When you drop off a letter at the outside mailboxes in the post office alley, look to your right to see one of Laramie’s oldest residences.

If you ever ate at the now-closed El Conquistador restaurant at 110 Ivinson Avenue, did you know that you were sitting in the oldest building remaining from early Laramie?

Hopes for formal education were high in Laramie in 1869. That it was a high priority is evident by the fact that just one year after the town’s founding, citizens had voluntarily raised enough money to open a small school at the corner of Third and Grand, now occupied by the Connor Hotel.

The year 2016 marked the 50th anniversary of the Laramie Plains Museum. Hard work by dedicated and generous community members has preserved significant items of local historical significance showcased in the Ivinson mansion. Acquiring a permanent home has been a long journey

Reading that headline, many Laramie folks would assume that it refers to the Ivinson Mansion. There is, however, a larger, very elegant residence located at Grand Avenue and 21st Streets. It is the Ivinson Home for Ladies and it has a most interesting history.

My vote for the most unique house in Laramie is one that is hiding practically in the middle of town

When Laramie was founded in May of 1868, the pioneers quickly banded together to form congregations and build places of worship.  One of those churches is now a yoga studio, representing a banding together of an altogether different sort.

Dozens of people exit the Albany Courthouse daily without seeing the historic home directly across the street at 507-509 Ivinson Avenue.

The red house at the corner of Tenth Street and Ivinson Avenue is familiar to generations of Laramie residents.  Today it has a new lease on life with restoration on the outside, remodeling on the inside and a new wing providing an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible entrance off Ivinson Avenue.

Hidden in plain sight are a row of seven historic Laramie stone houses. Built in 1883 on the east side of 6th street between University and Fremont, the seven are still standing, though to the casual observer one cannot tell that they were formerly identical.

The Aero Gasoline station was located at the southwest corner of 5th and Grand.  It opened in 1925, and, like most gas stations of the time, was constructed diagonally on a corner to allow easy drive-up and exiting.

Beginning in June 1923, Edward Ivinson, long time Laramie banker, mayor, trustee of the University of Wyoming and major community philanthropist, undertook a project to honor veterans of World War I.

When Irish immigrant Diana (Horran) Brown  (1843-1915) moved to the Laramie Plains around 1868, everything was new and hastily built. The town of Laramie was mostly a tent city on the banks of the Big Laramie River and beside the new Union Pacific Railroad tracks. 

Newspapers in September 1891, carried the news that the White House installed its first electric lights. Laramie achieved the same important milestone five years earlier.

Almost everyone in Laramie knows where the Alice Hardie Stevens Center is. Few remember that it was first named “Virginia Cottage” for a 17-year-old girl who probably never lived in Laramie.

After more than 60 years of bumping over seven parallel railroad tracks (with occasional mishaps), the people of Laramie decided it was time to build a bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad.