Bresnahan House
The Cheyenne Club - 120 East 17th Street
1880-1936
The Cheyenne Club, first known as the "Cactus Club," was organized in 1880 by several wealthy stockmen. It gained worldwide fame because of the European Cattle Barons who spent their summers in Cheyenne tending to their very large ranches and the winters in Europe. Apartments on the second floor accommodated members and their guests. Facilities included a world-class dining room with a Chef imported from Canada, a billiard room, card rooms, reading room, and a lounge for drinking and smoking on the first floor.
Rules were very strict - no profanity, no drunkenness, no blows struck, no cheating at cards, no smoking of pipes, no tipping, no betting, and no games on Sunday (no shooting was implied). Breaking of the rules meant immediate expulsion with no chance of reinstatement.
The cattle business was ruined with the blizzard of 1886-87 and the club lost its glamour but remained for cowboys and Cheyenne Frontier Days until 1909 when it became the "Industrial Club." Later taken over by the Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce (1927) it was torn down in 1936.
Bresnahan House - 201 East 17th Street
1882-1951
This three-story Georgian-style home was originally built in 1889 across the street from the Cheyenne Club by William C. Irvine and soon sold to L.R. Bresnahan, prominent Cheyenne businessman and later five term Mayor. It remained the Bresnahan home until 1951 when it sold and was torn down. It is reported that this was the first home in the entire United States to have incandescent (filament) lighting.
White with green shutters ad mansard roof, this house was one of Cheyenne's show places. Thought of as a "treasure house" it was said to have bras chandeliers, Brussels net curtains, linen roller window-shades, and louvered shutters. The house also was boasted as having electric bells in the kitchen that could be rung from the master bedroom, the dining room, and the front door, all operated by brass knob pulls.
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