed. Many of the doors with their 1887 Eastlake-style Victorian hinges and doorknobs remain, as do the transoms, window and door trimmings, and supporting pillars. It does not take much to imagine Nellis Corthell in his original office with Stephen Downey across the hall.
On the main floor, the Hitchcock-designed director’s room with its high ceiling is intact. The 2nd St. entrance to the building also remains untouched, with foyer and heavy double doors. Inside, the marble walls installed below the cashier’s cages are still there, as are some window trimmings. Hidden above the lowered ceiling are the leaded windows. A cubby hole in the director’s room reveals Hitchcock’s tin ceiling and the Ionic capital on top of the posts. The bank vault with a Mosler iron door (the 1874 Cincinnati company folded in 2001) is a highlight in the back room.
Another 1918 vault with a Mosler door remains in the basement. The original janitor’s room is there, as well as remnants of coal chutes on the south side. A couple of staircases on the east side of the basement indicate how the basement may have been accessed from inside the 1887 store and perhaps from the outside to both the bank and store.
The exterior is what the public see when visiting downtown. Hitchcock’s 1918 façade remains untouched, except for the etching added by the AMBA. For the most part, the rest of the building’s Grand Ave. exterior is the original 1887 design, envisioned by the architect Fred Hale, adapted by Hitchcock, and maintained by its longest tenant, the law firm established by Nellis Corthell.
By Jane Nelson
View east on Grand Ave. showing the corner of Grand and 2nd. The ACNB building as designed by Fred Hale in 1887 is across 2nd street on the left with a tree on the Grand Ave. side. Photo taken in 1911 or 1912. Sidewalks are concrete but the streets are still unpaved. The caravan wagon on the left says “The Palace” on the side, function unknown.
View in 1929 looking north on 2nd St. at Grand Ave. In the right foreground, the light-toned building then called the “ANB” bank is shown as remodeled by Wilbur Hitchcock in 1918.
221 S. 2nd St. today, the Hitchcock-designed façade. Photo by Jane Nelson.
The 1919 interior of the bank as designed by Hitchcock showing the arched windows now hidden by the 1969 remodel when the Corthell and King law office took over the entire first floor.