View Full List of National Register: Wyoming Listings

The Casper Downtown Historic District comprises the historic business and civic center of the City of Casper, Natrona County, Wyoming. It is eligible for listing in the National Register for its local significance under Criterion A in the area of commerce and Criterion C in the area of architecture. The District includes the contiguous commercial, industrial, social, and governmental resources that retain architectural integrity and continue to reflect the evolution of Casper’s economic center from the late nineteenth century through the post-World War II period. The District encompasses 102 properties constructed between circa 1896 and circa 1980, including seventy-one (71) contributing buildings, one (1) contributing structure, one (1) contributing site, and twenty-three (23) non-contributing buildings. The District is locally significant in the area of commerce for its associations with the growth of C

asper as a county seat, railroad market center, oil industry hub, and regional economic anchor. As county seat and later with the arrival of the railroad, Casper grew to become the railroad agricultural market center of Natrona County and major hub in central Wyoming. The physical and architectural development of the downtown commercial center reflects the importance of the railroad, as well as the Yellowstone Highway, in the community’s commercial history. The District’s resources communicate historic trends in downtown development, physically representing the spectrum of building technology, design, stylistic features, form, and function that define the history of Casper. The District’s period of significance begins in circa 1896 with the construction of the earliest building and ends at the construction of the latest contributing building in 1970. The period of significance acknowledges historic alterations in response to specific functional and marketing needs and counts buildings that experienced such alterations within the period of significance as contributing elements to the District.