National Register Listing

Old Main

University of Wyoming campus, Ninth St. and Ivinson Ave., Laramie, WY

Old Main was designed by architect Frederick Albert Hale, who was at the time a practicing architect in Denver, Colorado. Mr. Hale was born in New York and educated at Rochester and Cornell. While in Denver Mr. Hale's main focus was designing houses in and around Denver. He is credited with designing a hospital, a courthouse, a baseball park, a power station, dormitories for the University of Colorado, two banks, three public schools, eight churches, and eight commercial blocks. Research of Colorado records indicate he was more noted in Denver for his fine baritone voice than his architectural designs. He was active locally in a variety of theatrical productions, operas, and operettas in the 1880s. After seven years of practicing in Denver, Mr. Hale moved on to Salt Lake. There is no indication that he had any significant impact on the field of architectural design while living in Denver, but he later became one of Salt Lake's more prominent architects of the century. His partners Richard K. A. Kletting and Walter E. Ware are now more known for their commercial and institutional designs, while Hale is better remembered for his residential buildings. Hale became the preferred architect of Salt Lake's high society set and was likely the most prominent clubhouse architect in the city. Hale demonstrated a keen interest in the most current architectural styles of the day, and his ability to keep up with contemporary architectural developments made him a local developer of style. He was not directly involved in designing other notable public buildings for the territory or state of Wyoming. This may be because he moved out of the area, or it may be simply because he did not choose to bid on additional projects. Additionally, research indicates that he was very busy designing at least 47 residences and no less than 30 commercial buildings in Salt Lake during the remainder of his career. So it is possible that Mr. Hale simply didn't have time to pursue projects in Wyoming.

Mr. Hale's desire to utilize current architectural styles dictated that his design for Old Main was fairly typical of collegiate designs popular throughout the country during this period. It has no match in the state. This is likely because of limited building projects of this scope and because it was the first collegiate facility in the territory. As such it stands alone in Wyoming as our only example, and it is therefore likely that its architectural significance stops at the state level.

old Main is one of only a handful of public buildings appropriated and constructed during the territorial and early statehood period. Because such projects were few in number, each of the remaining structures from the period is architecturally and historically significant within the state. In fact, all except Old Main have already been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The first of these which deserves mention is the Territorial Prison. This building was constructed early in the 1870s by the federal government. It is located within the same community as old Main and is an eclectic structure demonstrating Romanesque and Second Empire elements. It too is one-of-a-kind within the state. Upon Wyoming achieving statehood the prison was turned over to the State; and after only 30 years as a prison, it was turned into a barn for the University's school of agriculture and modified accordingly.

In anticipation of statehood, the Wyoming Territorial legislature of 1886 made provision for the construction of three major public buildings: a state capitol in Cheyenne, a university in Laramie, and an insane asylum in Evanston. The City of Rawlins was given an appropriation for a penitentiary two years later. Completed in 1894, it is an outstanding example of Romanesque Revival architecture. Construction was begun at the Wyoming University (Old Main) in September of 1886. The French Renaissance State Capitol was begun the following Spring. The more modest two-story asylum was constructed in 1888. This building burned in 1918. Nineteenth-century attitudes toward the mentally ill being what they were, the facility was not frequently talked about or described. Records are limited, but photos indicate that compared to other public structures of the time it was not as grand an undertaking for the young state.

Another public building constructed during this period is a municipal Romanesque building constructed in 1893, the Rock Springs City Hall. It is interesting to note that Rock Springs and her sister city to the west, Green River, were the only substantial communities along the U.P. line through southern Wyoming which did not receive a state institution, and therefore did not get a state-financed building project during this period. Green River did get a significant architectural plum, the Sweetwater Brewery. But this was a private enterprise and was not constructed until the turn of the century. The Union Pacific also constructed the Cheyenne depot in 1886, a lavish Romanesque Revival building that is also unique to the state.

During this spurt of public and private construction, other matters began to divert the time and money of Wyoming's government. A severe drought followed by a devastating winter in 1886-87 led to a dramatic decline in the state's major economic force, the cattle industry. Hard times and the accompanying withdrawal of huge sums of investment capital forced serious restrictions on the territory. In 1890 Wyoming was granted Statehood. The state's early years were marred by infighting between the struggling cattle barons and rebellious cowboys. The unresolved differences between the groups eventually led to Johnson County.

War, was a rather limited conflict that distracted the attention of government officials for a time. In 1893 the state was hit hard by a financial panic which again distracted leaders' attention and drained the state's coffers. This series of events meant that the state would not again pursue the kinds of large-scale building projects appropriated in 1886 until well into the twentieth century. By that time popular styles and tastes in public institutional buildings had changed.

old Main and the other buildings mentioned remain as Wyoming's best examples of those early years when Wyomingites sought to transform a vast wilderness into a state. They were appropriated by and constructed for Wyoming's early leaders and citizens who were determined to house their state institutions in the best buildings they could afford. Extenuating circumstances dictated that each would become the only representative of its type within the state.

On a cold, windy day, September 27, 1886, members of the Masonic Order laid the cornerstone of the University of Wyoming's first building. One year later 42 students varying in ages from 12 to 23 enrolled for instruction. Most of them were at the preparatory level because Wyoming Territory had no high schools.

It took imagination, vision and bravado to call the institution a university, but the 5,000 citizens of Laramie and the 45,000 other citizens of the Territory believed in progress. They were also opportunistic. They knew that because of the Morrill Act of 1862, the Land Grant Act of 1881 and subsequent federal legislation, the federal government would provide most of the money needed to maintain the school.

Yet the early years were very difficult. One of the original seven-member faculty, Justus F. Soule, later recalled that "During the first 25 years we never knew whether we should be there or not the next year." During those 25 years, the federal government supplied between $50,000 and $75,000 per year while the state's contribution averaged only $24,000.

A potentially disastrous blow came in 1892 when the people voted that an agricultural college should be located in Lander (elevation 5357) because Laramie's elevation (7165) was thought to be too high for useful agricultural experiments. The Legislature, however, never implemented that vote, and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1907 held that the 1892 vote was only advisory. Because most of the federal money was earmarked for agriculture, a separate agricultural college would have deprived the Laramie school of most of its financial support.

Statehood which came to the 62,000 people of Wyoming in 1890 was expected to bring prosperity and larger appropriations for the University. It failed to do so, and the number of students enrolled rose only from 37 in 1890 to 126 in 1900. Even with improved economic conditions thereafter there were only 193 students in 1910 and 433 in 1920. Meanwhile, the institution's outstanding professor, Dr. Aven Nelson, who would be elected President of the Botanical Society of America in 1934, enjoyed a salary increase of only $500, from 1887 to 1912, making his salary $2000 after 25 years.

Wyoming citizens outside of Laramie were slow to recognize the University's merit and sent a majority of their children who were college-bound elsewhere. Not until the 1920s did this attitude change noticeably. Enrollment reached 1194 in 1930 before the Great Depression mandated substantial retrenchment. President A.G. Crane in his Ten-Year Report, 1932, looked back ruefully on what he saw as "A remarkable period of growth, of advancement, of social change, of hysteria, of degeneration and of collapse." In agony, he asked "Do the people of Wyoming want a University" His own salary was soon cut from $12,000 to $8,000.

Nevertheless, the National Youth Administration program and other kinds of New Deal assistance maintained enrollments and even made some growth possible. By 1940 there were about 2,000 students. Then World War II reduced enrollment to 662 in 1943 just before men in uniform came for special military training programs. After World War II, except for a temporary downturn in the early 1950s, enrollments rose rapidly to over 10,000 in the 1980s.

The University was better in its early years than its inadequate funding suggests. At least for good students, teaching was almost on a one-on-one basis. Of course, graduate training was almost non-existent. Yet the achievements of students who received A. B. and B.S. degrees warrant endorsement of Dr. Ruth Hudson's judgments (Here is Wyoming, The University and its State Background, Laramie, 1949, p.16): "Apparently the institution had something... which...held the loyalty and devotion of...a vital core of able faculty members.
Dr. Hudson, who served in the University's English Department, from 1927-1960, has to be counted herself as a part of that vital core. Those faculty members and their supervisors gradually brought respect, recognition, and accreditation. For example, the University was affiliated with the North Central Association in 1915, the American Association of American University Women in 1923, and was accredited by the American Association of Universities in 1924. In 1924 also the Law School won an "A" rating from the American Bar Association and the Association of Law Schools. National honorary societies admitted UW's Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Xi, and Phi Beta Kappa chapters in 1922, 1929 and 1940. In the man's world of pioneer Wyoming, faculty women made important contributions to progress, as should have been expected in a co-ed school in the first state to give women equal suffrage.

The 1887 campus of one building on 12 acres has grown to 50 major buildings on 780 acres in 1985. After World War II the state's greatly increased mineral production at enhanced values per unit made money relatively plentiful. Severance taxes and royalties from production on federal lands added to other revenues, brought annual appropriations for the University approaching $100,000,000.

The University of Wyoming is unique in that Wyoming is the only state in the Union with one degree-granting institution of higher learning. There are seven two-year colleges but no other four-year schools. This plus the great increase in mineral wealth makes substantial funding possible, even though the population is only 470,000.

Being the only university in the state carries with it special obligations. Demands from all 23 counties for all kinds of service have to be considered, and Extended Credit programs, the Agricultural Extension Service, and Public Service, in general, do get much attention.
The University embraces seven colleges: Agriculture, Arts, and Sciences, Education, Engineering, Commerce and Industry, Health Sciences and Law. Doctoral degrees are offered quite generally but not in Medicine and not, in History, in the Social Sciences and Humanities.

In retrospect, the University of Wyoming in its early years looks like a good example of premature enterprise, but patience, endurance and perseverance have made the experiment worthwhile. The strong foundation augurs well for the future.

POSTSCRIPT: Many of the University's 50 major buildings are not eligible for the National Register because they are post-World War II. There are, however, besides (Old Main), others that appear to deserve serious consideration. The preparer of this Old Main nomination recommends that Wyoming's SHPO initiate a survey of all campus buildings, completion of which should lead to a campus district or multiple resource nomination.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1986.