The original hotel in the newly founded city of Cody,
The Irma Hotel has been, for much of its life, the entertainment centre of the city, receiving guests of Buffalo Bill from around the globe until his death in 1917. Built with forty second floor guest rooms, in 1929 a two storey annex was added to the building, adding 28 more rooms. A second addition was added in 1976-1977.
Though remodelled and updated through the years, The Irma retains much of the Victorian and Wild West charm it initially possessed. Much of the decor remains as it was on its opening day on November 18, 1902, personally hosted by Buffalo Bill himself.
Designed by Alfred Wilderman Woods, a Lincoln, Nebraska church architect, The Irma is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the most photographed locations in Cody is the hotel's famous cherry wood bar, a gift from Queen Victoria. The original tin ceilings remain in some of the public areas. The hotel, incidentally, was named by Buffalo Bill after his youngest daughter, Irma.
Immediately after the Irma opened, Buffalo Bill began placing ads for the hotel in the Cody Enterprise and the Wyoming Stockgrower & Farmer, as well as newspapers in other towns throughout the west. Most ads were on either page 2 or 4 of the publication in question, running for years in some newspapers. Two examples of the Irma ads are shown below, the left one from Page 2 of the November 26, 1903 issue of the Cody Enterprise, the right one from Page 4 of the December 9, 1902 issue of the Wyoming Stockgrower & Farmer.