Dear HRPS Members, I hope you enjoyed Artown! Our online "Neighborhood Stories" series proved to be very popular, and we're pleased so many of you joined us for one of these presentations. If you missed one, you'll be able to view them soon on our website. With cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 rising and a new mask mandate, HRPS will continue keeping our programs virtual. We'll be announcing our lineup of Fall programs soon. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, there are several great programs coming up in August - both virtual and live - including the Sparks Heritage Museum's Third Thursday event on August 19, where HRPS will have a table. Please stop by and say hello. This month we include articles about the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, which includes two railroad tunnels in the Sierras near Truckee, CA; how a community came together to save a 1940s neon sign; the historic homes of 5 famous authors; the new exhibit, "The Latimer School: Lorenzo Latimer and the Latimer Art School" at the Nevada Museum of Art; and an appeal from former HRPS president and Lifetime Member Sharon Honig-Bear to other Lifetime Members. If you enjoy this month's newsletter. consider forwarding to a friend and suggest they join HRPS so they can receive news about programs, events, preservation, and of course our FootPrints quarterly in their own mailbox. |
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Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Sincerely,
Carol Coleman, President
Historic Reno Preservation Society
board@historicreno.org |
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Artown Programs a Great Success! |
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We had record attendance at our many Neighborhood Stories online presentations! Especially popular were "Reno's Historic Kitchens", "Westfield Village", "Movie Footprints in Reno", and "A History of Reno's Schools". Did you miss one? Visit the Neighborhood Stories page of the HRPS website to see all the presentations aired during Artown. Final presentations will be available approximately one week after airing. |
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High Noon With Neal Cobb
Finding and Restoring Part of the Reno Fire Department's PastAugust 19, 2021 Noon-1:00pm via Zoom |
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Jon Wagner began work with the Nevada Division of Forestry in 1979, helping build the Verdi Fire Station located on Garson Road. On Jan. 21, 1985 Jon started work as a recruit in the Training Academy at the Reno Fire Department.
In April 2006 Jon and a group of Reno Firefighters found out about an ex-Reno Fire Department 1917 American Lafrance tractor-drawn aerial fire ladder truck for sale in the San Francisco Bay area. After a couple of trips to see the 1917 ALF, arrangements were made to purchase it and bring it back to Reno. Thus began a 15 year labor of love to restore this historic piece of equipment. You'll see the restoration through a series of detailed photographs taken during the process. Reno's Homeless Fire Engines More vehicles and apparatus were acquired, and eventually this collection became a museum, housed at the Evans Street Fire Station. When that building was torn down in 2008 to make way for Aces ballpark, everything was moved to another City property at 260 B Winter Street. Reno City Council has sold that building and the status of the equipment and its relocation is now up in the air. Read Jon's letter dated July 26, 2021 to Reno Fire Antique and Classic Apparatus (RFACA) members and supporters sounding the alarm. Readers might also be interested in Frank Mullen's comprehensive article in the Reno News & Review. Watch for additional information in the Fall edition of FootPrints. Please register for Jon's presentation below. The presentation is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. |
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Sparks Heritage Museum Third Thursday August 19, 2021 4:00-7:00pm |
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The Sparks Heritage Museum, located at 814 Victorian Ave. in downtown Sparks, continues their Third Thursday events through September.
Each month a local artist is partnered with a local nonprofit in an effort to showcase the great talent and good works in our community. The August event features jewelry artists Alan and Bobbi Metzger and HRPS.
We hope you'll stop by the HRPS table and say hello. This would be a good time to introduce a friend to what we do and acquaint them with this gem of a museum in Sparks.
Coming in September, nationally recognized Native American artist Tia Flores and the Sierra Arts Foundation. Events are free and open to the public. |
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Bob McFadden began cataloging Nevada artists in the late 1990s and self-published a soft cover book of his compilation in 2002, titled "Painters of Nevada 1845-1980". Bob had hoped to keep this reference catalog continually updated as information became available, but he died unexpectedly in 2004.
Years later, with the permission of his family, noted editor and publisher, Jack Bacon, has published "19th and 20th Century Painters of Nevada", the "first comprehensive biographical dictionary on the subject ever published."
Filled with hundreds of gorgeous reproductions, this book belongs on everyone's coffee table! |
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The Latimer School:
Lorenzo Latimer and the Latimer Art ClubNevada Museum of Art - July 31, 2021 - March 27, 2022 |
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Organized on the 90th anniversary of the Nevada Museum of Art, this exhibition brings together landscape paintings by the watercolor painter Lorenzo Latimer, alongside those of the artists he mentored, including Mattie S. Conner, Marguerite Erwin, Dora Groesbeck, Hildegard Herz, Nettie McDonald, Minerva Pierce, Echo Mapes Robinson, Nevada Wilson, and Dolores Samuel Young. These artists joined together to formally found the Latimer Art Club in 1921. The Latimer Art Club is still active and celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021.
The San Francisco-based painter Lorenzo Latimer first visited Fallen Leaf Lake on the south side of Lake Tahoe in summer 1914. It was there that he began to teach annual plein air painting classes. In 1916, he was invited by two students to teach a painting class in Reno. He returned for the next twenty years and became a cherished member of the Northern Nevada arts community. |
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Released in conjunction with the Exhibition, this book can be ordered online through the Nevada Museum of Art.
The Latimer Art Club was the founding volunteer organization of the Nevada Art Gallery, which is known today as the Nevada Museum of Art.
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Lifetime Membership:
A Way to Show Your Commitment to Preservation
By Sharon Honig-Bear
On June 29, HRPS held its annual "Lifetime Member" reception to honor those members who have established lifetime memberships - currently $1,000 or more. When HRPS created the Lifetime Member category in 2011, it was designed as a way for the community to proclaim their love of Reno history. It also served as an endorsement of the work that we were doing and it added convenience…you never had to worry if your membership was up to date!
We are gratified to see how the list of Lifetime members has grown in the past ten years and thought it would be a good time to invite you to join this group of 92 special supporters.
When you become a Lifetime Member, half of your donation is directed to our Reno Heritage Fund. The Fund is used to provide grants to property owners for the improvement of the exterior of their historic buildings-- and we are approaching 50 supported projects. The Fund is also dedicated to a new initiative: projects that recognize our history in other creative ways. One significant focus allows us to expand coverage in the renohistorical app, with recent emphasis on the African-American experience. Historical markers and plaques are another area for support through the Fund.
The major source of funding for the Heritage Fund has been our popular Harvest of Homes Tour. As we all know, the pandemic has forced us to cancel the Tour two years in a row, creating a need to find alternate sources of funding to accomplish our good works.
Some of you may recall that it was my idea to create the Lifetime membership category “back then” and I proudly became the first to sign up. I recently made another contribution to the Heritage Fund. Others, including Peter and Renate Neumann, have recently done this as well. If you are already a Lifetime Member, please join me in taking that step with an additional gift.
Whether a new “Lifetimer” or a Lifetimer making an extra gift, we welcome you. You will be reinforcing your commitment to HRPS and helping Reno’s unique story gets told. |
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Nevada State Museum - Curator's Corner |
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Programs available on video include:
- 19th Century Chinese Immigration in Nevada with Mina Stafford
- Fabulous Fans with Jan Loverin
- Queen of Basket Makers with Anna Camp, Ph.D.
- Snakes of Northwestern Nevada with George Baumgardner, Ph.D.
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Curator’s Corner is a bi-weekly look into the museum’s collections guided by one of their outstanding curators. Since 1941, the museum has collected and interpreted objects related to Nevada’s unique heritage, including historical, cultural, anthropological, and natural history objects.
Curator’s Corner is offered from 1 to 3 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of each month.
Each month the same Curator’s Corner will be presented twice. Check the event calendar for details about this month’s presentation.
You may also watch and listen to past Curator’s Corner presentations on their YouTube Channel. |
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Online Nevada Encyclopedia: Your ONE Resource About Nevada |
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Early Reno Arch circa 1931, courtesy of Nevada Humanities |
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The Online Nevada Encyclopedia (ONE) is a multimedia educational resource produced by Nevada Humanities that incorporates articles, images, and interactive media to explore the landscape, people, and events that have shaped the Silver State’s politics, economy, and culture. The ONE is Nevada’s primary online resource about the state’s history and contemporary culture. Click around and see what you can find!
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11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2021 |
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Threatt Filling Station, Luther, OK
The entrepreneurial Threatt (pronounced THREET) family first sold produce from their 150-acre family farm outside Luther, Oklahoma, in the early 1900s, and over time expanded their offerings to include a filling station (built in 1915), ballfield, outdoor stage, and bar. The filling station was the only known Black-owned and -operated gas station along Route 66 during the Jim Crow era, making it a safe haven for Black travelers. The farm also reportedly provided refuge to Black Oklahomans displaced by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
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Boston Harbor Islands
The Boston Harbor Islands, now part of a National and State Park, are home to a wealth of historic resources dating back 12,000 years, including the most intact Native American archaeological landscape remaining in Boston, historic Fort Standish, the Boston Light, and more.
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Each year the National Trust for Historic Preservation's America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places sheds light on important examples of our nation’s heritage that are at risk of destruction or irreparable damage. More than 300 places have been listed in its 34-year history, and in that time, fewer than 5 percent of listed sites have been lost.
This year's list includes many unknown buildings of African American and Native American heritage, and a set of tunnels through the Sierras, constructed by Chinese laborers.
The Summit Tunnels 6 & 7 and Summit Camp Site tell the story of thousands of Chinese railroad workers who constructed the Transcontinental Railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains from 1865 to 1867. These workers, making up approximately 90 percent of the Central Pacific Railroad workforce, risked their lives to cut and build railroad beds and dig tunnels in incredibly difficult working conditions and extremely dangerous terrain and weather—all while being paid less than their white counterparts. |
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Summit Tunnels 6 & 7, Truckee, CA |
Vandalism currently threatens the tunnels, resulting in extensive graffiti, as well as physical damage to cultural and natural resources at the site. The Tahoe National Forest protects the archaeological remains of Summit Camp, but visitors who don’t understand its significance are not always respectful of the site’s remaining artifacts.
Highlighting how Chinese laborers accelerated the development of the American West, and better interpreting and protecting these sites, would honor this important and often overlooked part of our country’s history. |
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Inside the Homes of 5 Famous Writers |
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Some walls do talk. Visit a writer’s house and listen. Whether they’re the childhood or final “forever” home, the houses and hometowns of writers are the raw material from which our cultural history is written and our national identity derives. Communities around the country are converting writers’ homes into public spaces in order to promote individual legacies, and to educate and inspire. Take a peek inside the homes of 5 famous writers. |
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Willa Cather Second Home, Red Cloud, NE Guest rooms now available to book on Airbnb |
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Connecticut Art Museum's Landscape Restoration Turns Historic Paintings into Reality |
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At the turn of the 20th century, a cultivated, colorful character named Florence Griswold established a daring colony of artists who pioneered Impressionist painting in America. The Lyme Art Colony, the biggest of its era, included Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Matilda Browne, and a host of others who made pilgrimages to Griswold’s house between 1899 and the 1930s. These artists came to her rolling riverside acres to paint outdoors and were moved to new creative heights by the grounds’ maple trees, peonies, fruit orchards, and mountain laurels. The site is now the Florence Griswold Museum, a member of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios, a program of the National Trust. Read the full article here. |
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Neon Dream - The Rebuilding of a Brightly Lit Beacon Boosts A Nashville Neighborhood |
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On the Saturday after Thanksgiving in 2020, a small, masked crowd stood in a liquor store parking lot waiting for a 30-foot-tall neon sign to light up. It may sound odd, but to the neighborhood of East Nashville, this was hope.
When a violent tornado ripped through Main Street after midnight on March 3 of that year, it knocked down the neon sign that had towered above Weiss Liquors since the late 1940s. The store is a Nashville institution, having first served as a speakeasy starting in 1932.
Even before the tornado, Nick Redford counted the Weiss Liquors sign as his favorite. Redford owns Fortify, a design/fabrication shop. “Those huge signs are like extravagant, absurd dinosaurs,” he says. “People just don’t know how to make them anymore.”
Fortunately, Redford does.The store’s third-generation owner, Anne Nicholas Weiss, immediately knew she wanted to restore the sign. |
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In the market for a car? This dealership was just two blocks from the current National Automobile Museum, where you can see an Overland on display. |
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Encourage Your Friends to Join HRPS! |
The Reno landscape is changing every day, new buildings going up, and sadly, some old ones coming down. HRPS is "Dedicated to Preserving and Promoting Historic Resources in the Truckee Meadows through Education, Advocacy and Leadership" HRPS has nearly 500 members, and your membership is a vote for historic preservation.
Do you have friends, neighbors, or family members who share an interest in our mission? If so, forward a copy of this newsletter and encourage them to join HRPS!
A single membership is just $25/year ($45 for a family membership) and you can now join and pay online. Members enjoy monthly e-mail newsletters, our information-packed quarterly FootPrints magazine, free admission to walking tours and certain other HRPS events, plus the knowledge you are helping support historic preservation in Reno. |
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Download the Reno Historical app or go to the Reno Historical website for an instant mini-history. Reno Historical is a great way to introduce friends to historical homes, buildings and neighborhoods, or educate yourself. The content is always being updated. |
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The Historic Reno Preservation Society is your voice for historic preservation in the Reno area. We strive to keep members up to date on interesting buildings, development that threatens historic structures, and provide you with timely and interesting information to enrich your appreciation of local history, whether you're a multi-generation Nevadan, or brand new to town. |
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Historic Reno Preservation Society is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting historic resources in the Truckee Meadows through education, advocacy, and leadership. |
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Historic Reno Preservation Society | P.O. Box 14003, Reno, NV 89507 board@historicreno.org | 775-747-4478
Virginia Street Bridge photos courtesy of Nevada Historical Society
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