Tag: carsoncity

Rich Moreno has a post at Backyard Traveler about Carson City's Lone Mountain Cemetery. I think it's a reprint of an older article, because in talking about the Rinckel Mansion he says it is "now a restaurant." That hasn't been true for about ten years. But it's still a good article, regardless.

Some time ago the stories hit the web about the Champion Motor Speedway and the sad state that it was in. The old speedway, if you remember, sat at the south end of town, out past Stewart. It opened in 1963 as the Tahoe-Carson Speedway, and later became the Silver State Raceway. It closed in 2005 when a housing developer made an offer on the land that was too good to refuse. Reynen & Bardis planned to build the Schulz Ranch housing development on the speedway site, but that was about the same time the housing market started to slump. So Schulz Ranch was never built, but more importantly to our story, the old speedway was never torn down. The track, the stands, the announcer booths, concessions, and repair shops, all sat there closed and abandoned in the desert. And if you know anything about the history of abandoned buildings in remote environments, you'll know that this old speedway was a perfect candidate for vandalism.

And oh boy, did the vandalism come. It came in waves, and it came over and over again. Every inch of the speedway has been smashed, trashed, ripped apart, splintered, punched in, blown out, graffitied, and generally destroyed. The racetrack sits now as a monument to what bored kids with a lot of pent up rage can accomplish, and is actually one of the more impressive spots in Carson City now because of it. The city sees it, probably rightly so, as an eyesore and safety hazard, and they want it taken care of. They either want Reynen & Bardis to tear it down, or the new idea is that they'll go in there and clean it up themselves, and send Reynen & Bardis the bill.

But anyway, through all this I decided I had to see the speedway for myself. So I went last week, and what I saw was amazing. Every flat surface has graffiti on it, most of the walls are smashed in, a few support beams have collapsed, every inch of the place is covered in trash and debris, entire parts of the structure have been flattened, and the whole upper deck, which probably seated at least a hundred people, is gone. Like UFOs took it.

So I want to present a photo essay on the state of the Champion Speedway. Especially if cleanup efforts are going to start soon, this will soon pass into history entirely. I'll also be tossing in some pictures from when the speedway was still open and operating. These old photos were generously donated by Andy Daddario, a race fan from California who wrote a whole series of articles after the racetrack closed looking back on its history. I suggest you go read them, and I recommend you make a trip out to the speedway to see it for yourself. But if you can't, enjoy the photos.

There is also a mobile home next door, probably home to the owners or caretakers of the speedway. It is also trashed beyond belief.

If you made it this far, you'll undoubtedly want to visit Flickr and see all the pictures.

This morning was the first downtown farmers market for the summer. It was held at Third and Curry streets, in the city-owned parking lot right across the street from the new Bella Fiore Wines. The market was a little small, only taking up two rows of the parking lot, but there were a lot of people. A few vendors were selling fresh produce, and the others were selling coffee, chocolate, plants, and arts and crafts. There was even a band, playing live music.

There wasn't a whole lot to do at the market, but there were some good fruits and veggies, and a good excuse to get out and go downtown. I can see the market getting bigger over the summer, especially later in the year as more crops become available.

This event is also the showcase for the new "Curry Street Promenade". The city has decided that the freeway is never going to be finished (and NDOT's budget was just cut again), so betting on Carson Street is a losing horse. So the city instead is focusing on fixing up Curry Street, and making it the cultural center of Carson City and the place where downtown events are held. It seems to be a good idea; Curry is a much more inviting street than Carson, and for more reasons than just the traffic. There are more trees and old houses along Curry, and it's a nicer walk. They've put together a whole list of reasons for you to come down to Curry Street this summer.

So I think the farmers market was a success. It will never be as big a deal as ones in some other cities, like the Pike Place Market or the Los Angeles Farmers Market. But for Carson City it's not bad. Here are some more photos.

The Nevada Appeal has a story on the market too.

The Carson Times (run by those interlopers at the Reno Gazette) is doing far more Future of Downtown coverage than the Appeal is. Just yesterday they had two stories, Hot town, summer in the city, and Workgroups focus on retooling Curry Street corridor and beyond, about the Curry Street Promenade, the downtown library, even options for adding more high-density housing to the downtown area.

Carson Times has a photo gallery of the Curry Street Promenade. Apparently Curry Street is being slowly redeveloped, partly just to make Curry Street look better, but partly to try out a few of the design concepts that the city wants to use on Carson Street after the freeway is finished. What I notice about this Curry Street photo gallery is that many of the improvements are coming from private enterprise, not from the city. There are photos of the Firkin and Fox, and the new Bella Fiore Wines, and the new back patio that Doppelgangers recently completed. This is the way it should be. The city can make the streets and sidewalks look nice, but it's up to these businesses to make people want to come downtown. And we're actually seeing some nice stuff happening in that arena. So I'm optimistic for the future of downtown, and maybe by the time the freeway traffic gets off the street, we really will have a downtown worthy of standing on its own.

Carson Times: Don't give up on that new Carson City Library just yet. After the failed boondoggle that was the city trying to acquire the old Post Office on Plaza Street, it sounds like Carson is pursuing a more reasonable plan of building a brand new library building, probably on the site of the old V&T Shops one block north. Reasonable, but expensive. The library has no money to put up new buildings with, in fact they've recently had to cut hours and staffing levels. But it sounds like the Federal government has programs in place to help with redeveloping the neighborhoods that their buildings are located in. So maybe the Feds would give the city money to help out with building a new library and improving that part of town. Which is a good thing, because the city sure doesn't have any money to do any of this.

That whole part of town has been designated the "Roundhouse District", referring to the V&T Shops that used to be on the empty lot at Ann Street. The funny thing is that the shops were never called the "Roundhouse", because it wasn't round. It was square, so it was properly called just an enginehouse. I think it was usually known as the shops, or the Old Stone Fort.

There's a lot of land around there that can be improved, room for parks, fountains, even an amphitheater. If all these plans come to fruition it could really transform that part of town into something great. Of course, that's a lot of ifs. And plans in Carson City have a way of going from "if" to "whatever happened to", so maybe none of this will ever come to pass.

If you're into farmers markets, you'll know that the Wednesday market at Mills Park has been going on for about four weeks now. It will be open today from 3-7. But, that's not the only market in town anymore. Starting this week, there will be a Saturday market as well, behind the Firkin and Fox at the corner of Third and Curry. (Right across from Bella Fiore Wines). This new market runs from 9am to 1pm, and it sounds like there will be many new farmers there that don't participate in the Mills Park one. So you definitely need to visit both!

Crossposted from the WNHPC Blog.

I’ve had some new photos come into the WNHPC recently. All good stuff.

The St Charles for a few decades was known as the Travelers Hotel.

The McKeen Motor Car, which ran on the V&T Railroad, served about ten years time as a diner on the north side of town.

The Sweeney Building is one of Carson City’s oldest buildings.

I love the facade on the Ship Bar.

Opening Day on the new Carson City Home Depot is coming up fast. June 26th is the big day, next Thursday. The new store is located right next to the new Carson City Wal*Mart, where College Parkway meets the CC Freeway. Home Depot is kind of hidden back in a corner behind the freeway's sound wall. I didn't even see it for the first time until it was fully formed and they were already stocking the shelves.

Dave Morgan at NewsCarsonCity has a story on the new Home Depot, and how the city is hoping that this new store will keep a lot of Carson City's residents shopping in Carson City, instead of heading over the county line to Douglas County, and spending their money there. At issue, of course, is the long-running battle of sales taxes and which county will get them. With spending way down and everybody hurting financially, sales taxes are more important than ever.

This new store is having a grand opening party the day before it opens, Wednesday June 25th at 6pm.

It's been a very long time since I've done any Then And Now articles. I think part of the problem is that I've wanted to do them right, so I haven't done any at all lately since I didn't feel they'd be up to my standard of quality.

I need to get over that. There's nothing wrong with a quick and dirty Then and Now, so I need to get over myself. Especially now that summer is here, and it is prime picture taking season around Carson City because all the trees are green. I only have a couple of months to get out there and rephotograph all these old pictures I have.

Today is the first of what I hope to be many upcoming Then and Now articles. I had this picture submitted to me at the WNHPC, and I had no idea where it was, what it was, what part of town it was in, if it was still standing, anything. It wasn't until a comment came in from Dwight Millard (of Millard Realty, and my boss about twelve years ago, even though he probably doesn't remember me) letting me know where it was. I schlepped down there to check it out, and wow have things changed. It's the same building, though. Check out the article to see what it is.