Courtesy of the Trail End State Historic Site.
The
Carriage House Theatre is located on the grounds of the Trail End State Historic Site -
Wyoming's premier historic house museum. Finished in 1910, the carriage house was built in
the same Flemish style as the main house. While construction on Trail End was taking
place, the Kendricks and their cook all lived in the carriage house, adapting it for use
as a comfortable abode. The horse stalls, complete with polished wood floors, concrete
water troughs, cast iron hay chutes and elaborate railings, served as bedrooms for
Rosa-Maye and the cook. Another was put to use as a temporary kitchen. The parents slept
upstairs in the hay loft and Manville camped out in the main carriage room.
Electricity was used to light the carriage house but not to heat it: before the addition of modern methods, heat was provided by means of steam piped from the basement of the main house to the carriage house through a concrete conduit running under the gravel service drive.
Although
the carriage house was built to house carriages and teams of horses, it was never used for
that purpose. By the time the family was ready to move out of their makeshift home in
1913, they were in possession of two 1912 Cadillac automobiles. The few horses actually
residing on the grounds were kept for Rosa-Maye and Manville to train and ride. While the
Kendricks lived in the carriage house, their horses were housed in a livery stable just
below the hill near Kendrick Park.
For many years after the death of Senator Kendrick, the carriage house was used mainly for storage. The 3,013 square foot building, which is surrounded by a brick-walled courtyard (formerly the corral), was converted into an eighty-seven seat community theater in 1979 by the Sheridan Civic Theatre Guild. (click here for more information on the history of the Civic Theatre Guild)
