The Historic Wyo Theater

Join Team Wyo!

Email wyotheater@laramiemainstreet.org for more details

Share Your Memories!

Building History:

The Wyo Theater at 309 S. 5 th Street was built between 1927 and 1928 as the Crown Theater and remodeled between May 1948 and September 1949 by Denver architect Charles Dunwoody Strong using streamline modern details. In the last five years, the theater has not been open to the public.

LMSA Director Trey Sherwood says, “We want to revive this landmark for the benefit of the greater Laramie community. There are so many happy memories associated with this space, from first dates to showings of iconic movies and quality time with friends. This building deserves to be preserved for future generations”.

Read more about the Wyo’s history in this article written by the Albany County Historical Society here: https://www.wyoachs.com/businesses/reviving-laramies-historic-wyo-theater

For more information about this project, to volunteer, share photos, or make a tax deductible contribution, contact us at: 307-760-3355 or downtownlaramie@gmail.com.

Project Timeline:

In August of 2019, Laramie Main Street was gifted the historic Wyo Theater. Since then, we’ve been exploring the feasibility of what it would take to rehabilitate the building, including a new roof, upgrading the electrical, installing a fire suppression system, and making the building ADA accessible.

Thanks to an in kind contribution from Jon Firestone in the winter of 2019, you can take a 3D tour of the building!

Through a grant from Wyoming Main Street in 2019, we worked with Wattle and Daub to develop conceptual designs for a mixed use entertainment venue.

2020

In the spring 2020, we worked with a group of senior marketing and communications students at the University of Wyoming to develop campaigns to gather memories from the community about the Wyo and create a communication plan for the project.

During the summer of 2020, we use proceeds from Brewfest 2019, funds from our reserves and a grant from the Guthrie Family Foundation to help replace the roof (a $52,000+ expense).

Thanks to a partnership with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and grant from the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in August 2020 we had a Phase I analysis of the indoor air, lead and asbestos conducted.

In the fall of 2020, with funds from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund and a LISC Placemaking grant we worked with MBX Architecture and our Wyo Task Force Team, made up of artists, entrepreneurs, educators and preservationists, to create a plan to restore the facade of the building, inspected the building systems (HVAC, plumbing and electrical) and had an engineer conduct a structural analysis of the building.