The Virginian Hotel is a historic

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

Medicine Bow Medicine Bow may refer to: * Medicine Bow, Wyoming, a town in southeastern Wyoming * Medicine Bow Mountains, a mountain range in Colorado and Wyoming * Medicine Bow Peak, the highest peak of the Medicine Bow Mountains * Medicine Bow National Forest ...

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. Construction on the hotel began in 1901 and was completed in 1911. It was built by August Grimm, the first mayor of Medicine Bow, and his partner George Plummer. The hotel is thought to be named for the famous novel written in Medicine Bow, '' The Virginian'' by

Owen Wister Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer. His novel ''The Virginian (novel), The Virginian'', published in 1902, helped create the cowboy as a folk hero in the United States and built Wister's reputation as the " ...

. Although it provided a place for cowboys and railroad workers to stay while they were in town, the hotel was actually built to serve a much broader clientele. It became a headquarters for all to meet and eat as well as a setting for many business dealings. The significance of the hotel rests upon its architecture and its history. The building is massive in size for a town the size of Medicine Bow, which has 284 residents. The hotel has served as a landmark for the town of Medicine Bow as well as a Historic Landmark for the state of Wyoming for nearly 100 years.

Construction and architecture

The original building is a 3½ story structure built in a freely adapted example of Renaissance Revival in the Italian Style. Its simplicity of outline and symmetrical exterior lines are evidence of its Renaissance Revival architecture. It is constructed of concrete blocks containing sand drawn from the Medicine Bow River and fashioned at the building site. Along with the significance of the size and architecture of the hotel, it boasts the first electric lights and sewer in town. The hotel proper is papered in Victorian gold and burgundy medallion wallpaper, has velvet draperies and pressed tin on its 12 foot high ceilings. The main floor has an "Eating House," the formal "Owen Wister Dining Room," and the "Shiloh Saloon," which still has bullet holes riddled throughout to remind guests of some past shootout. The rooms have antique brass beds, tulip-shape lights are still heated by steam radiators. Only the suites have private baths, replete with claw foot bathtubs. The other rooms have access to separate bath facilities located in the halls. True to its time, the rooms in the original hotel do not have modern amenities such as telephones or televisions.

Location

Upon completion, it was the biggest hotel between

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and

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. It is located midway between Laramie and

Rawlins, Wyoming Rawlins is a city in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 8,221 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Carbon County. It was named for Union General John Aaron Rawlins, who camped in the locality in 1867. Demograph ...

on the old

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated Octob ...

(

U.S. Route 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of , it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, afte ...

History

On September 30, 1911, the Virginian celebrated its grand opening. In 1957, two cement block extensions were added on to the hotel, one of which was, until recently, used as living quarters for the hotel owners but now contains rental units. These newer units have coffee makers, small refrigerators, phones, and cable TV as well as their own attached bathrooms. In 1978, the Virginian Hotel was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The hotel had a grand reopening in 1984, after it had been completely renovated and restored to its current turn of the century decor.

References

External links

Virginian Hotel
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office {{NRHP in Carbon County, Wyoming Renaissance Revival architecture in Wyoming Hotel buildings completed in 1911 Buildings and structures in Carbon County, Wyoming Railway hotels in the United States Hotels in Wyoming Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming 1911 establishments in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Carbon County, Wyoming