Benham-Belz House (relocated)

The charming house stood on the original Reno townsite for more than 150 years.

A snowy day at 347 West Street A photograph taken when West Street was lined with single-family homes shows the house at 347 West Street while the Belz family lived there and before the brick veneer was applied to the original wood exterior. Creator: Virginia Belz Chomat Date: n.d.

The Benham-Belz House sat until July of 2025 at 347 West Street, on Lot 8 of Block E of the original Reno townsite. There is persuasive evidence that it was constructed in Reno’s founding year of 1868 or early 1869, making it the oldest surviving house constructed in Reno (not counting older houses that were later moved to Reno, or ranch houses originally located outside of town).

The Benham family purchased the lot for $200 in August 1868. The deed of sale, initiated June 4, 1868--less than a month after Reno's original land auction--documents the transfer of the property from Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific Railroad to Linda Benham, wife of I.T. Benham, who is also named in the document.

I.T. (Isaac Theodore) Benham was a professional stone mason by trade and became one of Reno’s founding builders. The family had moved from Michigan to Nevada sometime between 1860 and 1868. Having purchased the Reno townsite parcel in 1868, it is reasonable to assume that Benham immediately constructed their house and that the family began to live there. The 1870 U.S. census of Reno does not indicate street addresses (which were not yet being used) but does list the entire family: I.T., Melinda, and their four children.

Benham worked for many years in Reno as a builder and contractor, constructing many of the first generation of Reno buildings and other prominent Nevada buildings like the Belmont Courthouse. In 1879-1880, Benham built the Central School, which was located just a block north of the family’s house on West Street between 4th and 5th Streets (the building later became the first Reno High School).

The Benham family began a gradual move to Spokane around 1880, and their house on West Street was purchased by Reno barber John Belz in 1883. Belz and his wife, Lizzie, were both originally from Germany, marrying in Reno in 1879. They had three children: Carl, Francis Joseph ("Frank"), and Florence.

Belz was a popular barber whose business was reportedly the first establishment in Reno to install electric lights. He was mourned citywide upon his sudden death of heart failure in 1900, when the newspapers described him as "a man possessed of a generous nature, good impulses, and steady character." Lizzie lived in the house for more than five more decades, celebrating her 90th birthday in 1950 at the Mapes Hotel with four generations of the Belz family. She died three years later at the age of 93. Her daughter, Florence, who had lived with her mother for many years, continued to live in the house until her own death in 1981 at the age of 87.

The house was acquired in 2024 by Jacobs Entertainment, who offered it to anyone who had land where they could relocate and preserve it. In the spring of 2024 the company sold the house for one dollar to a private party who dismantled it in preparation for relocation. After more than 150 years on the original Reno townsite, the house was moved to a private location several miles west on July 10, 2025.