If you walk down South 5th Street in Laramie on a summer afternoon, you’ll find a mansion that doesn’t quite belong to the modern world. With its sweeping gables, ornate towers, and stained-glass windows catching the sun just so, the Ivinson Mansion stands not only as a monument to Victorian elegance but as the beating heart of Laramie’s historical memory.
This mansion, built in 1892 by Edward and Jane Ivinson, is now home to the Laramie Plains Museum, a community-run, volunteer-driven space dedicated to preserving and sharing the complex and layered stories of Albany County.
Originally a private residence for one of Wyoming’s most prominent couples, the Ivinson Mansion has lived many lives. Edward Ivinson, a banker and philanthropist, and his wife Jane, an advocate for women’s education and Episcopal causes, built the home during Laramie’s rise as a regional hub. Their home, designed by Salt Lake City architect Walter E. Ware, was the finest in the city: a 12,000-square-foot Queen Anne masterpiece with elaborate woodwork, imported furnishings, and views that once stretched across untouched prairie.
By the 1920s, the Ivinsons had donated the house to the Episcopal Church, transforming it into Ivinson Hall, a boarding school for girls. For over thirty years, the mansion echoed with student voices and chapel hymns. When the school closed in 1958, the house stood empty—neglected, and at risk of demolition.
In the early 1970s, Laramie citizens rallied to save it. Through fundraising, federal grants, and persistent local support, they restored the building and reopened it as the Laramie Plains Museum in 1973.
Today, the mansion functions as both a historic house and a museum. Visitors begin on the first floor, where rooms like the formal parlor, smoking room, library, and dining room are restored with period-appropriate furnishings and decor. The original architecture—including a dramatic “flying staircase”—frames the experience in grandeur.
On the second floor are private quarters, including the Ivinson Suite and rooms representing the lives of domestic staff. The upper levels and basement are curated as exhibit spaces that highlight frontier life, early medicine, women’s suffrage, ranching, and Laramie’s diverse cultural roots.
Each room immerses visitors in a different aspect of late-19th and early-20th-century life in Laramie. The museum’s rotating exhibits and preserved furnishings offer more than a static display—they create a sense of intimacy with the past.
The museum operates through a network of community volunteers. Local residents serve as guides, educators, and stewards of the property, while student docents help lead tours during the summer season. These young volunteers not only gain knowledge about Wyoming history but also play a key role in keeping the museum accessible and welcoming.
The museum also functions as an event venue. The adjacent Alice Hardie Stevens Center hosts weddings, teas, and community gatherings, and its rental income supports museum operations. Seasonal programs like holiday open houses and historic walking tours keep the museum active and relevant throughout the year.
The Laramie Plains Museum aims not just to preserve artifacts but to tell stories that resonate. Exhibits acknowledge the complexity of the region’s history, including the experiences of Native peoples, immigrants, women, and workers. The museum continues to evolve, adding new perspectives and stories as its collection grows.
In doing so, it becomes more than a historical site—it becomes a place for reflection, connection, and learning.
Small-town museums across the country face difficult questions about relevance, funding, and engagement. The Laramie Plains Museum offers an example of how a community can answer those questions with persistence, creativity, and pride. Saved from demolition by everyday citizens, it now stands as a symbol of what can be built, not just with bricks and wood, but with shared memory and care.
To walk through the Ivinson Mansion is to walk through the layers of Laramie’s identity. It’s a reminder that the past doesn’t disappear, it waits in the walls, the woodwork, the photographs, and the silence between rooms, ready to speak to those who are willing to listen.
