Byington Building
The building at the corner of Virginia and Second Streets was a longstanding commercial anchor.
The northwest corner of Second and Virginia Streets houses one of Reno's oldest and most esteemed commercial structures. Located on one of the first lots on the original Reno townsite to be sold in 1868, it is sometimes said to have been Reno's first brick building, surviving two major fires. The brick edifice constructed in the 1870s remains at the heart of this building, which in many ways embodies the trajectory of Reno's ever-changing downtown.
The lot was originally sold by the Central Pacific Railroad to S.C. Fogus, who built a small frame store there where he sold general merchandise. By the 1870s, the building was known as "Burke's Corner" for owner James Burke, who built a new brick structure on the lot in 1872 and ran a general merchandise store in the northernmost of its two Virginia Street-facing storefronts in the 1870s and 1880s. On the tall second floor was a large hall that was rented out for meetings and events. It was known at various times as Armory Hall, Wheelmen's Hall, and Eagle's Hall.
In 1887 the lot was purchased for $21,000 by Catherine Byington of Downieville, beginning her family's long association with the building. In 1903 the family commenced construction of a new building that extended from the back of the original portion westward to the alley separating Virginia from Sierra Streets. Called "The Byington Building," it was built to house offices on the upper floor and had entrances on West Second Street and a different appearance from the corner structure, with large bay windows on the upper two stories.
In 1912 the family painted the exterior of the original building a tan color, modernized the show windows on the ground floor, and remodeled the interior, including improvements to the "Social Hall" on the second floor in order to better house dances and meetings. That space was operating as a dance hall called "The Varsity" in November of 1925 when a massive fire broke out there after an American Legion dance in honor of Armistice Day. The blaze completely gutted the top floor, burned holes in the roof, and caused serious damage to the ground floor storefronts, which then housed Wilcox's confectionary store and the Schramm-Johnson's Drug Co.
In 1926, the family hired esteemed Nevada architect Frederick J. DeLongchamps to redesign the entire building, combining the original and newer sections and creating a total of 46 offices on the second and third floors. The exterior brick was covered with stucco. The building quickly became one of Reno's most coveted addresses, drawing commercial tenants that included some of the City's top attorneys, physicians, dentists, insurance agents, and realtors.
The ground floor storefronts facing Virginia Street and West Second Street housed a variety of popular shops over the years, including the Parisian Dress Shoppe and Hatton's men's clothing. The corner space was occupied by a series of cafes and soda fountains, followed by the Cann Drug Store, which was purchased by the Schramm-Johnson's Drugs company, which in 1929 merged with Walgreen's Drugs, making this space Reno's first Walgreen's.
As downtown Reno gradually transformed into a tourist-oriented gaming landscape, the Byington Building's tenants changed. In 1959, Harrah's Club signed a 40-year lease for the entirety of the building's two top floors to house its executive offices and training space, giving Bill Harrah a prime corner office. In 1979, Harrah's opened a gift shop called "The Store" on the ground floor that offered "quality gifts" including artwork, fine jewelry, and packaged liquor, and not surprisingly featured 20 slot machines and a premium redemption center for Harrah's. An accompanying renovation project "modernized" the exterior of the building, and may have been when the remaining exterior ornamentation was removed. The departure of Harrah's after the company's lease expired in the 1990s left the top floors vacant, while the ground floor has continued to house some retail.
Images
