What You Didn’t Know About The Old Becker Hotel In Cheyenne

There was a time in Cheyenne's history when the Becker Hotel was one of the hottest additions to the Capitol City. The building even featured a restaurant downstairs.

These seem to be common themes about buildings in Cheyenne, but what was different about the Becker Building back in 1908?

Through the eyes of the railroad, the Becker Buildings problem was that it was 44 feet to close to where the tracks needed to be. Therefore, the building was jacked up and moved, thus displacing a saloon to the south.

In 1909, the railroad tracks were extended across Capitol Avenue and down an alley. After the building was moved, it was then remodeled and later named the Albany Hotel.

After this, Charles and Henry Becker constructed a new hotel, called Hotel Becker, which sat on 15th Street in Cheyenne. The building is still there today.

A man by the name of William LeBarron opened a new restaurant at 209 West 17th St. nearby.

Another interesting note is that the Wyoming Legislature enacted a law targeting women working. The law, basically, restricted how many hours a woman could work at a restaurant unless they were working for a restaurant owned by the railroad.

Believe it or not, restaurant owner William LeBarron was arrested for being in violation of the law. Later, the Wyoming Supreme Court struck down the law down as unconstitutional, as the court believed the law was not treating people fairly or equally.

The actual building you see in the photo above housed the Hoffman Brothers Saloon,  Boyd's Candy Store and was rumored to have women boarder's on the second floor.