Laramie’s West Side, a unique neighborhood
Probably the most cohesive neighborhood in Laramie is the West Side--not to be confused with West Laramie, which is beyond the Interstate. There’s a sense of place for folks living on the West Side which explains much of its attractiveness–a strong attachment that may seem unusual to residents of other Laramie neighborhoods.
Multi-cultural neighborhood
From the start, the West Side was a multi-ethnic, working-class neighborhood. It was a misnomer to categorize the West Side as “Mexican” as some people used to do, especially since most of its Hispanic residents came from Colorado, not Mexico.
The first settlers in the late 1860s were from Ireland, the Carroll and Fee families. Characteristically, the Fees (probably originally McFee in Ireland) planted potatoes, while Michael Carroll developed a cattle ranch. They encouraged relatives to come, and many did.
Soldiers came to Laramie in 1866, railroad-builders in 1867. Some of them came back to Laramie to settle on the West Side. Some settlers originally came from Ireland, northern Europe and Scandinavia. Some came from eastern states, and some were Civil War veterans–from both sides. One 1868 newcomer was railroad engineer Henry Hodgeman from New York State–he lived at the corner of Cedar and West Fremont St. in 1875. West Side resident Dicksie Knight May points out that especially in the early days, rural ranchers had another home on the West Side.
“I’ve documented more than fifteen West Side families that I am related to,” says Dicksie May, “Most came from Prussia in the 1870s with names like Berner, Borgemann, George, Koch, Matthes, Pilger, Pregal, Wahl, and Wurl.” She adds that it was remarkable that so many West Side residents came from the Oder River area of Prussia, later Germany and now part of Poland.
Brothers August and Frank Spiegelberg came to Laramie in 1888 from Prussia/Germany. The construction company they founded that year built at least 23 houses on the West Side before closing recently. Typically, there are four or more generations of West Side descendants from immigrant families like them.
Scandinavians were encouraged to come through efforts of Danish-born grocer Fred Prahl and his wife Christina, who came to Laramie in 1870. Their house was at the corner of what is now West Custer St. and Pine. Fred became a local agent for the White Star Steamship Line. He advertised: “Agent for all the best transatlantic steamers. Tickets and drafts sold on all the principal points in Europe.” (Laramie Sentinel, Sept. 4, 1880)
Richard Metzler sailed from Hamburg, Germany in 1888 at age 23. In 1893 he married Marie Niethe. She had emigrated with her parents at age 10. Their son William began working in the Laramie UPRR rolling mills at age 14. His son, William, Jr. also worked for the UPRR and William, Jr’s daughter, Cheryl Metzler Green now lives in a West Side house built in the 1870s that was owned by her grandfather.
Hispanic settlers
Around 1910, settlers of Hispanic heritage came to Laramie’s West Side, adding their culture to the mix. Some had been residents of Colorado for over 100 years, like the ancestors of Don Candelaria. His great-grandmother Elena Candelaria was buried in Greenhill Cemetery in 1924, “Since 1922 there have been six generations of Candelaria’s who have lived, and still live in Laramie," he says.
Yrineo (pronounced “Eedeenayo”) and his younger brother Fidel Frausto came directly from Mexico to Laramie’s West Side. Both were teenagers in the 1920s. “Soon younger siblings were brought to Laramie from Mexico and deposited with them to raise–they were only kids themselves!” says West Side native Gina Chavez-Armijo, granddaughter of Yrineo.
As these early residents aged, they had little incentive to retire elsewhere. Many stayed put, leading to another defining characteristic of the neighborhood–many current Laramie residents grew up on the West Side and still live there.
Parents formed national heritage societies with clubhouses that supplemented gatherings at the school and churches. The West Side School, built in 1884 was the place where everyone was welcomed. Later, a more modern “Lincoln School” was built next to it in 1924. Both buildings were used until a remodeling in 1939 when the old school was removed. Lincoln School closed in 1978, replaced by Velma Linford School in West Laramie. It is now the West Side Civic Center.
“There were so many activities for the whole West Side that the school provided,” says Cheryl Green, one of several generations of Metzler children to attend that elementary school. “There were all-school picnics and a Fathers Night when the gymnasium would be packed. The dads did all the work for that,” she recalls.
Enticing aromas of food being prepared was probably a characteristic of closely set West Side homes. Stay-at-home moms were in the kitchen all day long preparing meals for their families. They had little reason to cross over to the east side of Laramie–the West Side was a nearly complete little village, at least until seventh graders started crossing the footbridge to Laramie Junior High.
Lately it is showing signs of “gentrification” as newcomers move in, making the old homes fit their needs, as preceding generations had done. Often new residents discover later what a gem the West Side is and join in efforts to preserve it.
“Red Lining”
There was a time in Laramie’s history when the West Side looked run-down to outsiders. Lenders saw a neighborhood of low-priced housing and considered mortgages risky, leading to a de facto “red line” around areas like the West Side, beyond which they may have colluded to refuse mortgage loans.
Realtors were implicated also because some refused to show West Side residents houses in other parts of Laramie. Even if the family did find a house east of the tracks, either the seller would balk, or the bank would refuse a loan. Connie Coca confirms that; more can be found about her experiences with a housing search in an article published on January 11, 2023, in the Boomerang.
It became difficult for many West Side residents to move away. Their homes could only be sold to buyers with cash, who were often landlords with little inclination to fix up the property. The West Side became an area with many short-term renters. Residents resorted to home swaps when their needs changed, as Cheryl Green’s grandparents did, swapping homes in 1942 for $1 with the Davidsons who wanted a bigger house for their West Side grocery.
Despite the difficulties, a survey of over 25 Hispanic surnames in Laramie in four Laramie city directories from 1921, 1934, 1943, and 1979 indicate that over 50 percent of residents with these surnames lived in other parts of Laramie, not the West Side. An exception was the Garcia family, with 60 West Side adult residents in 1943 out of 64 in Laramie.
Other prominent Hispanic surnames in the 1979 City Directories with the total number of Laramie residents in parentheses for that year are: Candelaria (17), Frausto (14), Gonzales, (39), Garcia (40), Rodriguez (10), Sanchez (62), and Vialpando (31).
Red lining and ethnic prejudices weren’t just a Laramie housing problem, it was national. Some accepted policies became illegal with provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1968 Fair Housing Act passed by Congress. It took some time for things to change, but now people like Gina Chavez-Armijo can say “I didn’t know how much I liked Laramie until I moved to Los Angeles,” where she worked for several decades as a professional court reporter, returning to Laramie in 2009 to work as Albany County District Court Reporter, and to be with her aging West Side parents, John and Julie Frausto Chavez.
Cheryl Green says, “Even though the greenbelt access has brought more people to the West Side, there still isn’t a traffic or parking problem, and kids are safe.”
“The West Side is a safe neighborhood, that’s a big attraction to it” agrees Gina Chavez-Armijo. She relates that several years ago the Laramie Police Chief showed her statistics indicating the West Side had a lower crime rate than any other part of the city. She ended with an unusual comment, “When I see someone walking on the sidewalks on the West Side, I know that they are not from here. We all walk in the street. People don’t have to worry about traffic here,” she declares.
By Judy Knight
Caption: The UPRR smokestack, the only remnant of the once-bustling railroad shops that employed many West Side residents, casts a strong early morning shadow across houses on South Pine Street. Photo by Judy Knight, 2022.