All Stories: 246
Stories
Savage and Son, Inc.
The Savage Building at 628 South Virginia Street was constructed in 1940, but the history of the business that the Savage family operated there goes back much further, and continues today. Frank Charles Savage partnered with B.J. Genesy to open a…
Bufkin House
The house where Barbet and Jewell Bufkin lived, at 375 Westbrook Lane, dates to approximately 1940 and was likely moved here from its original location sometime in the mid-to-late 1950s. Additional living space was subsequently added to the rear of…
Black Springs in the 1960s
The Black Springs community faced serious challenges in the 1960s as
it became the target of campaigns to clean up what the local government and media often labeled "blight" and an "eyesore" while its residents were still…
Townsell House
In June of 1956, Jeffie and Carrie Townsell and their children were on their way to Seattle where Jeffie's brother, a merchant seaman, was going to help Jeffie find a job, when they stopped in Black Springs to visit Carrie's parents, Ollie…
Carthen House
J.E. Sweatt sold a parcel in Black Springs, now 295 Kennedy Drive, to Cecil G. and Nola Mae Carthen in December of 1956. The couple was from Oklahoma, where Cecil had been working as a mechanic for a lumber company. In Reno, he worked for many…
Chatman House
The house at 265 Kennedy Drive is one of the few from the early years that was constructed on site rather than moved here. It likely dates to the early 1950s. Thurman Carthen remembers it as the prettiest one in the neighborhood when he moved to…
Lobster House
The house at 320 Westbrook Lane was the second home that the Lobster family owned in Black Springs. William (Bill) Lobster was the Fire Chief for the Black Springs Volunteer Fire Department for many years.
This house is one of the few in Black…
Westbrook House
Ollie and Helen Westbrook were some of the first residents to purchase property in Black Springs from J.E. Sweatt in the early 1950s. They quickly became community leaders and became known to everyone as "Mama Helen" and "Big…
Black Springs Community Center
Black Springs did not have a community center of its own until 1970, when the neighborhood's youth group, P.O.W.E.R. (People Organized to Work for Equal Recognition) took the lead to establish one. The group had been organized in May of 1969.…
First Baptist Church of Black Springs
We're still piecing it together, but the story of the First Baptist Church appears to have begun in 1952, when three individuals sought support to establish a church and recreational center at Black Springs to service the African American…
Willie Stevens House (site)
Willie Stevens had the house at 415 Medgar Avenue moved to his lot in Black Springs in late 1957. Before it was moved there by Dario Bevilacqua, the top of the house was removed, as was customary at the time, in order to avoid hitting power lines…
Black Springs Volunteer Fire Department
This modest building was constructed in 1970 to serve the Black Springs Volunteer Fire Department, which had been established in 1956. By the late 1960s, a station in the neighborhood was an absolutely necessity. The Black Springs community had…
Mt. Hope Baptist Church
The Mt. Hope Baptist Church was founded in July of 1959 and was the second church to be built in the community of Black Springs. Residents say that the building was moved here that year from another location and adapted for this use. Started by A.N.…
Fleeter Turner's Stone House
This small house, constructed of field stone, is one of the oldest structures in Black Springs and may date back to the 1920s. Thurman Carthen remembers it standing when he first arrived in 1956, and believed it to be a well house. Others recall it…
Sewell's Market
The brick building at 445 S. Virginia Street opened as Sewell's Market in 1942. The Sewell brothers--Abner, Harvey, and Herb--had opened their first Sewell's Market in Reno in 1922 at 10 W. Commercial Row, two years after opening their…
Lunsford Park
The Lunsford Triangle first appears in an 1891 amended map of the C.C. Powning District after Riverside Drive was constructed. S.O. Hatfield occupied the property as a squatter until 1900, when he transferred the property to Ralph W. Shearer.
In…
Riverside Drive
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,…
Earl Wooster High School
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…
Regina Apartments
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…
Silas E. Ross Hall
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…
First National Bank Tower
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…
C. Clifton Young Federal Building and Courthouse
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…
Piazzo Building
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…
Reno City Hall (former)
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)…
Santa Fe Hotel
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,…
Osen House
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.…
Edward Chism House
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…
Guy and Emeline Benham House
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…
Donnels House
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;…
Day/Creveling House
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…