Kistler Tent & Awning.

This is a sign painted on the former location of Kistler Tent & Awning Company. Kistler Tent & Awning still exits, but in a different location.

This photo provides a good example of why we have started this website. The sign, located on a building which is still in central downtown, advertises services that were important in the area at the time the sign was painted. Sheepwagon covers, Herders "Tepees" and Lambing tents were all significant items for Sheep ranching, which was a major industry in the region well in to the 1970s. Ranching is still a significant industry, but the sheep industry has greatly declined.

As an addition to this, I recently noticed that this building, which I'd consider the old Western Book Store building, has this Kistler logo in the cement.  Obviously this was the storefront for Kistler Tent and Awning. An interesting thing is that the photos on the bricks depicted above are not on the same building, but an adjoining one.  Either Kistler leased the sign space or, probably more likely, it occupied several adjoining buildings at this time.

It's interesting to note that at one time, this business was right on center street, not in a semi industrial part of town, as we'd expect today.  That probably says something about how important the sheep cover industry was at the time.  The building we are referencing is the one that has the sign noting that it sold gifts and cards, which as a book store it did.  In my memory, this building was always a book store, although it no longer is.

The Townsend Hotel

This is the Townsend Hotel, in Casper. The building was built as a substantial, modern hotel, in the 1920s, but fell into disrepair and dilapidation by the late 1970s. It's a classic example of a typical midwestern mid 20th Century hotel. It features prominently in many pre 1950 photographs, as viable in our flagship photo above.

This building was abandoned in the early 1980s, but it is currently under renovation and is being converted to a courthouse for Natrona County. The project has been somewhat controversial, and efforts to expand courthouse facilities in general have not been popular with the voters in the county, who rejected tax levies for the project. The existing 1930s vintage courthouse is across the street, but is not featured here, as it doesn't fit within this blog's mission.

This sign advertises not only the hotel, but the cafe. The cafe in the hotel was one of the last things operating in it, and was still in use up until the early 80s. Where the large excavation is in these photographs, there was once a private club, the Petroleum Club, which could be accessed through the hotel. The Petroleum Club still exists, but moved out of this location over twenty years ago.

In the historic photos, showing the Townsend in its heyday, this view would not have been possible. A Greek revival style office building, The Sinclair Building, would have blocked the view. It was removed in the early 1990s.

Welcome to Painted Bricks

This blog exists as a format to publish photo of buildings in Casper, Wyoming, although it is possible some other interesting buildings from around the state will be published here as well.

The concept here was to memorialize, originally on a website we never got around to, photographs of buildings here in town that still retained painted brick sides. These were once very common in nearly every American city, but over time, have fallen very much out of favor. Some such paintings can constitute real artwork, in and of themselves, but most of them simply amount to advertising of a certain distinct, historical, style.

As time goes on, these paintings fade, are painted over, or sandblasted away. Indeed, there are fewer of them now, than when we first thought of this idea about a year ago. Sometimes, even efforts to save the "historic appearance" of a building can destroy them, as the new owners sandblast them off to return the building to its "original look".

None of these signs amount to anything of great historic interest. But they are artifacts of another era, and we hope you enjoy them.