All Stories: 238
Stories
Litch House
In 1883, a rancher named Andrew Litch (also sometimes spelled Leitch) ran an ad in Reno's Nevada State Journal stating he would pay $3500 for 80 acres with a "good house" on it. At the time, Litch lived in the Susanville/Honey Lake…
Sprouse-Reitz Co.
The Sprouse-Reitz Co. was described as “Reno’s most beautiful store” upon its opening on October 30, 1948. With more than 9,000 square feet of space, the variety store offered two floors of merchandise, selling everything from household goods and…
Carr Residence and Office
In the early 1920s, this part of South Virginia Street was starting to fill in with comfortable wood frame houses. The subdivision, known as Crampton's Addition, had been platted out in 1906, and ran from Virginia Street to Plumas Street.…
El Reno Apartment Home
The small house at 711 Mt. Rose Street is an original unit of the El Reno Apartments (see separate entry), which were constructed in 1937 at 1307 South Virginia Street. It was moved to this property, which was owned by Andrew B. and Margaret M.…
Holesworth Apartments
The two-story dwelling at 440 Ridge Street was constructed in 1922 as an apartment building with four separate 4-room apartments and a courtyard on its south side leading to a four-stall garage.
The house is located in the Riverside Heights…
Ginsburg Clock
The Ginsburg clock, also known as the Park Lane clock, or Mall clock, was first installed in front of Ginsburg Jewelry Co., 133 N. Virginia St., in 1935. It remained there for decades before it was moved to the Park Lane Mall in 1967 and to its…
Christensen Residence
Andrew B. and Margaret M. Christensen purchased land in O'Brien's Southbrae Addition in 1938, and made plans to build a home there in 1941. Andrew, who worked as a service man for the Sierra Pacific Power Company, was listed as both the…
Phillips Stone House
After graduating from Western Dental College in Kansas City, Dr. Fred Phillips from Greenleaf, Kansas traveled west, arriving in Reno in 1906. He spent a brief period of time in San Francisco, offering his assistance in the wake of the devastating…
Pearl Upson House
The Pearl Upson House at 937 Jones Street was built on two lots in Block R of the Powning Addition subdivision in northwest Reno, likely in 1902. Laid out by Christopher Columbus (C.C.) Powning, the subdivision consisted of around 122 acres of land…
Giraud/Hardy House
The Giraud/Hardy House was built by sheep rancher Joseph Giraud around 1914 (the date of the architectural drawings). Its architect was Frederic DeLongchamps (1882-1969), who designed it in a vernacular expression of the Colonial/Georgian Revival…
Howell House
At the corner of Hill Street and California Avenue sits a lovely Colonial Revival house that was home to five generations of the Howell family and later, as often happened with large close-in properties, adaptively reused as office space for…
Herman House
The Herman House in what is now Rancho San Rafael Regional Park was the second structure in Nevada to be designed by renowned Los Angeles-based architect Paul Revere Williams.
It was designed and constructed in 1936, just months after the ranch…
Northside Fire Station
The Northside Fire Station at 624 East Fourth Street, was one of two new fire stations constructed in Reno in 1917, both in the "bungalow" style, which featured a front porch. While the Southside Station at the corner of South Virginia…
DeGiacoma Building
The story of the DiGiacoma Building began more than a century ago, when Paul DeGiacoma and Rose Gardella were married in Reno in 1920 and moved into a wood frame home at 212 West Commercial Row. In 1922, they purchased the Reno Italian French…
Barengo Building
The Barengo Building at 151 N. Sierra Street was originally intended to look very different from its final form. Designed in 1930 by renowned Nevada architect Frederic J. DeLongchamps, brothers Natale and Camillo Barengo initially planned it as the…
Washington-Marshall House
J.E. Sweatt sold a parcel of land to Cecil Washington and his wife, Mildred, in December 1957. Cecil had been working in Nevada, and purchased the property in Black Springs while living in Sparks. Once the land was purchased, he moved his wife and…
Finley-Prien House
Douglas and Essie Finley moved into the house at 380 Westbrook Lane in the 1960s. Unlike many of the early houses that were moved to Black Springs from other locations, the original Finley house was built here in 1963. The Finley's son, Donald,…
Pettis House
Ruffen and Gertha Lee Pettis bought a parcel of land in Black Springs, now known as 280 Medgar Avenue, from J.E. Sweatt in December of 1956. The couple had been living in Loyalton, California where their daughter, Bobbie Jean, went to high school. …
Circus Potato Chip Company
South Virginia Street was the site of many manufacturing operations in the mid-20th century, but the aromas from this one may have fueled the most snack attacks. It was the Circus Potato Chip Factory, constructed in 1936 as the De Somma Potato Chip…
Benham-Belz House
The Benham-Belz House at 347 West Street sits on Lot 8 of Block E on the original Reno townsite. There is persuasive evidence that it was constructed in Reno’s founding year of 1868 or early 1869, making it the oldest known house constructed in Reno…
Hosea and Johnnie Stevens House
Hosea Stevens bought a lot from J.E. and Dorothy Sweatt in August of 1958. Stevens and his wife, Johnnie, were both natives of Texas, where three of their children were born.
Born in 1910, Hosea served in World War II, and in 1946, the family…
Osborne House
The Osbornes' house was moved to 290 Westbrook Lane in 1964 from a site around 6th or 7th Street in downtown Reno that was being cleared for the construction of Interstate 80. Phillip Osborne purchased the house at auction for $250 and had it…
Savage and Son, Inc.
The Savage Building at 628 South Virginia Street was constructed in 1940, but the history of the business that the Savage family operated there goes back much further, and continues today. Frank Charles Savage partnered with B.J. Genesy to open a…
Bufkin House
The house where Barbet and Jewell Bufkin lived, at 375 Westbrook Lane, dates to approximately 1940 and was likely moved here from its original location sometime in the mid-to-late 1950s. Additional living space was subsequently added to the rear of…
Black Springs in the 1960s
The Black Springs community faced serious challenges in the 1960s as
it became the target of campaigns to clean up what the local government and media often labeled "blight" and an "eyesore" while its residents were still…
Townsell House
In June of 1956, Jeffie and Carrie Townsell and their children were on their way to Seattle where Jeffie's brother, a merchant seaman, was going to help Jeffie find a job, when they stopped in Black Springs to visit Carrie's parents, Ollie…
Carthen House
J.E. Sweatt sold a parcel in Black Springs, now 295 Kennedy Drive, to Cecil G. and Nola Mae Carthen in December of 1956. The couple was from Oklahoma, where Cecil had been working as a mechanic for a lumber company. In Reno, he worked for many…
Chatman House
The house at 265 Kennedy Drive is one of the few from the early years that was constructed on site rather than moved here. It likely dates to the early 1950s. Thurman Carthen remembers it as the prettiest one in the neighborhood when he moved to…
Lobster House
The house at 320 Westbrook Lane was the second home that the Lobster family owned in Black Springs. William (Bill) Lobster was the Fire Chief for the Black Springs Volunteer Fire Department for many years.
This house is one of the few in Black…
Westbrook House
Ollie and Helen Westbrook were some of the first residents to purchase property in Black Springs from J.E. Sweatt in the early 1950s. They quickly became community leaders and became known to everyone as "Mama Helen" and "Big…