The end of the NCHS swimming pool

Hotel Virginia (Natrona County Annex), Casper Wyoming

This century old building in Casper Wyoming was most recently used as Natrona County's County Annex, a government administrative building, but it had its origins as a hotel.  It's currently under renovations which will convert it into apartments, which is somewhat similar to its original use as a hotel.

I don't  know what the original name of the hotel was, and how many names it may have operated under, but sandblasting on the building has revealed a "ghost sign" for a hotel.  Unfortunately, I can't read anything other than "hotel" on the sign.  The current owner intends to market the apartments under the name Hotel Virginia, but I do not know if that's what this sign said, or if parts of more than one sign are visible.

Old Yellowstone District Signs, Casper Wyoming

Casper Wyoming has been working for some time on developing its Old Yellowstone District, so called because the Old Yellowstone Highway runs through it. This road is no longer the highway, and has not been for quite some time, although it was as recently as the early 1970s, and I can remember traveling on it in my parents cars.

The city has commissioned these signs, which have a 1930s feel to them, seeking to promote business. leisure and residence in the district.

Sidewalk Clock, Casper Wyoming

The March 10 entry on Today In Wyoming's History, which featured a sidewalk clock from outside of Wyoming, reminded me of this one, in Casper.

This is something that isn't as common as it once was, a sidewalk clock.  Once a fairly common, and pretty neat, feature of the downtown landscape, I don't know that anyone puts them up any more.  If they do, it's not frequently.

This particular one has been in place for decades.  So much so, in fact, that I hardly take notice of it, even though its a prominent feature on the sidewalk. This is the Ayres Jewelry Store sidewalk clock which, as can be seen, is in the shape of a large diamond ring.

The Halls of Natrona County High School

When I attended NCHS, back in the misty dawn of time, there were no interior paintings in the building.  Now, to my surprise, there are.  When I first learned of this, I expressed surprise about it, and in turn my wife, who attended NCHS in years more recently than I, was surprised that I was surprised.  Indeed, she insisted that I must have missed them.  As it turns out, I did not miss them at all, the murals commenced in 1983, after I had left.

Anyhow, while this is somewhat outside the usual scope of this blog, they are interesting.

 Nicely executed mural of Civil War or Frontier Era solders near the JrROTC room at NCHS.  MKTH photo.

 Example of hall mural.  MKTH photo.

 NCHS hall mural which features the logo of the band House of Pain.  It must have been the year that the rap tune "Jump" came out  that this one was painted.

 One done by my brother in law, while he was there.

Another change.  Navy recruiters in the hall.  I don't recall recruiters coming on campus back when I was there.

Historic Downtown Casper

historictour.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Gamble Store, Casper Wyoming

This is the painted sign for the Gamble Store, in downtown Casper Wyoming.  This building is now occupied by other establishments.

Gambles was a department store. As the sign indicates, the stores offered a wide range of products, although as I don't ever recall this business operating here, and therefore don't know, I have to wonder how this range of products was offered in a relatively small retail space.  Anyhow, the Minnesota based company expanded from an initial store in that state in the late 1920s to being the 15th largest retailer in the United States by the end of the 1970s.  In the 1980s, it was so large that it attempted to take over Brooks Brothers.

Since that time, the company's fortunes declined.  A descendant company still exists, but it does not operate under the Gambles name as a storefront name.

Furniture Store, Casper Wyoming

Remnants of a furniture store sign, now on the side of the Kirkwood Oil and Gas building, in downtown Casper.

Tripeny Building, Casper Wyoming

The building on the right, with the "Sanford's" sign, is the Tripeny Building. The Sanford's sign is covering the Tripeny name on the masonry, but it is there.  The tile work at the entry way, however, remains.

The Tripeny Building was built as an pharmacy, but the store was much more than that.  Still in operation when I was young, the store had a substantial jewelry counter and an old fashion soda fountain.  It was a neat place.  I can distinctly recall the juke box and a very old arcade game the store had in which the player attempted to shoot down bombers passing over a city.

After the death of the proprietor the store ceased operations and then became Giansanti's Pizzeria, a restaurant well remembered by Casperites of a certain age.  When Giansanti's ultimately closed, the location became the home of the Casper expression of Anthony's, a restaurant that had started in Jackson Wyoming (it can be seen, getting busted up, in the not so great movie Any Which Way But Loose).  Again, for Casperites, Anthony's was the Casper, not the Jackson, location, event  though they were both excellent.  The restaurant was always very popular and had a huge lunch crowd, but as with all restaurants, it too eventually closed.  Since that time, the building has been occupied by Sanford's, a regional restaurant chain that originated in Gillette with a restaurant called Humphrey's there, and which has expanded throughout the state.

Sanford's uses a style which involves featuring a lot of stuff in and outside of the restaurant in a manner that's clearly intended to recall the 1970s television show Sandford & Son.  For those who need a bit more of a clue, the menu titles provide it.  At this location it was involved in a bit of a spat with the city of Casper over an effort to convert its liquor license to a specialized cheaper variety intended only for restaurants, but the city gave it a bit of a bad time about that, resulting in the "$1 Pint" program, which must have been popular, as it continues on.  In spite of the big restaurant sign and the pint banner, observers can still pick up the details of the building if they look closely.

I'm not sure of this buildings age but I believe that it dates to the 1920s

Casper Power Box: Buildings of Interest.

This is an unusual city display, memorializing prominent buildings of Casper that were there in 1922.  The structure this is on is a power box.  Neat display.

Coca Cola Building, Casper Wyoming

This is the Coca Cola Building in Casper, Wyoming.  The building was a bottling plant at one time.  There is presently an effort underway to save this particular building.