Mary S. Doten School (site)

The Mission-style elementary school stood on West 5th Street.

Mary S. Doten School, 1912 The Mary S. Doten School was one of four Mission-style schools designed by architect George A. Ferris and built in Reno between 1909 and 1912. Source: Special Collections, University of Nevada, Reno Libraries Date: 1912

The Mary S. Doten Elementary School was built in 1912. One of the four Mission-style schools known as the Four Spanish Sisters or the Spanish Quartet, Mary S. Doten was similar in style to Mount Rose School on Lander Street, which remains in use as a school. In addition to the distinctive Mission-style elements used by the architect George Ferris, such as the curved parapets and smooth stucco walls, Mary S. Doten and Mount Rose sported a pair of towers symmetrically placed behind the central courtyard. Instead of the towers, McKinley Park and Orvis Ring schools had decorative parapet walls on the roofs over the main entrances.

Mary S. Doten School served the students of northwest Reno for 60 years. The school was named for Mary S. Doten, a pioneer in Nevada education who had passed away in 1914. Doten began teaching in Reno in 1883, but before that, as a young woman, she had come to the Comstock boomtown of Virginia City from her home in Connecticut. There, she met the newspaperman Alf Doten, a friend of Mark Twain. Mary and Alf married in a romantic ceremony on a boat in Lake Tahoe in 1873.

The Dotens left Virginia City with five children in 1882 and the following year, Mary began teaching in Reno. Over the course of her career, she taught all subjects at all grade levels, although her specialty and favorite subject was English literature. In was in honor of her many contributions to education in Nevada that one of the Spanish Quartet was named after her.

By 1972, the school district was faced with maintaining a number of old school buildings, and the cost to renovate them all was exorbitant. The Four Spanish Sisters were targeted as candidates for demolition, and Mary S. Doten was the first to be removed. After closing in 1972, it was taken down in 1974. Orvis Ring was closed in 1975 and demolished a few years later. Only McKinley Park and Mount Rose managed to avoid the wrecking ball.