Painted Bricks: Dissing the ConRoy Building, and being inaccurate about it.

Painted Bricks: Dissing the ConRoy Building, and being inaccurate ...: What the crap? The original intent of this blog was simply to record the ghost signs of Casper, Wyoming.  It did that pretty rapidly, and th...

Dissing the ConRoy Building, and being inaccurate about it.

What the crap?

The original intent of this blog was simply to record the ghost signs of Casper, Wyoming.  It did that pretty rapidly, and then it went on to catch them elsewhere and expand out a bit from there. Basically, we like historic buildings here.

One of the things we've noted, however, in doing this is that fables grow up around buildings.  Sometimes it's really hard to figure out their origin.

I've been familiar with this building for over fifty years.  It's one of three sister buildings in Casper that all were designed by the Casper architectural firm of Casper firm of Garbutt and Weidner, who at least based on these three buildings, were heavily into the same appearance for their "skyscrapers" at the time. This is the "ConRoy Building", the Consolidated Royalty Building.  We noted its centennial several years, well nearly a decade, ago, elsewhere:

Happy Centenary! Things or rather places, that are 100 years old.

I've been meaning to post this forever but just wasn't in any big hurry to do it. Then it suddenly dawned on me that if I didn't do it soon, these places would be 101 years old, not 100. So here goes.

A thread dedicated to a few local places and establishments that made it to year 100 in 2017.

The ConRoy Building

 

 The ConRoy (Consolidated Royalty Building).  The building's appearance has changed somewhat, but you have to really observe it to notice the changes.  The windows were replaced from the original style about fifteen years ago, giving it more modern and more efficient windows.  The elevator shaft, not visible here, is an enlarged one to accommodate a larger elevator than the one put in when it was built in 1917.  The awning restores the building to an original appearance in those regards which it lacked for awhile, but at street level the building has a glass or rock masonry treatment which clearly departs from the original.

One that I've mentioned here before is the ConRoy, or Consolidated Royalty Building.  Built in 1917 as the Oil Exchange Building, the building was one of Casper's first "sky scrapers",  if in fact not the absolute first.  Ground was broken in the summer of 1917 and the building was completed some time in August 1917. The Consolidated Royalty Oil Company, a company in which former Governor B. B. Brooks had a major interest, occupied the fifth floor of the structure.

 

The ConRoy Building occasionally gets some interesting avian visitors.

Unlike its two sister buildings, the Wyoming National Bank Building (now apartments) and  the Townsend Hotel (now the Townsend Justice Center) designed by the same architect, the building has never been vacant and remains in use today.  At least one of the current tenants descends from a firm that was a very early tenant, and perhaps a 1917 tenant.

 

The building has been updated over time, and its appearance is slightly changed due to the addition of an odd decorative rock face in the 1950s, but it by and large looks much like it did in 1917 from the outside.  It's one of the few old downtown Casper buildings that hasn't undergone major appearance changes over the years.

May 2, 1917 edition of the Casper Daily Tribune announcing vacancies in the yet to be built Oil Exchange Building.  The remainder of this issue was full of war news, and indeed it was partially the oil boom caused by the war that brought the building about.

More recently it figured here, as the owners of the building commissioned some murals on the fire escape doors:

Backdoor art.

So how on earth does it end up in a political campaign?

Frankly, I have no idea, but the entire idea of it being built by "a Democrat" is a real wild one.  The principal figure in the building being built was B. B. Brooks, who served as a Republican Governor for Wyoming, as we noted above.  Brooks had his offices on the fifth floor of the building.

B. B. Brooks, Republican.  He would not be amused.

This building has been continually occupied since 1917, and some of the businesses currently in it have been in the building since the 1940s although as earlier noted, one of them might have been in the building as early as 1917. Of the other two sisters, one is now the Townsend Justice Center which houses Natrona County's courts, and Wyo. Bank Bldg is an apartment building with a cafe on the street level.

All three buildings originally had, fwiw, massive period style lobbies which are sadly now all gone although you can catch glimpses of them, particularly in the Wyo. National Bank Bldg. The ConRoy once had a cigar store and magazine stand on the street level, after the lobby was taken out, and into the 50s, which explains the current appearance of its very small lobby today.  Basically, the ConRoy and the Wyoming National Bank building were victims of "modernization" concepts in architecture from the 1950s and 1960s, at which time those buildings were forty years old and less, and nobody thought of them being particularly historic.  The Townsend probably retained its architecture the longest, as it was a hotel originally, and up into the 70s when it closed. By that time it was pretty much a flop house with a popular cafe.  I recall it as my father had lunch there until the cafe closed, which many other downtown businessmen and professionals did as well.  It made for an odd place to go as a kid, which I sometimes did with my father, as the cafe was really popular, as was the adjoined Petroleum Club, but in the lobby the working girls were recovering from their prior night.

The ConRoy, on the other hand, has hummed on much like it has since 1917, although some of the notable early tenants, like the Casper Star Tribune, have moved on.  The building was recently featured in the Oil City News when some of the equipment for a new elevator, replacing the one from the 1950s that replaced the one from 1917, was lifted by crane into the structure.

Anyhow, this is baffling.  Of course, I only know of this as somebody else whose familiar with the building pointed it out to me and was horribly amused by it.  I don't know that I am, as I like things to be accurate.

But why would a person do this, and how would such a wild rumor get started?

Painted Bricks: Start to finish on a mural. Winter sports, Casper, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Start to finish on a mural. Winter sports, Casper...

Start to finish on a mural. Winter sports, Casper Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Alley scene, Denver Colorado. Summer 2024.

Painted Bricks: Alley scene, Denver Colorado. Summer 2024.:  

Alley scene, Denver Colorado. Summer 2024.

Painted Bricks: In Good Hands, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: In Good Hands, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

In Good Hands, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Jackrabbit, Gillette Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Jackrabbit, Gillette Wyoming.:  

Jackrabbit, Gillette Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Family Ties, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Family Ties, Cheyenne Wyoming.:  

Family Ties, Cheyenne Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Chief Yellow Calf.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Chief Yellow Calf.:  

Cheyenne, Chief Yellow Calf.

Painted Bricks: Aviator statue. Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Aviator statue. Cheyenne, Wyoming.:  

Aviator statue. Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne Wyoming: Promise of the Prairie.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne Wyoming: Promise of the Prairie.:  

Cheyenne Wyoming: Promise of the Prairie.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Wyoming. Chief Washakie.

Painted Bricks: Cheyenne, Wyoming. Chief Washakie.:  

Cheyenne, Wyoming. Chief Washakie.

Painted Bricks: The Virginian, Medince Bow, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: The Virginian, Medince Bow, Wyoming.:  

Saturday, October 28, 2023

The Virginian, Medince Bow, Wyoming.

Best Posts of the Week of August 27, 2023.

 A wee, in which there were far too many posts here, quite frankly.

Subsidiarity Economics. The times more or less locally, Part XV. The 2% solution?

Monday, August 27, 1923. Irish Free State's first election.

Friday, August 27, 1943. Wunderwaffe, French arrests, the 43d Infantry at Arundel, Red Army at Kotleva and Sevsk, USS Eldridge doesn't disappear.

Battle of the Rosebud Battlefield, Montana.

Saturday, August 28, 1963. March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom.

The UW Sorority Suit.

Suzuki Samurai, second generation.

The 2024 Election, Part V. Wooing the primary voters.

Jeep with utility trailer

Monday, August 30, 1943. Hornets

Friday, August 30, 1963. Hotline.

The glory of being a trial lawyer.

UW Class Law School Class of 2026 . . . dressed up.

UW Class Law School Class of 2026 . . . dressed up.

Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part 7. Summer.

Not a truck at all.

A Sorority (Fraternity) lawsuit, and a subject who could be helped.

Blog Mirror: Scientific Curiosity, the Cowboy Code or Conspiracy? Wyoming residents search ‘flat Earth’ online more than nearly anywhere else in the U.S.

The Post Insurrection. Part VII. The Insurrectionist.

Saturday, September 1, 1923. The Great Kantō Earthquake (関東大地震).

King of the road

Don Juan's Mexican Restaurant, Casper Wyoming

One way to tell the difference between a democracy and a repressive regime is coups.

The 2024 Election, Part VI. The 14th Amendment Edition.

On toleration.

Jerks.

Prairie mural, downtown Denver

Painted Bricks: Prairie mural, downtown Denver

Painted Bricks: Prairie mural, downtown Denver:  

Prairie mural, downtown Denver

What's it mean to paint a mural of the prairie in the middle of a city?

Perhaps that we're not so happy with what we created there.

Painted Bricks: Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.: 

Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.

We recently ran this story. 

Painted Bricks: Tumble Inn, Powder River, Wyoming.:   As this institution is in the news, and as I knew I'd taken these photographs, I looked to see if I had posted them. Of course, I had ...

News now comes that the new owner will have the sign restored, but will not place it back up in Powder River, the reason being that in the process he discovered many broken bottles near the sign.

Well, that's no surprise.

Here's the thing, however. Out of context, it's just a big weird old sign.   

Painted Bricks: West of Surrender, Denver Colorado.

Painted Bricks: West of Surrender, Denver Colorado.:   

West of Surrender, Denver Colorado.

 

From a bar and grill, West of Surrender, in downtown Denver.

Painted Bricks: Wyoming Territorial Seal, Big Hollow Food Coop, Laramie Wyoming

Painted Bricks: Wyoming Territorial Seal, Big Hollow Food Coop, La...: 

Wyoming Territorial Seal, Big Hollow Food Coop, Laramie Wyoming.

This is a nice rendition of the Territorial Seal of Wyoming on the Big Hollow Food Coop building in Laramie.  We've featured this building before, but we missed the seal in our prior photographs.  Indeed, one of our remote roving contributors to this blog just picked this one up.

Wyoming has a complicated history in regard to seals, and this one was actually the state's third.  This is additionally slightly complicated by the fact that some versions have the year 1868 at the top, rather than 1869.  1869 is, I believe, correct.

The seal depicts a mountain scene with a railroad running in the foreground in the top field.  In the bottom left it depicts a plow, shovel and shepherd's crook, symbolic of the state's industries.  The bottom right field depicts a raised arm with a drawn sabre.  The Latin inscription reads Cedant Arma Togae, which means "let arms yield to civil authority", which was the territorial motto.

This seal was an attractive one and in some ways it was a better looking seal than the one the state ultimately adopted.  The state actually went through an absurd process early in its history in attempting to adopt an official state seal that lead, at one time, the Federal mint simply assigning one for the purpose of large currency printing, which featured state seals at the time.  Part of the absurdity involved the design, which was describe in the original state statute rather than depicted, which lead to the sitting Governor hiring his own artist as he didn't like the one art of the one that had been in front of the legislature.  That caused a scandal as the one that he picked featured a topless woman, which had not been a feature of the legislative design, and ultimately it was corrected to the current design.

All in all, looking at the original one, I think they could have stuck with it.

Blog Mirror. Painted Bricks: Art or vandalism?

Painted Bricks: Art or vandalism?:

Art or vandalism?

We don't like to put up photos of graffiti here as it's not in the same category as what this blog is dedicated to depict.  Here, we make a bit of an exception.

The scenes depicted above are of the backs of two local office buildings.  Both are actively occupied. I.e., there's going businesses in them. They aren't abandoned buildings.

So what, you may ask.

Well, graffiti has been a feature on the back of these buildings for a long time, but it's grown markedly worse in recent years.  The amount of graffiti has increased as the building on the right has been oddly popularized in the local press. And when I say the building, I mean the alley.  For reasons that aren't apparent to me, the fire escape  has become locally celebrated as some sort of a wonder.  That's drawn people to trespass on it and as that's occurred, graffiti has likewise increased as well.  So have high school graduation pictures with the staircase as a backdrop and even wedding photos.

And now a local theater company.

I'm not a big fan of local theater, which speaks poorly of me. When I was very young my parents introduced me to the theater at the local community college which was a real treat for all of us grade school kids.  I can dimly recall seeing You're A Good Man Charlie Brown and The Man From Lamancha at the college theater.  While in high school I was never in theater but about that time I was introduced to the text of plays as literature, and I really like some of those.  I've seen more college production in latter days, including when I was in college, including, by my recollection, The Dark Of the Moon, which I don't particularly care for, and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, which I do.  When our kids were little, we took them to a college play about the Wright Brothers.

Local theater, however, is another deal entirely and you have to admire the people who are willing to do it.  It doesn't get hte same viewership as college theater, for one thing.  And the quality fo the volunteers is bound to be uneven.

Anyhow, there's a couple local theater companies around here and one of them decided to put on a version of a famous Greek play.  I've read the text of the play as a college student, which is a long time ago, but I can dimly recall the outline of it.  In this production of the play, apparently, there's an element that emphasizes the need to put on a play in spite of hte presence of an Athenian plague, which apparently might be a real background story to the original play.  I.e., it was staged during a plague, perhaps, during which the author felt it critical to reopen the Athenian theaters in spite of hte risks.

There's a lot of things that are interesting about that, including that if that's correct, ancient Greeks, while they may not have had the germ theory of disease, grasped that hanging around in groups spread it.  Athens apparently closed up shop to try to combat it, something that might seem familiar to the readers here.  If my understanding of the views at the time are correct, there were also those who dissented from that view. . . which is also interesting in context.

In the current context, it's generally those who are on the left to the center left, politically, who have been for keeping things shut down and a tight quarantine, while on the right to the center right the view is the opposite.  In the middle, where most folks are, the views are nuanced.  On the edges, they aren't.

Anyhow, most theater people are on the hard left.  It's the hard left that generally would really have a really tight quarantine.  Probably most people in local theater on are the left somewhere.

Which makes a play all about protesting quarantines oddly ironic.

Anyhow, that's not why we have posted this here.  Apparently determining to stage this out in the open for a certain sort of street cred feel to it, the producers have added to the graffitti.

This may make the town about hte only town around which graffitti making reference to ancient Greece, but it's still graffitti.  Of course, there was a lot of it before.

I'm not quite sure what to think.

The play on opening day.  I happened to be in the building at the time and so I snapped this photo.  There wasn't a large crowd, but then it was opening day during a time of pandemic too.

One thing maybe the theater company and the audience might think is how gracious the building occupants are.  It's impossible not to notice a thing like this and in a lot of places the reaction would have been hugely negative.  No reaction at all isn't permission, but it is pretty gracious.