Alturas Bar
Constructed in 1926, this building has housed the Alturas Bar since 1948.
The Reno Hide and Fur Company had the two-story brick building at 1044 East 4th Street constructed in 1926. The company, which dealt not only in animal hides and furs but also bought and sold "junk and second-hand auto parts," occupied the corner space while a second storefront, facing East 4th Street, housed the Maytag Company in the early 1930s. Several apartments filled the second floor. The junk dealership continued to operate in the building through the mid-1940s, collecting scrap metals, iron, and rubber for the Munitions and Defense Program during World War II.
In 1948, the Alturas Bar moved into the corner space, which is entered via a door positioned diagonally to the street and flanked by two posts that hold up the second floor overhang. The bar had previously operated at 139 East 2nd Street, at the northwest corner of East 2nd and Lake Streets. It had been founded there by Al Franck in 1915 as a "first class saloon and cafe with attached restaurant" featuring live entertainment. After committing a number of violations during Prohibition, the establishment was ordered closed by the federal court in Carson City in 1928 but was open again by 1931. It was one of the first to apply for an official liquor license once Prohibition was repealed in December 1933.
The liquor license for the Alturas Bar was transferred to 1044 East 4th Street in August of 1948 and by 1950 it was under the management of Lucille Schneider. The popular tavern has anchored the same corner for more than 75 years. The second storefront at 1036 East 4th Street was home to a self-serve laundromat in the 1950s and 1960s, later serving as the home to Nevada Fine Arts and since the early 1980s, a restaurant called Big Ed's Alley Inn.
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