This month was the 6th anniversary of the closing of Carson City’s International House of Pancakes. I did a Ghosts of Carson article on the restaurant back then, but since its replacement has been open for a while I figured it was time to revisit the space.
You can’t talk about this IHOP, of course, without talking about its dark history. On September 6, 2011 this was the site of one of Carson City’s worst mass shootings. On that morning a gunman walked into this IHOP at the corner of Carson Street and Eagle Station Lane and opened fire. Four people were killed, three of them National Guard. Several others were wounded before the gunman turned the gun on himself. The restaurant was closed for months but did reopen after a major remodel. And it continued to operate for another 8 years.
We still don’t know if the lingering memory of that event led to the restaurant’s closure, or if it was just the usual economic reasons. But close it did, with its last day of operation September 29, 2019. It was torn down soon after, and replaced by this Chase bank.
The IHOP was originally a Bob’s Big Boy during the 1980s, and was converted to an International House of Pancakes sometime in the 1990s. It still retained the mid century stylings of the Bob’s up until the end.
Immediately after the incident in 2011, a makeshift memorial was created in the parking lot. There is now a permanent memorial on the site, to ensure that what happened here is not forgotten.
