Nortonia Boarding House
The lovely turn-of-the-century Queen Anne house was popular among Reno's divorce-seekers.
The Nortonia Boarding House was built as a single family residence around 1900. It is an excellent example of the Queen Anne style of architecture popular at the end of the nineteenth century. The circular two-story porch with balustrade is an unusual architectural feature for a Reno Queen Anne, while the rounded bay detail appears on buildings elsewhere in town, suggesting it was a trademark of a local builder.
A man named Norton purchased the house around 1906 and divided it into three flats. By August 1909, the property had been named The Nortonia Apartment House and was being advertised as “ Newly furnished, steam heated, electric light, all modern, also single rooms by day, week, or month. Everything first class. S. M. Henley, Manager.”
The demand for rentals was on the rise by 1909, which was the year Munsey’s, a popular magazine of the day, acknowledged that Reno was “the nation’s new divorce headquarters.” Locally known as the Divorce Colony, participant divorce-seekers were in need of housing, at that time, for a full six months. No doubt to garner some of that business, the owner of The Nortonia built a rectangular building with eight apartments to the east of the Queen Anne. The two were connected by a covered passage. The eight-unit building was numbered 140 Ridge Street. Both 150 and 140 Ridge Street served the divorce trade long after the residency period had been shortened to six weeks.
At some point after the 1960s, the eight-unit apartment building was demolished. The Queen Anne stands today in all her glory, serving as law offices.