Leaver House (site)
Constructed c. 1910-1913, the Leaver House was an American Four-Square with a combination of Free Classic, Craftsman, and Prairie School detailing, a unique combination of architectural styles rarely seen in Reno. Prominent Nevada architect George A. Ferris (designer of the McKinley Park School, El Cortez Hotel, and Governor's Mansion, among others) lived here in 1913 and 1914.
Edmund S. Leaver was for many years the supervising engineer of the precious metals section of the United States Bureau of Mines in Reno. A metallurgist for several major mining companies, he was in charge of the Nevada Goldfield Reduction Plant during the southern Nevada boom. Leaver and his family lived in the house at 801 N. Lake Street from the mid-1920s until his death in 1943.
It became a boarding house in the early 1970s, called the Casa de Manana. From 1982-1991 it was a fraternity house for Omega Xi, the only independent fraternity in Nevada, formed in 1978 by a group of students living in Nye Hall. Lacking a national sponsor, the fraternity was free to make its own rules, and served largely as a communal social organization. Without a national sponsor it was sometimes difficult to maintain a house.
Clark Kayler purchased the house in 1993 as a rental property. He owned several other rental units on Lake Street and around the university. The fraternity Kappa Alpha Group occupied the house in 1994 and 1995. It was demolished by the University of Nevada, Reno to make way for a seven-story parking garage.
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