Behind the peeling plaster, the long cracks in the ceiling and the loose boards in the wooden floor, Susan Bishop sees this room for what it once was: an attic playroom filled with toys and a wooden rocking horse in which her father and most of her aunts and uncles grew up.

Marvin Lord Bishop Jr., an uncle, once stood in the closet of this attic hideaway and wondered about his future. On the wall, his scribbled this inscription: "Pretty sick. Orchestra practice tonight but guess I will go. What will I be doing one year from now? Ready to graduate, I guess. - May 4, 1914."

The Bishop House at 818 E. Second St. is filled with similar clues to the life of a family that lived there for almost a century - the dress Lillian wore when she was named Miss Wyoming in 1924, the vanity in Marguerite's bedroom that showed her impeccable style, the tea cups in Leona's oriental china cabinet.

Little by little, the historic Bishop House is undergoing a restoration. With no formal plans or time lines, the restoration started in earnest in October when contractor Charles Grovum opened a hallway to let air flow freely through house once again. Sometime in the 1950s, the hallway had been closed off to add a second bathroom.

Now, the bathroom is small and private. The newly opened hallway allows the air to flow. People working in the kitchen can escape through the hallway without disturbing a public guest enjoying tea in the dining room.

Second bathrooms weren't common in the 1930s, but with the opened hallway, it's a modern convenience that doesn't take away from the integrity of the home. And it proves that historic buildings can maintain their character, even while becoming more functional.

"For a house that is 100 years old, this one is doing pretty well," Grovum said.

M.L. Bishop came to Casper in 1892 as the postmaster. While other men in that post stayed six months or maybe a year, Bishop was the postmaster for six years. He built a name for himself here and with it started a wool-growing business in the small establishments of Cadoma and Bishop, located near what is now the Natrona County Airport.

He built the Bishop House in 1907 with money from that business.

He and his wife, Leona Bishop, had 10 children, nine of whom grew to be adults.

Lucille Bishop was born in 1908, the only of the Bishop children to be born in a hospital and the only child to move into the house as an infant.

She lived in the house her entire life, until her death in 1997.

Susan Bishop, daughter of Jerome Travis Bishop, never knew her grandfather. M.L died before her father had even married. Her grandmother died when Susan was just 2 years old.

The Bishop House she remembers as a little girl was always her aunts' house, shared between four of her father's sisters - Lucile, Pink, Lillian and Marguerite.

Saturday mornings, Susan Bishop visited her aunts and played in the house. The four upstairs bedrooms are still marked by the character and personality of the women who lived in them.

"The reason I feel passionate about preserving it is listening to the family talk about it. They were very proud of its heritage and the spirit of their mother and father coming to Casper and how hard they worked to build it," Susan Bishop said.

"They challenged me with that and I've found it a pretty extraordinary experience."

But over the years, time took its toll on the old house.

The old transoms above the doors - openings to allow cool air to blow through and to keep warm air in the room - were painted over. Doors were removed and replaced with vinyl partitions. A pipe burst in an upstairs bathroom, at sometime painted bright pink, and a leaky roof soaked through walls in an upstairs bedroom.

Over the next five to 10 years, all these and other repairs will gradually bring the house back to the 1930s, the decade in which M.L. Bishop died.

They'll be made one by one, little by little.

Wednesday, Grovum worked in the upstairs bathroom. All the fixtures had been removed and the pipes showed through holes in the wall.

But, by removing a mirror, Grovum learned that the walls had been beige before they were pink. Piece by piece, the story of the old house was falling into place.

"Everywhere you go, everybody wants to tear these buildings down. Nobody keeps their history,"� Grovum said, who talks about the house with almost as much passion as Susan Bishop.

As he works, he is saving old pieces of the house - pipe fittings, pieces of plaster that show all the coats of paint added over the years. He will use them in an exhibit he's building to show what is inside the walls of these old houses. Under a floor he repaired, he left a time capsule for the next contractor charged with restoring a piece of history.

Reach features editor Kristy Gray at (307) 266-0586 or kristy.gray@trib.com

The Bishop House and The Cadoma Foundation

This weekend, guests dressed in their Sunday best will sit at the dining room table of the historic Bishop House and be served a three-course Thanksgiving Tea.

They'll use tea cups owned by the Bishop family and kept in Leona Bishop's own oriental cabinet. They'll be served sandwiches, warm scones with jam and Devonshire cream and an assortment of miniature pastries.

The Bishop House now hosts up to four such teas a year, and other community events. In 2007, it was turned over to Cadoma Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicating to preserving historic Wyoming buildings. The house is its first custodial property.

Susan Bishop and her mother Mary E. Bishop both serve on the foundation board.

In the early 1900s, Cadoma was a homestead and railroad siding near what is now the Casper Airport. It housed large sheep-shearing pens.

Marvin Lord (M.L.) Bishop built the home in 1907 during Casper's first boom. It is the first multi-story brick house in Casper and was considered a mansion at the time.

The contractor was W.T. Evans, founder of Evansville. Until it was given to the Cadoma Foundation, it was continuously owned by members of the Bishop family. The family's original furniture, toys and clothing are on display in the home.

Susan Bishop, granddaughter of M.L., led the effort to get the house listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It is available for tours, anniversaries, receptions, bridal and baby showers and other community events.

"It's an evolution. We don't know exactly how it's going to fit in the community, we just hope that it will," Susan Bishop said.

"Casper doesn't have a house museum and I would love to see it maintained as a historic home. There's a lot of history associated with the house. It's a good teaching tool to be used"

For more info

For more information about the Cadoma Foundation or to contribute, call (307) 235-5277, e-mail info@cadomafoundation.org or visit www.cadomafoundation.org.

This weekend, guests dressed in their Sunday best will sit at the dining room table of the historic Bishop House and be served a three-course Thanksgiving Tea.

They'll use tea cups owned by the Bishop family and kept in Leona Bishop's own oriental cabinet. They'll be served sandwiches, warm scones with jam and Devonshire cream and an assortment of miniature pastries.

The Bishop House now hosts up to four such teas a year, and other community events. In 2007, it was turned over to Cadoma Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicating to preserving historic Wyoming buildings. The house is its first custodial property.

Susan Bishop and her mother Mary E. Bishop both serve on the foundation board.

In the early 1900s, Cadoma was a homestead and railroad siding near what is now the Casper Airport. It housed large sheep-shearing pens.

Marvin Lord (M.L.) Bishop built the home in 1907 during Casper's first boom. It is the first multi-story brick house in Casper and was considered a mansion at the time.

The contractor was W.T. Evans, founder of Evansville. Until it was given to the Cadoma Foundation, it was continuously owned by members of the Bishop family. The family's original furniture, toys and clothing are on display in the home.

Susan Bishop, granddaughter of M.L., led the effort to get the house listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It is available for tours, anniversaries, receptions, bridal and baby showers and other community events.

"It's an evolution. We don't know exactly how it's going to fit in the community, we just hope that it will," Susan Bishop said.

"Casper doesn't have a house museum and I would love to see it maintained as a historic home. There's a lot of history associated with the house. It's a good teaching tool to be used"]]->

For more information about the Cadoma Foundation or to contribute, call (307) 235-5277, e-mail info@cadomafoundation.org or visit www.cadomafoundation.org.]]->