CHEYENNE — The iconic twin chimneys that marked a once-popular motel on the historic Lincoln Highway lasted for almost 90 years, but they came tumbling down in about 30 seconds earlier this week to make way for a coffee shop.
The Twin Chimneys Motor Court, which offered weary travelers a place to stay for decades and keep their cars covered, is an example of many motels along U.S. Highway 30 that might not be considered historic but are part of a renaissance in support of renovating similar lodging across the nation.
“I always hate seeing old buildings torn down before there’s a chance to save them,” Megan Stanfill, executive director of the Alliance for Historic Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily. “Instead of preserving it as a motel, maybe the chimneys could have been preserved as a landmark.”
But Stanfill said those conversations about possible adaptive uses usually don’t take place until it’s too late.
The motel at 2405 East Lincolnway featured distinctive twin stone chimneys, a red exterior with a green roof and a knotty pine interior.
The chimneys, saved until last, were knocked down by Chuck Harter of McCarty & Sons, a Denver company that demolishes old buildings and builds 7 Brew Coffee shops in the region.
The Twin Chimneys Motor Court, a vintage motel and landmark in Cheyenne from the 1930s, was demolished in about three hours Tuesday to make room for 7 Brew Coffee. (Megan Stanfill) 
The Twin Chimneys Motor Court, a vintage motel and landmark in Cheyenne from the 1930s, was demolished in about three hours Tuesday to make room for 7 Brew Coffee. (Megan Stanfill) 
The Twin Chimneys Motor Court, a vintage motel and landmark in Cheyenne from the 1930s, was demolished in about three hours Tuesday to make room for 7 Brew Coffee. (Megan Stanfill) 
Megan Stanfill, executive director of the Alliance for Historic Wyoming, said she’s always sad to see old buildings like the Twin Chimneys torn down, but perhaps “if we can learn from this and move forward, that’s the best case scenario.” (Megan Stanfill)
Why Twin Chimneys?
Stanfill said she didn’t know about Twin Chimneys until she was driving by one day and thought, “What a cool building. And a few months later there was a fence around it.”
She started to research the motel’s history. She said that while the rooms were original, dating to when the motor court was built in the 1930s, the reception area was renovated during the mid-century era.
Stanfill is also the Wyoming director of the National Lincoln Highway Association. The Alliance for Historic Wyoming is working on a traveling exhibit on the highway across Wyoming and hopes to have it ready by 2027.
She has an idea about why the twin chimneys at the motel were created.
“Back in the 1930s, these places were competing for travelers' money, so they were trying to figure out the best way to appeal to them and make it easier for them to remember.” Stanfill said. “People didn’t have Google to figure out which motel to go to. They’d just hear about the Twin Chimneys a few states away.”
Construction of the highway, a private transcontinental road not funded by the federal government, began in 1913.
People traveling across the country weren’t staying at fancy hotels, she explained.
“They were camping out in their car,” Stanfill said. “People started offering lodging, a place for you to park your car where it was covered right next to your room.”
She said several examples remain of motor courts like the Twin Chimneys across Wyoming, including the Sands Hotel in Cheyenne and others in Evanston and Fort Bridger.
Stanfill said she’s stayed at some of the best examples of renovated motor courts on the Lincoln Highway, including one in Pennsylvania called the Lincoln Highway Motor Court.
“It has brand-new owners working to do restoration and make it an inviting space for travelers wanting to get that Lincoln Highway experience,” she said.
And many people who travel the Lincoln Highway are passionate about it. Stanfill said it’s a trend throughout the nation, best exemplified by fans of the famous Route 66, which is celebrating its centennial.
“It’s a bit of a revival, and people are looking for places like that,” she said. "I really hope we start seeing a lot more movement along those lines for the Lincoln Highway.”
Several vintage linen postcards depicting the Twin Chimneys Motor Court in Cheyenne in better times were being offered on eBay Tuesday. Earlier in the day the motel was demolished after standing since the 1950s. 
This plaque from Desert Storm was pulled out of the rubble at the demolition of the historic Twin Chimneys motel in Cheyenne on Tuesday. Its owner, Kenneth Joseph Fletcher of the 744th Transportation Company left it in one of the rooms. (Kerry Drake for Cowboy State Daily)
‘Look at the Pictures’
While she’s sad nothing is left of the Twin Chimneys, including the twin chimneys, Stanfill said, “At the end of the day, property owners have to do what’s best for them.”
In the case of Twin Chimneys, she added, “We can’t stop demolition like this; it’s already gone through the proper channels with the city. There’s nothing we can do at this point but look at the pictures we do have.”
Still, Stanfill said she would have loved to do a survey of the building and some documentation that could be used if a similar situation about involving an old building that’s in disrepair occurs.
If anyone knows of an old building they think should be preserved, Stanfill said, they can contact her at the Alliance for Historic Wyoming, at 307-333-3508.
The business to be built on the large lot, 7 Brew Coffee, already has one shop in Cheyenne on Dell Range Boulevard. It describes itself as “a high-speed, upbeat drive-thru coffee stand known for its energetic atmosphere and incredibly fast service.”
Other new 7 Brew Coffee shops are to be built in Laramie and Loveland, Colorado.
Harter said the East Lincolnway lot will be cleared of all traces of the Twin Chimneys in about three days. But if people are looking for souvenirs, eBay had five sellers Tuesday offering colorful vintage linen advertising picture postcards, ranging in price from $4.95 to $15.99 or “best offer.” None mentioned the demolition.
“When people would visit they’d grab matchbook covers and postcards,” Stanfill said. “They had no idea there’d be something called eBay, with people selling this stuff for a pretty penny.”
