By Debbie Hinman
While only seven blocks long, Riverside Drive is one of the most beloved streets in the city of Reno—and not by accident. Riverside Avenue, as it was first known, was created to be the city’s loveliest boulevard. From its origin in the 1880s,…

By Gail Ewart
Earl Wooster High School was completed in 1962 and opened that fall at 1331 East Plumb Lane. At the time, Reno High School was severely overcrowded, and a new high school was needed to accommodate baby boom kids approaching high school age. Wooster…

By Debbie Hinman
The Regina Apartments at 260 Island Avenue is a collection of units encased in a lovely brick building designed by Joseph Tognoni. The building's owner, Jean Sigg, was a successful Swiss-born chef who ran the kitchen at a number of downtown…

By Alicia Barber and Jack Hursh
Silas E. Ross Hall opened in June 1957, kicking off a campus construction boom that included the Max C. Fleischmann College of Agriculture Building, the Sarah Hamilton Fleischmann School of Home Economics, the Jot Travis Student Union Building, and…

By ZoAnn Campana
Los Angeles architect Robert Langdon designed the First National Bank of Nevada’s landmark high-rise office building on the corner of First and N. Virginia Streets. At 16 stories, the building was the tallest in Reno when it opened in 1963. The…

By Gail Ewart
The C. Clifton Young Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse at 300 Booth Street opened in 1965 across the street from Reno High School. The building typifies the federal effort to incorporate modern design into the government buildings that were being…

By Alicia Barber
The Piazzo Building at 354 N. Virginia Street, also known as the St. Francis Hotel, embodies the story of Reno in a way that few others could. Contained in one three-story brick structure are the stories of a hardworking immigrant family, the…

By Alicia Barber
As 1960 approached, the city of Reno was reckoning with its rapid growth and the accompanying need for a new city government facility. Since 1907, Reno’s City Hall had stood on the southwest corner of Center and First (originally known as Front)…

By Alicia Barber
The two-story solid brick building that stands today at 235 Lake Street is not the original Santa Fe Hotel, although it is located on the same site. The building housing the first Santa Fe was constructed there in 1913 for a man named A.J. Clark,…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
The Osen family became involved in the automobile trade at an early point. Based in Northern California, the Osen-McFarland Auto Company opened a branch in Reno in 1915, opening a sales room and service station on Commercial Row. In 1921, George A.…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
The Tudor Revival home at 575 Ridge Street was designed by architect Frederic DeLongchamps and built in 1927. It was the residence of Edward and Clara Chism, who were married in Reno in 1915. Edward Chism was a Washoe County native born on the…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
Architect Frederic DeLongchamps designed this home, which was constructed in 1930 for Guy and Emeline Benham. The couple met in Reno, but were not native to the area. Born on a farm near Cedar Falls, Iowa, Guy Everett Benham moved to Reno in…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
This home was designed by Frederic DeLongchamps and built for Albert T. Donnels around 1916. Albert Donnels had been a Reno resident since 1896. He was born in Jamestown, California. As a young man in his early twenties he went to San Francisco;…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
The brick bungalow at 571 Ridge Street was built in 1919 for Forrest W. Eccles, who moved here with his wife, Bessie, and their infant son, Forrest Kelly Eccles. The house was next door to the home of Eccles’ stepfather and mother, William and Emma…

By Alicia Barber
What is now a vacant lot at 543 Court Street was once a beautiful residence overlooking the river. Its story began in 1906, when Robert Grimmon purchased five acres from Senator Francis G. Newlands, just east of the Newlands House. The large tract…

By Alicia Barber
For years, a Chinese laundry stood at the corner of Center and Second Streets. Once considered well away from the town’s business district, the site became increasingly desirable in the first decade of the twentieth century, as the mining booms in…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
The home at 543 Ridge Street was designed by celebrated Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps and built for Harry and Anna Ginsburg in 1927. The Ginsburgs had moved to Reno in 1915 from Northern California, where Harry Ginsburg had owned a jewelry…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
The house at 235 Lee Avenue shares a history (and a garage) with the house built directly behind it. This one, on the corner of Lee and Ridge, was originally the home of William and Emma Simmons. Mr. Simmons was a prominent Reno businessman, and he…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
Forrest W. Eccles commissioned prominent Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps to design his new residence at 245 Lee Avenue in 1930. He and his family had previously lived a stone’s throw away, at 571 Ridge Street, in a house identified here as…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
The house at 491 Court Street was built for Roland F. Roy in 1907, the same year that the nearby Nixon Mansion was completed. Newlands Heights was the most exclusive neighborhood in town, a testament to the affluence and prominence of its…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
In 1901 Hosea Reid became one of the founders of the Gray, Reid & Company dry goods store, along with partner Joseph Gray, whose house is located at 457 Court Street. Their store was originally located at the corner of Second and Virginia…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
Frederic DeLongchamps, Reno’s most famous and prolific architect, designed this enchanting house in 1919. It is an example of the English Country Cottage, or Tudor Revival style popular throughout the Newlands Heights neighborhood. The house is…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
In 1890-91, soon after constructing his impressive residence on the bluff overlooking the Truckee River, Francis G. Newlands had a smaller house built on his estate to serve as his personal office. The second building, like the first (see separate…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
Attorney Prince Albert Hawkins purchased this plum piece of property from Senator Francis G. Newlands in 1912 and hired architect Elmer Gray of Los Angeles to design his grand family residence at 549 Court Street. Gray also designed and built the…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
The house at 465 Court Street was originally the home of Harry “Pop” Gosse, a Nevada resident for more than 80 years who was perhaps best known as the owner of one version of the famous Riverside Hotel, located on the south bank of the Truckee River…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
This residence has been referred to as the “medical mansion”; two physicians owned it, but not in succession. The original building was a large, garage-like structure situated on the Nixon estate overlooking the Truckee River. The structure and…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
This chateau, sometimes referred to as “The Castle,” began as a guest house owned by Janet Sharon Newlands Johnston. Johnston was perhaps the closest thing to Nevada royalty, as the granddaughter of U.S. Senator William Sharon and the second of…

By Alicia Barber
The St. Albans Hotel opened in the spring of 1908 at what is now 380 N. Virginia Street. At the time, it was situated at the far northern end of Reno’s business district, which was concentrated south of the railroad tracks. Initially surrounded to…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
Mary Ruth “Maisie” Kinder was born and raised in Pennsylvania; as a youngster she had the opportunity to go to London to live with her aunt. There she began acting, singing, and dancing. After working as an understudy, she was selected for roles…

By Donna and Paul Erickson
According to George Steinmiller’s granddaughter Alice Parsons, “He wanted to be a big fish in a little pond. That is why he came to Reno from Sacramento.” George Steinmiller practiced dentistry in Reno for fifty years. He and his wife Alice…