Reno Register of Historic Places
The City of Reno's Register of Historic Places is a list of properties within Reno city limits that have been officially designated by the City for their architectural and historic significance. Historic resources can be nominated to the register upon the owner's consent. Nominations are reviewed by the City's Historical Resources Commission in a public hearing and confirmed by the Reno City Council.
The local register was created in 1993 through the passage of the City’s Historic Preservation ordinance. It assists in preserving the exterior of structures and thereby preserving community character and sense of place, promoting community pride in history, inspiring heritage tourism, and improving property values. Resources listed in the City Register must secure a Certificate of Appropriateness for any exterior modifications, in order to ensure that any changes or improvements are in character with the architectural style or historic period represented by the building, portion of the building, site, and/or resource being preserved and do not diminish its historical significance.
This list should not by any means be considered a list of the only properties of historical and architectural significance in the city--far from it. Hundreds of additional local historic resources are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Nevada State Register of Historic Places or remain unlisted but eligible for one or more of these registers. Anyone interested in listing their historic property on the Reno Register of Historic Places should contact the City of Reno for more information. Properties are listed in chronological order of their addition to the register.
NOTE: Additional properties once listed on the City's Historic Register include the Mizpah Hotel (lost to fire in 2006), the Mary Sherman House (demolished by the University of Nevada, Reno in 2019), and the Nystrom Guest House (removed from the register by Jacobs Entertainment when relocating the house in 2019).
Giraud/Hardy House
Designed by Frederic DeLongchamps for sheep rancher Joseph Giraud in 1914
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 style. DeLongchamps was in the early stages of his…
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Phillips Stone House
The river rock house, now a restaurant, was built outside of Reno city limits around 1918.
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 earthquake of 1906. He then settled in Reno and…
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Southside School Annex
Built in 1936 as additional space for the adjacent (since demolished) Southside School.
The Southside School Annex was built in 1936 through a grant provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA), one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs initiated during the Great Depression. The Southside School had been built in 1903 to accommodate a growing student population. A…
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California Building
Built as a gift from the State of California on the occasion of a 1927 Highways Exposition
Located in the northwestern portion of Idlewild Park, the California Building is the only remaining architectural element of the Transcontinental Highways Exposition of 1927. The elaborate Exposition celebrated the completion of the Lincoln and Victory Highways (present day U.S. 50 and U.S. 40),…
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First Church of Christ, Scientist
Widely known as the Lear Theater, the riverfront church designed by Paul Revere Williams has been a Reno landmark since 1939.
In a town traditionally known for “sinful” institutions, it should not go unnoticed that between 1870 and 1950, downtown Reno had a total of 24 churches. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, which began with a congregation of just four members, was one of them.
In the late 1930s, as its…
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Washoe County Courthouse
The center of Washoe County government since 1873
This courthouse was the third for Washoe County, which was established in 1861 as one of Nevada territory’s original nine counties. In 1871, Myron C. Lake donated an acre of his land for Reno’s first courthouse, as the ambitious young town wrested the county seat from Washoe City, some 20 miles to…
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McKinley Park School
The first of Reno's four Mission-style elementary schools opened in an existing park in 1909.
Designed by the local architect George Ferris in 1909, the McKinley Park School was the first to be constructed of the so-called "Spanish Quartet," four single-story Mission Revival style schools built in Reno in the early 20th century. The schools represented a growth spurt in the city…
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El Cortez Hotel
An Art Deco dazzler built for Abe Zetoony in 1931
Late in 1930, Nevada’s legislators pondered boosting the state’s lucrative divorce trade even further by shortening the residency requirement from three months to six short weeks. In anticipation of their success, local real estate investor Abe Zetoony commissioned the construction of the El Cortez…
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Pearl Upson House
A turn-of-the-century Queen Anne home in the Powning Addition
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 that he had acquired in 1886. By June of 1888, the…
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Patrick Ranch House
Once the center of a sprawling ranch, the house is now nestled in the heart of Reno's Old Southwest.
The Patrick Ranch House, a charming example of the Folk Victorian architectural style, was erected at the turn of the twentieth century on the Arlington Ranch, also known as Arlington Place. Jane Lake, the first wife of Myron Lake, acquired the 160-acre property as a settlement for a loan. In…
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Caughlin Ranch House
An enduring link to one of Reno's most prosperous pioneering ranch families
The Caughlin Ranch House, along with its outbuildings and pastoral setting, provides a rare and enduring link to Reno’s rich ranching heritage, right in the heart of the city. Since the early 1900s, this lovely Italianate home, one of the area's last surviving historic ranch houses, has stood…
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Christensen Residence
Built in 1942 of Ready-Mix pumice blocks, the Ranch-style residence is on the city's historic register.
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 contractor and applicant on the permit application,…
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El Reno Apartment Home
Designed by Paul Revere Williams and relocated from its original site on South Virginia Street
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. Christensen, by 1953, when the address appears for…
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Holesworth Apartments
Also known as Essex House, the lovely four-unit apartment building was constructed in 1922.
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 subdivision, which was laid out before 1900 and…
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Ginsburg Clock
From Virginia Street to Park Lane Mall and back again, a Reno landmark since 1935
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 current location in front of Reno City Hall in 2012.…
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Washoe County Library
The midcentury marvel is renowned for its lush interior garden court.
After the demolition of the Carnegie Free Public Library, the Reno branch of the Washoe County Library was housed in the Nevada State Building, which by the mid-1960s, was slated for demolition to make room for the Pioneer Theater and Auditorium. The newly established Fleischmann Foundation offered…
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Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts
Originally called the Pioneer Theater-Auditorium in 1967, the performing arts center is topped by a spectacular geodesic dome.
When the Pioneer Theater-Auditorium was completed in December 1967, it was going to be named the Apollo Theater. Instead, the golden-domed building came to be called the Pioneer Theater-Auditorium after the statue of a pioneer family that stands in the front plaza. The statue, entitled HUMANITY,…
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Greystone Castle
Built in 1930, the house was advertised as having "the charm of an old English castle and all the modern conveniences of the very latest American home."
The picturesque home at 970 Joaquin Miller Drive was built in 1930 by developer W.E. Barnard. Its architectural style is primarily Tudor, with a strong English Country Cottage influence. The large multi-pane Gothic-arched front window is a striking feature.
The house was originally advertised in…
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Lake Mansion
Built in 1877, the residence was home to Jane Lake and was famously moved across town twice.
As you look at this impressive Italianate-style home, imagine the complication of moving its bulk--not once, but two separate times. The Lake Mansion, now sitting proudly at the corner of Court Street and Arlington Avenue, was built in 1877 by Washington J. Marsh and purchased by Myron Lake in 1879…
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Casa Del Rey
The Spanish Colonial Revival style house was built in the Newlands Manor subdivision in 1930.
The Spanish Colonial Revival home known as Casa Del Rey was built in the Newlands Manor subdivision in 1930 by Nevada Developers, Inc. Headed by W.E. Barnard, the company constructed several picturesque houses in the neighborhood that same year, giving them all charming names and advertising them…
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Garat/Humphrey House (relocated)
[Note: This house was relocated to 655 S. Arlington Avenue.]
The unique home that stood for more than a century at 127 E. Eighth Street is one of the most beautiful examples of Asian-influenced Craftsman styling in all Reno. Craftsman was the dominant style for smaller houses built throughout the…
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