Last year I did a couple of posts with Then and Now views of Virginia City (Part 1 and Part 2). But Virginia City has been a popular subject for photography for 160 years, so of course there are lots more old photos that we didn’t get to. I was just up on the Comstock again recently, so let’s dip back in with another dozen or so historic views of Virginia City.
The Bucket of Blood Saloon is one of the buildings that was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1875. The saloon has been under continuous ownership of the McBride family since the 1930s. This old view shows the saloon to the right, with the Museum of Memories to the left. Later on the saloon expanded and it now occupies the whole building.
Right across the street from the Bucket of Blood is the Delta Saloon. This saloon has similarly been around since the early days of Virginia City, though it doesn’t quite have the same unbroken history. In this historic photo which seems to be from the 1930s, the Delta looks to be pretty tiny and surrounded by other businesses. But during the tourist boom of the 50s and 60 the Delta played into the history aspect of the old saloon and took over its neighbors to expand.
By the 1960s the Delta had large colorful facades and historic artifacts on display. Located right near the center of downtown, they are still one of the largest saloons. But in recent years they have suffered under bad management and a gas explosion in 2019 that kept them closed for a few years. But the Delta is under new ownership as of last year and is making a comeback.
The Black and Howell Building was at the corner of C and Taylor Streets. Like most buildings in this part of town, it was built after the Great Fire of 1875. In 1888 the Black brothers, who operated a store in the building, got into a fight that ended up with one of them dead. The surviving brother claimed it was self defense, but the truth of the matter was never discovered as he too died in jail a few months later. The building was later used in the tourist trade and housed the Old Bloody Bucket Saloon. The rumor is that Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg chose the name to spite the Bucket of Blood down the street, which they had been blacklisted from because they were gay.
The Black and Howell building was brought down by poor maintenance. By the 1970s it was leaning and condemned. A lot of the other older buildings in Virginia City had saviors who took it upon themselves to stabilize the structures, but that didn’t happen here. The Black and Howell building was demolished in 1988. The lot is still empty today.
A few years ago Taylor Street was starting to collapse into the building’s basement, which had been left as an empty pit, and so the county filled in half the basement to stabilize the street.
Next door to the Black and Howell building was this building, which housed the Virginia Evening Chronicle. This building was demolished even before the Black and Howell was. Now the Virginia City Mercantile is on the site.
This was the C Street side of the Frederick House Hotel at C and Union Streets. The main hotel tower was downhill at D Street, and it stood 5 stories tall. At C Street it was more modest. This was all torn down by the early 20th century.
After the Frederick House was demolished, this little gift shop was built on the site. Over the years it was known as both Burro Bill on Jackass Hill and the Sky Deck. Now there is a new wooden facade by the sidewalk, but I believe the Sky Deck building is still back there.
To the left of the Sky Deck are the Silver Dollar Hotel and the Bonanza Saloon. These have remained relatively unchanged for the last 50 years, though the Bonanza has gone through multiple cycles of closing down and reopening. Their facade, in particular, is looking real rough.
On the west side of C Street at Union was the International Hotel. This photo shows the third, and largest, incarnation of the International. The first one was built of wood, and was dismantled and moved to Austin Nevada. The second one was brick but burned in the Great Fire of 1875. This third one was the largest and most opulent hotel on the Comstock. It boasted a hydraulic elevator and gas lighting, later upgraded to electric. Most of the famous visitors to Virginia City would stay here. It stood until December 1914, when it was claimed by fire. The site has been empty ever since.
Next to the Bucket of Blood and across from the Delta there is a large parking lot. A whole block of old buildings used to be on this spot, including the Dunlop House hotel, but the buildings were torn down close to the turn of the century. It’s been a parking lot at least since the 1940s. The stone monument in the parking lot is made out of ore from every county in Nevada, and is covered with historic markers. The monument was installed in 1959 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of silver on the Comstock.
This block of buildings contains the Ritter Building, on the right, and the Union Brewery just to the left of it. The Ritter Building housed Pat Hart’s Old Brass Rail Saloon for a long time. Now it houses the Roasting House. Not much change here other than the signs above the doors and the tenants inside.
This building is known as the Gillig Block, built by John Gillig in 1876. The old sign for “Hardware, Stoves, & Metals” is still visible on the second floor. There have been many businesses on the ground floor, from John Gillig’s original hardware store, to the White Front in this photo, to the Big Bonanza gift shop in the 1960s, to the Red Garter Saloon. It now houses Old Red Garter western wear.
With how many of the old brick buildings have survived at Virginia City, it’s amazing to think there were still a bunch that didn’t make it. Everything on the east side of C Street south of the old fire station was demolished in the 30s and 40s. These two buildings here look just as sturdy as anything else in town, but they didn’t survive. The Storey County Sheriff’s Office sits on this site now.
These buildings appear in an 1870s Carleton Watkins photo, with a sign saying “Robert Biroth, U.S. Hotel & Restaurant.”
And last we’ll head up to B Street to look at this place. This is the White House boarding house, across the street from the Courthouse. It in the 1950s it was boarded up and looking rough. But unlike the buildings in the previous photo that were unlucky enough to be removed, this one was saved and has been fixed up very nicely. It almost has more charm and character now.
Virginia City is an interesting mix of the old and new, and it’s always compelling to see the ways it has, and hasn’t, changed. There are always more historic photos of Virginia City out there, so I’m sure we’ll be revisiting this series one day. If you want a sneak peek, you can visit the Virginia City page on the Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection and browse through the many historic photos that are there.
Excellent! Thank you for doing this.
Great side-by-side pictures!
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this!