Jones-Nenzel House (site)
From the early 1920s to the early 1930s, University of Nevada Professor of Geology J. Claude Jones and his family lived in the house that once stood at 825 N. Lake Street. Jones later served as Acting Dean of Men on the university campus. In 1916, Jones had earned great acclaim for helping to determine the age of ancient Lake Lahontan. He died after an illness in 1932 at the age of 54.
The house itself dated back to at least 1910, and was a rare example of the Free Classic style of Queen Anne architecture in Reno. The foundation was constructed of local stone, and the porch was supported by Tuscan columns. The wood front door was likely original, featuring an upper window and lower panel carved with a Classically-derived wreath relief.
By 1933, mining engineer Rudolph Nenzel resided here with his family. A native of Nenzel, Nebraska, a town named for his pioneering grandfather, "Rudie" Nenzel had moved to Reno from Lovelock, where he had been very active in the Rochester, Seven Troughs, and Scotia mining camps. Members of the Nenzel family lived here through 1981.
A member by marriage of the Nenzel family was Hewitt (known as Hugh) Kees, the station master of KOH radio station. He married Marge Nenzel, and they lived in the house for several decades. Her parents moved to Hawthorne, Nevada in the 1950s.
Most recently, the house was a rental. It was acquired in late 1994 by Clark Kayler, a university-area landlord, from Felicia Owens, the ex-wife of Pastor Robert Owens. The couple had moved into the house in 1982 and established the University Family Fellowship in 1983, holding services in their backyard on Lake Street. The house was demolished by the University of Nevada, Reno to make way for a seven-story parking garage.
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