Barn at Oxford Horse Ranch
a.k.a. Barn at Burman Ranch
868 US 287, Laramie, WYThe Oxford horse barn, constructed in 1887, is both one of the oldest and one of the largest extant barns in Albany County, Wyoming. It is also probably the County's best preserved example of vernacular architecture as influenced by late 19th-century English cattle and horse ranchers. It provides important evidence for an interesting phenomenon in the history of the American West: the transplantation of the English upper class thoroughbred horse culture (with such attendant forms as riding to hounds) to the Rocky Mountain west and more specifically, Wyoming. The rigid, tripartite, bilateral symmetry of the barn justifies considering it an agricultural manifestation of the "Georgian vernacular" tradition so pervasive in the domestic architecture of England and the eastern U.S. Beyond this broad cultural significance, the Oxford horse barn also figures prominently in local history. Most notably it is associated with the name of Axel Palmer, who worked at and later became part owner of the then Whitehouse Ranch on which the barn is located. Palmer trained horses and used the barn loft as a kind of obstacle course for breaking teams.
Local significance of the building:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.