Tag: carsoncity

Nevada Appeal: History is found on tombstones of Carson City's cemeteries.

Originally seven separate cemeteries, Lone Mountain formed into one cemetery in 1971.

Many of the oldest stones are made of sandstone from Abe Curry's quarries that were located on the site of what is now the Nevada State Prison on Fifth Street, according to the Carson City's official Web site.

Lone Mountain Cemetery today encompasses sections for the Masons, Oddfellows, Catholics, two Babyland areas, Hebrew, Grand Army of the Republic, veterans, and a city cemetery section that dates back to the territorial days.

Also see my previous article on the Pioneer Cemetery and the Poor Farm Cemetery. And the official Carson City pages on the cemetery.

Crossposted from the WNHPC Blog.

With the recent news that the Downtowner Motor Inn in Carson City may have new owners soon, Joe Childs was good enough to send in a scan of another old postcard of the motel. This one is dated 1969, and shows the motel when it was only seven years old.

This dusk shot almost makes the place seem inviting. The glow of the sign and the porch lights, as well as the Best Western crown, seem to have pulled in a lot of customers. Joe scanned the back of this one too, showing the message from “Poppy” to Miss Kristen Hendershot of Orange, Calif.

Today the Nevada Appeal has a pretty great front-page article tracking down the oldest building in Carson City. Everyone seems to agree that it is the Stewart-Nye House, at the corner of King and Minnesota streets. This house was built around 1860 for William Stewart, who later went on to become the first U.S. Senator from Nevada. He sold the house in 1862 to James Nye, who was the first governor of Nevada when it was still a territory, before it became a state. So that makes this house Nevada's first governor's mansion. Mark Twain was a close associate of Nye's (his brother Orion Clemens was Nye's secretary), and Twain would often come over to the house for cigars and brandy. The house is now home to the Taggart and Taggart law firm. It is usually a stop on the Carson City Ghost Walk, since the presence of an old woman has been seen upstairs after hours. See my 2005 Ghost Walk report for more details.

The article then goes on to chronicle some of the other old buildings in Carson, ones that aren't the oldest but are still pretty damn old. State Archivist Guy Rocha names the building at 314 S. Carson St., home to Caterpillar's Hookah Lounge, as the oldest commercial building in town. That one can be seen on the left here.

It's also in this photo from 1984, moonlighting as a pawn shop.

The other history article in the newspaper today is a look by Trent Dolan back at an 1876 issue of the Carson Daily Appeal, including a report on General Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn.

Hard on the heels of our soon-to-be-record-breaking heat wave, comes a plea from Carson City Public Works to cut back on water usage this weekend, especially outdoor watering. The travails of living in a desert, I suppose.

From the Nevada Appeal:

The Downtowner Motor Inn lost its business license Thursday at the city board of supervisors' meeting but will remain open as a new owner takes over the motel that was shut down in 2005 before reopening last year.

The potential new owners, the Shearer family, are working with the city to take over the motel now. No one will be asked to move out during the transition, city staff said.

Shearer said he is working with the city to find the best use for the hotel. He might keep it as the Downtowner, have a hotel chain take it over or give the land to the next door Children's Museum of Northern Nevada to use for expansion.

Dave Morgan also has coverage from a couple of days ago.

I'm sure Carson City will be considering the motel building to house the new library. But I've said before that this motel needs to be torn down. Figuring out what to do with the land is tougher. Leaving it as open space would be nice, because pictures I've seen from before the motel was built show a big open area with great views of the Civic Auditorium next door, and it would be nice to have that back. But "open space" is hardly a good use of premium land in a downtown area.

This land was originally part of the railroad depot, which still stands across the street. The train tracks and the passenger platform took up most of what is now Washington Street, but mail and delivery trucks would park where the Downtowner now stands so that goods could be offloaded directly off the backside of the train. This parking area can be seen in the photo below, from 1949.

The railroad tracks were torn up in 1950, and the lot stayed vacant until 1962 when the motel was built. Maybe that corner is going to enter a new era soon.

The news is floating around that the Citibank building at Telegraph Square, one of the big boxy eyesores in downtown Carson, is going to be sold off soon. Wells Fargo is taking over Citibank's operations in Northern Nevada, and this building is part of the deal. Since there's already a Well Fargo branch nearby, they'll be shuttering this one. And since they'll no longer need the building, that means they'll get rid of it by selling it.

So this is where the opportunities come in. Telegraph Square, and all of what is being called the "Curry Street Promenade", has been seeing a lot of redevelopment lately, and a large parcel like this coming up for sale is exciting because there are so many possible uses for it. The consensus in the article seems to be that it needs to be torn down just because it's so ugly, and I can't say I disagree with that. But then what do you build on the site? Housing and retail seem to be the top two choices, or more likely some mix of the two. I could also see a parking garage going on this site, with retail shops facing the street on the ground floor.

Or the building could be remodeled. There's a basic structure here that serve as a good base for transforming it into something architecturally exciting. The building as it is now could be reconfigured to have retail on the ground floor and housing or offices above, maybe with an addition in the back. The look of it could be updated to something that fits more with the character of the neighborhood, and it could be a real part of Telegraph Square instead of the big boxy obstacle that it is now.

The kicker, though, is that it's not up to us. As with all of these redevelopment projects, there would have to be a developer with vision that came in and bought the building, and was willing to take a risk on downtown. The most likely outcome is that whoever buys it will keep it mostly the same, and lease out the space as offices, most of which will sit vacant. If it sells at all.

It's easy to be pessimistic, but things like the Firkin and Fox give me hope. What do you think will happen with the Citibank building?

The Nevada Appeal dedicated its entire front page today to bicycling and the bicycle culture in Carson City. Included are stories on how sales are up at the bike shops around town, a look at the Muscle Powered organization, an editorial promoting Carson as a "great bicycling community", and a feature on Jeff Moser, who runs Bike Carson and organizes many of the bicycle-related events in town, including Bike to Work Week.

The reporter that wrote the stories, Teri Vance, also has a blog post on the paper's web site about her own adventures in trying to bike to work.

This morning Sam and I went to the Saturday Farmer's Market, at Third and Curry streets, then took a stroll across the highway to the Capitol Plaza. In a summer when I thought I would have plenty of time to go on downtown walks, I've hardly done any, so it was good to get out and do one. Plus it's both fun and frustrating to go photowalking with a four-year-old, because he has very firm ideas of where he wants to go next, and they rarely match up with where you want to go. Including going back to the car when you're done. But we enjoyed ourselves.

All the pictures can be found at Flickr. Here are some of the highlights.

At the Farmer's Market. Corn and cabbages and carrots and strawberries.

Sammy on the lawn.

The Tribute to Nevada Miners statue, dedicated in 1983 (Compare to this).

The Nevada Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Inscribed with the name of every Nevada peace officer killed in the line of duty.

Kit Carson, exploring the wilderness of Nevada on his horse.

He looks kind of tired.

Abe Curry, the "father" of Carson City, carrying a set of blueprints that he used to build one of the buildings in town.

The Nevada Supreme Court building. Built in 1991, it's the newest of the buildings in the Capitol complex.

Sam peering through Hannah Clapp's 1875 wrought-iron fence surrounding the Capitol.

The front entrance the to Capitol.

These storefronts on Carson Street could use a little TLC. Their postwar stylings stand out like an ugly duckling, even in a downtown that already has no sense of architectural unity. Hopefully with all the work being done to beautify Third Street lately, some of that will spill over and these stores will get a needed facelift.

The Firkin and Fox Pub in the St. Charles Hotel has been a raging success, and is playing a large role in making the Third Street area a real destination.

Comma Coffee next door is a nexus for the Carson City arts scene. Probably the most "indie" of all the independent coffee houses in Carson.

This clock in front of the Legislature Building was donated in 2005 by the Rotary Club of Carson City.

Sam stands proud next to the clock.

These flower baskets along Carson Street are new this year. Purchased by the Firkin and Fox, they bought enough to stretch the whole block between Third and Fourth streets, even down here in front of Comma Coffee and Caterpillar's Hookah Lounge.

The vacant lot between Comma Coffee and the St. Charles Hotel has been turned into a public square, a shady little park right on Carson Street.

The exterior signage is now up at Burlington Coat Factory. Besides coats they also sell Baby Depots and Home Decor, plus probably dozens of other things. A quick peek inside shows the racks and headless mannequins moving into position, readying for the grand opening.

You can also see that they've kept the "Wal-Mart Stripe" on the building, even though they've painted it a shade of red. And they've chosen pink as part of their palette of colors, so that's pretty fantastic. Luckily, when I took a closeup of the wall, the camera decided to color-correct it to more of a brown. My camera can be so judgmental.

Fairview Street is still a mess due to the massive repaving project they're doing. Fairview westbound is closed between Saliman and Roop, and eastbound is open only one lane and you have to dodge cones and construction vehicles the whole way. But! They're making progress, and the first layer of asphalt is down.

It sure does seem like this project would have gone a lot faster if they had just closed the road, and repaved the whole thing in one go. By closing down the whole stretch, they wouldn't have to hassle with cones, or flagmen, or paving half the street one month then paving the other half later. They could just blast through it and get it done. Sure, that would have blocked access to all the businesses and residences along that whole stretch of road, but it's all for the good of the freeway, right?

Fairview east of Saliman is also a high holy mess, because not only are they repaving there too but you also run into the freeway construction zone and the new overpass they're putting up. But that part of Fairview is open to two-way traffic at least.