The Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection is something that I am very proud of, with thousands of photos from around the region. But the problem with having so many is that all those photos are just sitting there buried in the collection, and probably not getting the eyeballs that they deserve. So I’ve started posting some of them to the Around Carson Facebook page so they can be seen by more people. But even there they fall off the bottom of your feed, and it’s hard to go back and see stuff that was posted in the past. So I want to start also highlighting them here.
Here are some of the historic photos I’ve shared on Facebook over the last few months.
The Carson Box Factory was owned by the Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Company, and used to create boxes and shingles out of lumber that was harvested from the forests of Lake Tahoe. A spur line of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad ran right by the factory. The railroad right of way later became Stewart Street, and the site of the box factory housed Copeland Lumber for much of the 20th century. Copeland Lumber was closed and demolished, and now this land is waiting for some kind of redevelopment.
One of the most imposing buildings ever in downtown Carson City is no more. This is the Arlington Hotel, which occupied the block on the west side of Carson, between Spear and Robinson. The hotel was built in 1877, and torn down in the 1960s. Nothing was ever rebuilt on the site; the Nugget’s west parking lot is there now.
At the left, you can see the facade is different. That short segment was actually part of another building, the Gray Reid Wright Building. It was adjacent to the Arlington, and demolished at the same time. At the far right a part of the U.S. Mint can be seen.
The Carson Brewing Company building at the southwest corner of King and Division Streets. Tahoe Beer was brewed here. Later this was the home of the Nevada Appeal newspaper. It now houses the Brewery Arts Center and is home to theater and music performances.
The First Presbyterian Church at King and Nevada Streets in Carson City. This church was completed in 1864 through the fundraising efforts of Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. It’s been added onto several times, and had the top of the bell tower removed in the 20th century. The historic sanctuary still stands today.
Carson City’s stone Central School was built in 1906 at the corner of King and Division streets. It replaced an earlier wooden schoolhouse a couple of blocks away. Nearly all of Carson’s students attended school here until a new high school was built nearby in the 1930s. There is now an office building on this site.
The Sweeney Building sits at the southwest corner of King and Curry Streets. This is one of Carson City’s oldest buildings, dating back to the 1860s. It has been a variety of shops and offices over the last century and a half. Most recently it was home to Morley’s Books.
A view of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad’s enginehouse and yard in Carson City from 1949. This was near the end of the railroad’s life, as you can tell by the weeds and the sagging buildings. One year later the railroad went out of business. The rails were soon pulled up and the railyard was built over. Today this scene would be in the Smith’s parking lot.
The Virginia and Truckee Railroad used to run right through the heart of Carson City. After leaving the depot on their way to Reno, the trains ran west along Washington Street. The road was divided between cars and railroad tracks, with not as much as a single set of crossing gates along the whole route. This was how it was from the start of the railroad in 1869 to the last train in 1950. After leaving town to the west, the tracks turned north and followed present-day Longview Way on their way to the Washoe Valley.
This photo shows the Virginia and Truckee Railroad’s secondary enginehouse in Carson City. This wooden barn sat at the west end of town, near the corner of Mountain and Caroline. The Governor’s Mansion would have been just out of view to the right of the photo. This was the first enginehouse in Carson City; it was in use before the large stone enginehouse was built on Stewart Street. In its later years it was used to store locomotives or passenger cars, whatever equipment needed to be kept out of the weather. Here you can see the three-way stub switch poking through the weeds. It was torn down shortly after the line was abandoned in 1950. Houses are now on this site.
This view of downtown Carson City looks down from an outcropping of rock partway up C Hill. You can see a member of the photography crew standing in the brush in the foreground.
Looking at town, several landmarks stand out. On the far left you can see the U.S. Mint building. Heading diagonally up to the right from there is the scar of the Virginia and Truckee railroad tracks heading up to Virginia City. A little bit to the right there is a very prominent two-story white building with a dark roof. This is the Central School at the corner of Minnesota and Telegraph Streets. Further to the right the Methodist Church stands out with its white steeple.
Near the center of the photo, the State Capitol building is the largest building in town and the most visible building in this photo. And on the right edge of the picture, Fifth Street cuts its way through the desert on its way out to the Nevada State Prison.
From this distance, the rest of the town kind of blurs together. Even big landmarks like the Ormsby House and the First Presbyterian Church are hard to pick out, even from this high vantage point. Nearly the entire town is visible in this picture, from Washington Street in the north to Sixth Street in the south. Another thing to notice is the lack of trees in town in this photo, which places it fairly early in Carson’s history. That, plus the fact that the 1891 Post Office is missing, dates this photo in the 1870s or 1880s.
This view of Spear Street, just east of Carson Street, shows the Excelsior Hotel and the Carson Opera House. The Opera House was relocated to this spot in 1888 after it was kicked out of its old perch on Carson Street by construction of the post office (now Laxalt Building). The opera house burned in 1931. The Excelsior Hotel was torn down some time before that.
In the 20th century the Nugget Casino expanded into Spear Street. So this roadway and the site of the buildings would now be in the middle of the casino.
A small parade makes its way down Carson Street, in the early 1900s. To the right is the old Post office, built in 1891. It survives today as the Paul Laxalt Building. Further to the north you can see some storefronts. Mostly hidden behind the post office you can see part of the Carson Opera House.
This is the Carson Armory on east Second Street. It was built in 1882, and the landscaping here suggests that it is new in this shot. In the foreground are the V&T Railroad tracks. This branch line followed Stewart Street out of town to the south, and ended up at the wood yard where the lumber from Lake Tahoe was stacked up. Later the line to Minden used these same tracks.
This photo shows what the outskirts of Carson City used to look like. The tree-lined street here is Carson Street, looking north from Caroline. Behind the thick line of trees to the left is a row of storefronts that has long since been demolished. On the right in the distance is the V&T Depot, waiting for the daily trains from Reno and Virginia City. Carson Street is unpaved and looks very dusty, and kind of disappears into a thicket of trees off in the distance. It seems to be noon at the height of summer.
This famous aerial view of Carson City was drawn by Augustus Koch in 1875, and it’s considered to be pretty accurate. Koch was a highly-skilled, Army-trained cartographer, and he visited over 100 communities throughout the United States to produce these “Bird’s Eye Views”.
All of the town’s landmarks are represented here, such as the State Capitol, the U.S. Mint, and the V&T Shops. But Koch drew every little shack in town as well, and indeed every little tree, making this map nearly equivalent to a photograph of town from 1875.
The Nevada State Printing Office at Second and Fall Streets in Carson City, right behind the state Capitol. This sandstone building was built in 1886 and housed the printing presses for official State documents. In the 1960s the printing office moved to a new building on Stewart Street, a couple of blocks away. This building still stands as part of the Nevada State Library and Archives.
The D.A. Bender home in Carson City in 1896. This home still stands at 707 West Robinson Street, across from the Governor’s Mansion.
The Masonic Knights Templar hold a parade in 1895, heading south down Carson Street in front of the Arlington Hotel. This photo was taken from the Rosser Building which stood where the Carson Nugget is now.
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