The distinctive brick building at 800 6th Street in Greybull has seen a lot. Locals remember it as a junk shop, a place to throw rocks at windows and an architectural oddity deserving of restoration.
For Ken Gilbert, whose family has owned the property since the 1950s, it's time to let someone else write the next chapter.
"We don't have the time or the money to fix it up," Gilbert told Cowboy State Daily. He now lives in Michigan after growing up in Greybull and a long career in the mining industry. "I don't plan on moving back to Greybull, so I just want to sell it and let somebody fix it up and make something really cool out of it."
The building's history stretches back to Wyoming's early oil boom. It originally housed massive water pumps that drew from the Bighorn River.
According to realtor Brenton Koehn, the pump house "was built in the ‘30s to pump water over to cool the refinery down."
In 1917, the same year a small refinery began operating in Greybull — one of five in Wyoming at the time — the city fathers voted to name the town "The Oil City."
At its peak, the Greybull Oil Field produced 4,000 barrels a day and was deemed "an inexhaustible sea of oil," according to "Glimpses of Greybull's Past" by J. Tom Davis.
But the boom didn't last. By 1926, the field was producing only 40 to 50 barrels a day. Standard Oil purchased the refinery in 1921 and operated it until 1948, when it finally closed, while daydreams about the pump house’s potential lived on.
Inside, white glazed ceramic bricks cover the walls from floor to ceiling, an elegant architectural choice driven by pure practicality.
"Water sheds off ceramic," Koehn explained. "That's the reason the ceramic bricks are in there."
The building's steel beam rafters soar overhead, creating a dramatically tall interior space punctuated by distinctive arching doorways. There’s a temple-like quality to the place, but since 1990, it’s sat vacant with its windows boarded up.
“The kids over the years broke all the windows out,” said Gilbert. “That's why I put the plywood over it, just because I don't want people getting in it."
An old pump house in a vacant lot by the Bighorn River in Greybull has had locals talking about the building's potential for years, and this summer when it went up for sale, it caught the attention of HGTV stars and some interested buyers. (Courtesy Photo) 
An old pump house in a vacant lot by the Bighorn River in Greybull has had locals talking about the building's potential for years, and this summer when it went up for sale, it caught the attention of HGTV stars and some interested buyers. (Courtesy Photo) 
An old pump house in a vacant lot by the Bighorn River in Greybull has had locals talking about the building's potential for years, and this summer when it went up for sale, it caught the attention of HGTV stars and some interested buyers. (Courtesy Photo) 
An old pump house in a vacant lot by the Bighorn River in Greybull has had locals talking about the building's potential for years, and this summer when it went up for sale, it caught the attention of HGTV stars and some interested buyers. (Courtesy Photo) 
An old pump house in a vacant lot by the Bighorn River in Greybull has had locals talking about the building's potential for years, and this summer when it went up for sale, it caught the attention of HGTV stars and some interested buyers. (Courtesy Photo)
Pump House To Home
The building's transformation from industrial facility to family residence began when Gilbert's family purchased the property and converted the cavernous pump house into living quarters.
"My grandfather repurposed it into a home," Gilbert said. "It was just a big open building in there."
His grandfather installed floors and a ceiling, dividing the space to create a functional residence. Gilbert's parents, Kenny and Jeraline, moved into the converted pump house around 1955 after returning from Oklahoma.
"My mom and dad lived in there until I was born," Gilbert said. "They probably lived in there for about five years."
The family's connection to the building runs deep. Gilbert's Uncle Gary, who lived there as well, remembered it being brutally cold during Wyoming winters.
"He said the ice would be an inch thick on the windows because they're just single pane,” said Gilbert.
Okie's Empire
After the family moved out around 1965, Gilbert's father Kenny — whose Oklahoma roots earned him the nickname "Okie" — reimagined the property yet again, this time as the hub of his varied enterprises.
"He used it for a storage building," Gilbert explained. "He worked out of the shop. He also ran a junkyard out of there. When I say that, he repurposed all kinds of metal and cars and tractors, and that whole place used to be lined with all kinds of stuff for selling metal."
The business operated under the name Gilbert's Repair. Okie was, as his obituary noted, a "jack of all trades" who could fix anything. The property became a treasure trove where neighbors knew they could find whatever item they needed.
Gilbert shared a vivid memory of his father's connection to the place describing his father with a harvested elk hanging on a small motorized vehicle called a tote-gote in front of the brick building.
It was finally shuttered around 1990 and sat empty, causing Greybull locals to scratch their collective heads and wonder “what if” about its potential future uses.
In 2020, chatter about the building bubbled up on Facebook, with one poster noting, “It would make a fun restaurant.. like the old train depots that have been restored.”
Then in July, it appeared on the local real estate market, again catching the attention of many.
"There's been quite a few people,” said Gilbert. “We had one offer come through. But nobody's made a good, solid offer yet, I would say."
National Attention
The possibilities are tantalizing. One prospective buyer shared enthusiasm for turning it into an eatery.
Gilbert's mother always dreamed of transforming it back into a beautiful living space.
With its expansive interior, Gilbert noted, "You could put two apartments in there if you wanted to, or you could make a really, really cool home in there."
But it's the brewery concept that keeps coming up.
“You go inside and I feel like pictures don't quite do it justice compared to what the building inside actually is," Koehn said. "It's really cool."
Gilbert agreed: "A brewery would be fantastic in that building for sure."
The real estate listing tries to stoke the dreams of potential buyers, describing the pump house as, "A historic building, right next to the Greybull walking path and the Bighorn River, with 1.73+/- acres! Come with your ideas! Create a high-end flat, or open a business with an incredible atmosphere."
Two of the many admirers openly daydreaming about the building’s potential are Elizabeth and Ethan Finkelstein, the stars of HGTV’s “Cheap Old Houses,” who shared it with their 2 million Instagram followers.
The post heaped the structure with heavenly praise, proclaiming, "I'm not an especially religious person, but there's something about the deeply satisfying way that glazed brick fits so perfectly around those windows that makes (us) believe in all the higher powers.”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
