Old Laramie motel, UW sorority structure come down
PHIL WHITE Star-Tribune correspondent | Posted: Monday, August 20, 2007 12:00 am
LARAMIE - The old University of Wyoming law school is still standing for the time being, but two other landmarks of the east campus have been leveled.
The last house built on Sorority Row, the Gamma Phi Beta house, has become the first to disappear, ripped apart by a track hoe last week to clear a space for a new information technology building.
A block to the south, across Grand Avenue from Hill Hall, the old Wyo Motel, called University Inn in recent years, also bit the dust last week.
"That used to be the elite place where the trustees and other dignitaries stayed when they were in town," recalled longtime Laramie resident Nancy Shelton.
A representative in the city planning office said no permit applications have yet been filed for the Wyo Motel block but that the office had heard some talk that retail spaces may be built there.
The Gamma Phi Beta house was built in 1961. Declining membership caused the sorority to lose its charter in 1973, and UW then exercised its option in 1975 to acquire the property.
For many years it was used to house student-athletes, becoming known as "The Bunkhouse." For the past several years it has housed honors students.
The site will become the new home of UW's Division of Information Technology, which now occupies much of the Ivinson Building - the former Ivinson Hospital building at 10th and Ivinson. The Legislature in 2006 appropriated $35 million to construct the new IT building.
The honors residence program will be relocated to the former Kappa Sigma fraternity house at the west end of Fraternity Row. When the Ivinson Building is vacated, it will be demolished for construction of a parking lot.