National Register Listing

Goodale, William, House

a.k.a. 48AB632;University of Wyoming Alumni House

214 S. Fourteenth St., Laramie, WY

The William Goodale House is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C as an excellent example of the Tudor Revival Style in Laramie. Local surveys indicate that there are approximately 33 existing Tudor Revival houses in the Laramie community, including the Goodale House. More importantly, the surveys indicate that the Goodale house is the only existing Tudor Revival house constructed of solid stone masonry. Other existing Tudor Revival Style houses in Laramie are constructed of brick or stucco. "A Field Guide to American Houses" by Virginia and Lee McAlester states that "Stone trim is common on Tudor houses of all subtypes but only a relatively small proportion have stone as the principal wall material....these were principally large landmark houses before 1920." Therefore this solid stone masonry house is not common to Tudor Revival architecture of the 1930s. The period of significance for this architecturally significant building is 1931, the year it was constructed.

In England, after the turn of the century, a whole new style of country houses was developed. These were not the formal houses of Georgian and Baroque estates but large houses designed to be comfortable. To design these homes, the English architect turned for inspiration to the vernacular houses of the English countryside. These "romantic houses" inspired the "romantic English revival" which flowered in this country from 1900 through 1930. There were three basic English housing styles that found favor here in the United States: (1) Tudor; (2) Cottage; (3) Country House. All of these styles can be termed "picturesque".

The identifying features of the Tudor Revival include: steeply pitched roof, usually side-gabled; facade dominated by one or more prominent cross gables, usually steeply pitched; decorative half-timbering present on about half of examples; tall, narrow windows, usually in multiple groups and with multi-pane glazing, and massive chimneys, commonly crowned by decorative chimney pots. The earliest American houses of this style in the late 19th century were usually designed by architects; however, by the 1920s the style had become less pretentious. Masonry veneering techniques allowed even the most modest examples to mimic the brick and stone exteriors of the English vernacular houses. The popularity of this style declined in the late 1930s but has been resurrected in the Neo-eclectic movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

In Laramie, Wyoming, modest examples of the Tudor Revival Style were built in the 1920s and 1930s. These houses had walls clad with weatherboard, shingles or stucco to avoid the expense of solid stone masonry construction. The solid stone masonry-native Wyoming sandstone was quite rare in the late 1920s and early 1930s due to its great expense. The Goodale House exhibits several features not found in other Laramie Tudor Revival homes: the terra cotta tiles on the roof; the all-copper rain gutters and downspouts; and the solid stone masonry. The decorative brick half-timbering occurs on only about half of the Tudor-style houses in Laramie. The windows are typical of the Tudor style, tall, narrow, and in multiple groups. There are four opal glass windows as well as three lead obscure glass windows in the house. The steeply pitched roof boasts massive chimneys crowned with round decorative pots. It is both side-gabled as well as prominently cross-gabled, typifying the Tudor Revival Style nationwide and in Laramie.

By the early 1930s Laramie's economy had slowed considerably due to the depression. The mining and oil industries decreased significantly resulting in closures of the mines and refineries, enrollment at the University of Wyoming plunged, the cattle business suffered as farm values declined, and nearly all construction of new buildings came to a halt. During this economic slump, William and Ethel Goodale decided to build a house on Grand Avenue, the most valuable and desirable residential area of that period. Mrs. Goodale, formerly Ethel Miller, was a member of a prominent Wyoming family. She was a sister of Leslie A. Miller, former Governor of Wyoming and daughter of A.E. Miller, who served as Mayor of Laramie and erected the Miller building in Laramie. William Goodale was the Hudson automobile dealer in Laramie and in 1927 he became director of the First State Bank of Laramie. In 1931 he became Vice President until the bank doors were closed on April 27, 1932. He was also important to the development of intracity transportation in Wyoming. In 1897-98, Elmer Lovejoy built Wyoming's first automobile in his workshop and brought the first conventionally built automobile, the locomobile into the state in 1898. He and William Goodale provided the first automobile services for intracity transportation for Laramie and the surrounding areas.

In 1931 William Goodale contracted with the well-known Wyoming architects William Dubois and F.W. Ambrose to design his house. William Dubois was one of the leading architects in Wyoming during the early 1900s. He designed many prominent commercial buildings in Cheyenne, Wyoming, including the Supreme Court Building and the wings of the Wyoming State Capitol. In Laramie, he also designed many commercial buildings, including the Half-Acre Gym, the Student Union and the Arts and Sciences building at the University of Wyoming. He designed over 100 homes in Cheyenne and its environs. Dubois' commercial and residential designs, including the Goodale House, were explained as "eclectic renditions of the fashionable architectural forms of the day"; they included cottage, bungalow, Mission, Plains, and Moderne.

The Goodales resided in the house until 1942. Mr. and Mrs. George Forbes then purchased the property. With the increase in truck traffic on Grand Avenue in the 1940s, real estate in this area became less valuable and, in time, many of the larger houses were torn down and replaced by commercial buildings, apartment buildings, and parking lots. The Goodale House survived this destruction and was used as a residence until September of 1990 when the University of Wyoming Alumni Association moved its facilities to the house. It remains a prominent Laramie landmark house on Grand Avenue.

In conclusion, the Goodale house significantly exemplifies the Tudor Revival style in Laramie and retains excellent integrity of design, workmanship, materials, feeling, association, setting, and location. The only alteration to the property was a four-foot extension to the garage in the 1950s.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1991.