Historic University Gateway (In Memoriam)

13 Locations | Curated by Deb Hinman

In Reno’s early days, many Easterners were coming west to seek their fortunes and a life of adventure. Land was plentiful and cheap and many ranches were established in this still-wild country. Among these new residents were the Evans brothers from Defiance, Ohio. The Evans family produced thirteen children, at least six of whom came west and eventually made their home in the Reno area. Brothers Alvaro and John Newton “Newt” Evans owned land from 5th Street north to what is today McCarran Blvd. Newt sold the state land for the University of Nevada when it was moved from Elko in 1885.

In 1889, Alvaro sold a plot of land at the foot of the university bounded by Virginia and N. Center Streets between 8th and 9th Streets to financier A. G. Fletcher, who subdivided the land into 14 lots. Fletcher had arrived in the Truckee Meadows in 1875 from Maine. He was engaged in building flumes to carry wood to the railroad for the Comstock mines, and later tried his hand at sheep raising, eventually becoming a Reno banker.

Fletcher began selling his lots in the last decade of the 19th century and shortly thereafter, homes along the west side of N. Center St. began springing up. All were in the Queen Anne style, a relatively new style in those days, and it is supposed that they may all have been the work of one craftsman--possibly George E. Holesworth, who designed and built what may be the most charismatic of the homes, the turreted Atcheson House. Center Street, at various times called University Avenue, was part of a larger historical neighborhood that was divided by the construction of Interstate 80 in the 1960s and 1970s. The six houses on the west side of Center Street between Eighth and Ninth Streets were believed to be the last intact row of 19th century residences in the entire city of Reno.

The University of Nevada, Reno developed a master plan in 2014 that designated a "Campus Gateway Precinct" between the south end of campus and Interstate 80. The plan mandated replacing all the remaining houses on the Fletcher lots and the rest of the late-19th and early-20th-century houses in the historical neighborhood with new buildings. A handful of the houses were slated to be relocated by private entities, and the University proceeded to demolish the rest in early 2020. This tour remains as a historical record of the peaceful neighborhood that once thrived at the south end of the University of Nevada, Reno campus.

The two-story Queen Anne-style house that once stood at 839 N. Center Street, built around 1900, was home to four families and a university professor during the 1900s, before becoming a rental in 1999. The Norths were the first occupants. A newspaper article in October 1897 reported that "Judge…
View Story Show on Map

In August of 1895, Lewis D. Folsom purchased a lot in the center of the 800 block of Center Street for $450. Here he built the stylish two-story, eight-room home once located at 829, with its typical Queen Anne adornments such as spindle trim above the porch and windows, and elegant turret with…
View Story Show on Map

From 1900 to about 1913, Albert T. and Christine Donnels and their son Albert Jr. lived in the Queen Anne house that once stood at 815 N. Center. Donnels and his partner Theodore Steinmetz had established a successful furniture store on the northwest corner of 2nd and Sierra in 1896, which…
View Story Show on Map

Today, only one home remains of those properties that used to occupy the east side of the 800 block of North Center Street--but not where it originally stood. Gone is the first Nevada Historical Society, a small brick building that owed its existence to Jeanne Wier, who ran the organization for 46…
View Story Show on Map

[Note: This house was relocated to 655 S. Arlington Avenue.] The unique home that stood for more than a century at 127 E. Eighth Street is one of the most beautiful examples of Asian-influenced Craftsman styling in all Reno. Craftsman was the dominant style for smaller houses built throughout the…
View Story Show on Map

Constructed sometime between 1890-1910, the two-story house at 843 N. Lake Street was a rare, significant example of the Free Classic Queen Anne style in Reno. Defining features of this house included its prominent round porch, which was supported by a series of Tuscan columns. Also notable was the…
View Story Show on Map

This lovely spacious home was built circa 1910 and though alterations were made over the years to accommodate its use as student housing, the downstairs rooms of the home long retained their original character. The architectural style is a bit difficult to assess, but it is likely a Craftsman,…
View Story Show on Map

From the early 1920s to the early 1930s, University of Nevada Professor of Geology J. Claude Jones and his family lived in the house that once stood at 825 N. Lake Street. Jones later served as Acting Dean of Men on the university campus. In 1916, Jones had earned great acclaim for helping to…
View Story Show on Map

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…
View Story Show on Map