|
|
Historic Downtown Walking
Tour
The 2001 edition of the Historic Downtown
Walking Tour is based in part on the original walking tour compiled by
Christy Love with additional research conducted by Linda Prill, Edre
Maier, Jane Rice, Helen Graham and Linda Grosso.
While in Sheridan, please visit other sites that
are also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sheridan Inn at 865 Broadway was once operated
by William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). Cody used to sit on the porch north
of the inn and watch the auditions for his Wild West Show.
Trail End Historic Center at 400 Clarendon, is
the "Kendrick Mansion" and is now operated as a Wyoming
State Museum site. Construction began in 1913 and was completed in
1918.
Fort Mackenzie, established in 1899, which is
now the VA Hospital, is located north of town on Fort Road.
Bradford Brinton Memorial in Big Horn, miles
south of Sheridan is the Quarter Circle A Ranch, once owned by
Bradford Brinton. Built in 1892, It is open to the public and contains
an extensive collection of western art.
This historic walking tour has been funded by
the Downtown Sheridan Association and in part by the Sheridan
Convention and Visitors Bureau, wwwsheridanwyoming.org
The photographs are courtesy of Marilyn Spear
Bilyeu, the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming and
the Rochford Studio CW Collection and Anita Nichols.
SHERIDAN
Sheridan was plotted as a town by John D. Loucks
in 1882 on the back of a sheet of wrapping paper. Sheridan was named
after one of John Louck s civil war officers, General Sheridan. The
town was approved and incorporated in 1884. With the coming of the
railroad, the opening of many coal mines, the settling of the ranch
lands and the arrival of the townspeople, Sheridan quickly grew to a
populated town of 1,559 people by 1900.
The early wood frame, false front, buildings
were replaced by sturdier structures of brick and stone between 1910
and 1920. These are the buildings which you will see on your walking
tour. Sheridan s Main Street District was enrolled in the National
Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is officially known as
Sheridan Main Street Historic District #164.
Grinnell Plaza. Mayor John D. Loucks,
founder of Sheridan, named several streets after his close friends.
Grinnell Street/Plaza was named after Cornelius Howland Grinnell.
Cornelius Howland Grinneil came to Sheridan in 1880 starting a
livestock industry on land where the city now stands. In 1899 he
turned his special attention to building and contracting, laying out
the Grinnell Addition to the town of Sheridan, and erecting most of
the substantial houses in Sheridan. Along with Hamma and Downer,
Grinnell received the contract to dig a canal for a new channel for
Little Goose creek, 240 acres were added to the townsite, thus
avoiding building numerous bridges over Little Goose Creek.
In 1902 he was elected city marshal and water
commissioner. Mr. Grinnell died March 3, 1916.
SHERIDAN,
The earlier days...
- In 1897, a telephone system
was started under the name of the Rocky Mountain Telephone
Company. It was purchased by Mountain States Telephone &
Telegraph in 1902.
- In 1909, the top event in
Sheridan was the rodeo. At that time, the rodeo included a race
for a bride. That year, Hazel Foster was won by Harry Lewis.
- In 1910, Sheridan s
population was 12,000. There were two newspapers published,
"The Daily Enterprise", which published six days a week
with special editions on Fridays and, "The Sheridan
Post" which was printed twice weekly.
- A new Federal Building which
housed government offices as well as the Sheridan Post Office had
just been built. It is now the P0 Office Building.
- There were six public
Schools. At 403 South Main was a private boarding school for girls
which flourished in the years 1908-1914.
- There were eleven churches in
the town with a combined membership of more than 2,000.
- There were thirteen doctors
of medicine in Sheridan and four others were located in towns
around Sheridan. Also, there were four dentists and two osteopaths
located here.
- A county-supported "Poor
Farm" was located on East Burrows Street between Gladstone
and Sumner streets.
- George Levi Smith operated
Sheridan s only mortuary located on South Main.
- There were five banking
institutions in Sheridan. The First National Bank, established in
1892, was located in their building at the northwest corner of
Loucks and Main, now Community First National. The Bank of
Commerce, established in 1893, was located in its third location
in the building now occupied by Golden Crown, originally the
Masonic Building. This bank built the unique building now occupied
by Crazy Woman Trading Company and conducted its business there
until 1904. The bank moved to their present location in 1925. The
Citizens State Bank was located at 183 N. Main, the Woolworth
Building site. The Sheridan National Bank was located in the
building now occupied by the Best Out West Mall. The Sheridan
Banking Company, a savings and loan corporation, was located in a
building adjacent to the First National Bank.
Sheridan was a good business town; records show:
- a blacksmith shop
- two large department stores
- two soft-drink
manufacturers
- a brewery under construction
- a Public Library
- a candy kitchen
- a brickyard
- a smoker s supply that
produced hand-made cigars (there were 5 cigar factories in
Sheridan at one time)
- a government weather bureau,
large brick building on South Main
- three laundries, one of them
a Chinese laundry
Go to the Map
>>>
This booklet is available
for for
online viewing, downloading, and
printing. After downloading, you can then print out additional copies.
The booklet is in PDF format, which means you must have Adobe
Acrobat Reader in order to open the file. If you are not familiar with
downloading and PDF files, here are some simple instructions.
-
To download the file, click on it. If you have
Acrobat Reader on your computer, the file will open in Acrobat
Reader. It may take 2 or 3 minutes for it to
open, so don't expect it to open right away. To print the
booklet, click on the print icon. To save it to your computer,
click on the diskette icon, give it a name, and click save.
-
If it does not open, the file will start to
download. This means you need to download Acrobat Reader. It will
open a dialog box which asks if you want to open the file or save
it to disk. Select save it to disk. After it finishes downloading,
come back here to download Acrobat Reader.
-
To download Acrobat Reader, click on the icon
below and follow the instructions. Enjoy!
-
Click
here to view, print, or download the Historic Downtown
Walking Tour booklet.
-
Click here to view,
print, or download the Historic Downtown Walking Tour map.
|
