Download to - Virginia Street RAPID Extension Project

MIDTOWN HISTORY PROJECT
Prepared for:
Howard Riedl
Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County
1105 Terminal Way, Suite 108
Reno, NV 89502
Prepared by:
Alicia Barber, Ph.D.
Stories in Place LLC
2370 Watt Street
Reno, NV 89509
May 13, 2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.0
PROJECT DESCRIPTION ..................................................................................................1
2.0
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT SUMMARY .........................................................................2
3.0
RENO HISTORICAL SUMMARY ..................................................................................16
1.0
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Midtown History Project was conducted in 2015-2016 as part of the Regional Transportation
Commission’s Virginia Street RAPID extension project. Its completion helps RTC to effectively
integrate the analysis of historical and cultural resources into the broader corridor project, documenting
the historical context and importance of the corridor to Reno’s history and development.
The project consisted of archival research, oral history interviews with 30 individuals, and the creation of
24 historical entries for Reno Historical (the Reno history website and mobile app hosted by the Special
Collections department, UNR Libraries at renohistorical.org). Photographs posted to Reno Historical
include images secured from historical archives and personal collections as well as contemporary
photographs taken by Alicia Barber of physical sites, and portraits of interview subjects taken by project
photographer Patrick Cummings.
This early incorporation of historical and cultural resources research is intended to help facilitate the
seamless integration of the corridor project with analysis and documentation under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It has also enabled RTC to directly involve the community in telling
the story of the corridor’s past, and helping to shape its future.
Image courtesy of Barry O’Sullivan
Midtown History Project 1
2.0
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT SUMMARY
At the onset of the Midtown oral history project, research was conducted to identify significant sites and
themes worthy of exploration, as well as prospective chroniclers whose firsthand experiences could
illuminate those topics. Interviews began in April 2015 and extended through April 2016. Over the course
of the next twelve months, 30 individuals agreed to be interviewed about their firsthand experiences and
knowledge related to the area currently described as Midtown.
After oral histories were recorded, the audio was transcribed and the transcripts edited. Each chronicler
was allowed to approve the transcript before it was finalized and formatted for deposit in the Special
Collections archive of the University of Nevada, Reno Library. The oral history transcripts will be made
available in digital form to researchers and the general public, while the full audio recordings and release
forms will be available at the Library upon request. Excerpts from the oral histories also appear on the
Reno Historical app (renohistorical.org), accompanying entries for the specific sites to which they relate.
Oral History Chronicler List
Jack Bacon
Jonathan Bascom
Mark Bonnenfant
Tammy Borde
Bernie Carter
Kasey and Christian Christensen
Neal Cobb
Randy Collins
Paul Doege
Jerry Fenwick
Ivan Fontana and Sadie Bonnette
Joe Granata
Jack Hawkins
Tim Healion
Christine Kelly
Renee Lauderback and Duke Morin
Jan Leggett
Barrie Lynn
Barry O’Sullivan
Rader Rollins
Hillary Schieve
Jessica Schneider
George Siri, Jr. and Jeff Siri
Sam Sprague
Peter Stremmel
Angela Watson
Midtown History Project 2
Jack Bacon
Owner, Jack Bacon & Company
Formerly located at 516 S. Virginia Street
Jack Bacon moved to Reno with his family in 1975 and founded an art gallery the following year, at age
eighteen. In 1998 he purchased the building at 516 South Virginia Street, where he operated Jack Bacon
& Company, dealing in picture framing, custom book publishing, historical autographs, and appraisals.
He sold the building in 2012. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Jonathan Bascom
Owner, Dreamer’s Coffee House & Deli
701 S. Virginia Street
Reno native Jonathan Bascom got his start in the coffee business in 1998, when he took ownership of a
coffee cart at Washoe Medical Center. In 2002, he opened Dreamer’s Coffee House at the Riverside
Artist Lofts. In 2012, he reopened Dreamer’s at 701 S. Virginia Street. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 3
Mark Bonnenfant
Manager, Peerless Cleaners
698 Forest Street
Mark Bonnenfant’s grandfather, Fred Bonnenfant, purchased Peerless Cleaners at 698 Forest Street in
1949. After the death of Fred, Sr., Mark’s father, also named Fred, ran the business for many years.
Today, Mark manages the family business in the original historic building. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Tammy Borde
Owner, Chocolate Walrus
1278 S. Virginia Street
Tammy Borde bought the Chocolate Walrus in 2004 and moved the business to its current site at 1278 S.
Virginia Street. She also owns the Sierra Nevada Chocolate Company at 1290 S. Virginia Street and for a
time operated Lulu’s Chic Boutique at 1298 S. Virginia Street. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 4
Bernie Carter
Real estate developer and property owner
Various sites
Bernie Carter grew up in eastern Nevada and moved to Reno in 2000 after time in Oregon, Las Vegas,
Colorado, and Genoa. He began to purchase property in the Midtown area in 2008, starting with the
building now housing Carter Bros. Hardware Store, operated by his brother, Tim. Carter’s other Midtown
projects include the Sticks development and numerous rental properties. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Christian & Kasey Christensen
Owners, Süp
669 S. Virginia Street
Christian and Kasey Christensen met in Hawaii in 2000. Christian, a Reno native, worked his way up in
numerous kitchens before becoming a chef himself. They were married in 2006 and founded the
restaurant Süp at 719 S. Virginia Street in August 2007. The couple moved the restaurant just up the
street, to a renovated historic bungalow at 669 S. Virginia Street, in 2011. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 5
Neal Cobb
Son of owner of KNEV-FM and Modern Radio & TV
Formerly located at 538 S. Virginia Street
Neal Cobb’s father, Jerry, founded a number of local businesses including Modern Photo, a shop that
moved into the building at 520 S. Virginia Street in the early 1950s. His father also ran Modern Radio &
TV and the KNEV-FM radio station out of 538 S. Virginia Street. Neal worked in both buildings with his
family and shares his own early memories of the neighborhood. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Randy Collins
Owner, College Cyclery
622 S. Virginia Street
Randy Collins moved to Reno with his family in 1963. In 1973, he began working at College Cyclery,
then located on Arlington Avenue. In 1975, the shop moved to its current location at 622 S. Virginia
Street, and Collins became a partner and ultimately the sole owner. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 6
Paul Doege
Owner, Recycled Records
822 S. Virginia Street
Born and raised in Cleveland, Paul Doege moved to Reno in 1980 and that December, purchased
Recycled Records, which had been founded in 1978 at 1440 South Wells Avenue. He moved the business
several times, to South Virginia & Kietzke, then to Keitkze & Moana, and finally, in 2012, to 822 S.
Virginia Street in Midtown. He also had branches in Sparks and near UNR. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Jerry Fenwick
Son of manager of Sherwin-Williams paint store
Formerly located at 1460 S. Virginia Street
In 1946, Jerry Fenwick’s father, O.T. “Fen” Fenwick, moved his family from California to Reno where he
managed the Sherwin-Williams paint store then located at 1460 S. Virginia Street, current site of the
Stremmel Gallery. Fenwick shares his own memories of the neighborhood. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 7
Ivan Fontana & Sadie Bonnette (with Luca)
Owners, Midtown Eats and Death & Taxes
719 S. Virginia Street and 26 Cheney Street
Sadie Bonnette, originally from Vallejo, California, and
Ivan Fontana, born in Italy, met in Reno. Together with
a partner, they opened Midtown Eats at 719 S. Virginia
Street, in 2011, eventually becoming its sole owners.
They opened the cocktail lounge Death & Taxes in a
former duplex at 26 Cheney Street in 2013. Photo by
Patrick Cummings
Joe Granata
Retired Reno fire captain
Formerly stationed at 532 S. Virginia Street
Joe Granata’s grandfather moved to Reno around 1904. Joe was born in 1937, and as a child, lived for a
time in the Giraudo Apartments at 717 S. Virginia Street. As an adult, he worked as a firefighter and spent
a great deal of time in the Southside Fire Station once located at 532 S. Virginia Street. Now a retired fire
captain, he shares his firsthand memories of the Midtown area. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 8
Jack Hawkins
Architect
1400 S. Virginia Street
Jack Hawkins grew up in Missouri and earned an architecture degree from the University of Kansas.
After several years in Australia and Phoenix, he founded Hawkins & Associates in Reno in 1994. With
offices at 1400 S. Virginia Street, he has worked on numerous Midtown-area projects, including the
Stremmel Gallery, Lulou’s, 8 on Center, and 777 Center Street. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Tim Healion
Former Owner, Deux Gros Nez and Manager, Laughing Planet Café
650 Tahoe Street
Tim Healion opened the legendary coffee shop Deux Gros Nez with his partner John Jesse at 249
California Avenue in 1995. The two later opened the Pneumatic Diner, and eventually Healion helmed
Deux Gros Nez alone until its closure in 2006. He also founded the popular bike race, the Tour de Nez. In
2014 Healion helped open the Laughing Planet Café at 650 Tahoe Street. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 9
Christine Kelly
Owner, Sundance Books & Music
121 California Avenue
Christine Kelly began to work at Sundance Books at the
store’s original location at 1155 West 4th Street. Eventually
she became the store manager and then owner. In 2011 the
store, now called Sundance Books & Music, moved to the
historic Levy House at 121 California Avenue, where Kelly
is also publisher and executive editor of the publishing
company she founded, Baobab Press. Photo by Patrick
Cummings.
Renee Lauderback & Duke Morin
Owner, Mountain Music Parlor and Owner, Morin Construction
735 S. Center Street
Renee Lauderback and her father, Duke Morin, have both operated businesses in the historic Martha
Wingfield House at 735 S. Center Street. Duke was first, using the house as offices for his contracting
solar heating, and roofing companies. Later, Renee opened her own company, General Gutter, here, and
in 2014 began to convert the entire house into the Mountain Music Parlor. Photo by Tim Dunn/RGJ.
Midtown History Project 10
Jan Leggett
Grandson of Sid Leggett (owner of Oxbow Motor Lodge, Ho Hum Motel, Sidney Leggett Building)
941 S. Virginia Street, 1025 S. Virginia Street, 1039 S. Virginia Street
Jan Leggett’s grandfather, Sidney Leggett, was one of Reno’s early advertising men. He ran a billboard
business at 1039 S. Virginia Street and three motels: the Oxbow Motor Lodge, Ho Hum Motel, and Sutro
Motel. Jan shares his memories of the properties and the neighborhood. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Barrie Lynn
Realtor, Rental Property Owner, and Preservation Advocate
151 Wonder Street
Realtor Barrie Lynn leads historic tours of the Midtown and Wells Avenue neighborhoods for the Historic
Reno Preservation Society. Owner of several historic properties including her own home, she has
conducted extensive research on the area and its residents. A passionate advocate for preservation, Lynn
led the effort to establish the Wells Avenue Conservation District in 2013. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 11
Barry O’Sullivan
Midtown resident and rental property owner
706 Holcomb Avenue
Born in Reno, Barry O’Sullivan recalls spending time at his grandparents’ house at 706 Holcomb
Avenue, where he now lives. His father began to purchase houses in the Midtown area for rentals in the
late 1950s and also constructed some new apartments. Barry took over the property management business
after his father passed away in 2003. He is an expert on the neighborhood. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Rader Rollins
Owner, Statewide Lighting & Accents
1311 S. Virginia Street
In 1974, Rader Rollins moved from Las Vegas to Reno, where his family had opened Statewide Lighting
at 1311 S. Virginia Street the previous year. He began working in the store while still a student at UNR,
eventually becoming its owner. He discusses the changes to the area and the expansion of the family
business into Statewide Lighting & Accents. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 12
Hillary Schieve
Owner, Plato’s Closet and Clothes Mentor and Mayor of Reno
Plato’s Closet formerly located at 1535 S. Virginia Street, Clothes Mentor still at 1509 S. Virginia Street
Hillary Schieve opened a Plato’s Closet franchise at South Virginia Plaza at the corner of South Virginia
and Mt. Rose Streets in 2007, and a Clothes Mentor franchise next door in 2011. She served on Reno City
Council from 2012 to 2014, and in 2014 was elected Mayor of Reno. She discusses the early years of
Midtown and her experiences as a businessperson and civic leader. Photo courtesy City of Reno.
Jessica Schneider
Owner, Junkee Clothing Exchange
960 S. Virginia Street
Jessica Schneider grew up in Gardnerville where her first business was called the Jitterbug. Once in Reno,
she ran an interior design studio called Decorating with Style from 2000 to 2008. She opened Junkee
Clothing Exchange at 960 S. Virginia Street in 2008 and was instrumental in the early branding of Reno.
She opened Sippee’s New and Used Kids Clothes in 2013. Photo by Sarah Petrie.
Midtown History Project 13
George Siri, Jr. and Jeff Siri
Former co-owner of Ponderosa Meat Company (and son Jeff, former employee)
1264 S. Virginia Street
In 1954, George Siri, Jr. bought his father’s interest in Reno Frozen Food Lockers, the storage and
butchering business his father, George Siri, Sr., had founded with Willie Carano at 1264 S. Virginia
Street. In 1974, George Jr. partnered with Don O’Day and Bruno Mastelotto to create the Ponderosa Meat
Company. His son, Jeff Siri, also worked in the business while growing up. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Sam Sprague
Owner, Micano and Garden
1350 S. Virginia Street
Originally from Fernley, Sam Sprague moved to the Reno-Sparks area in 1969 and later entered the U.S.
Army. He founded Micano Home and Garden in 2003 at 1350 S. Virginia Street after traveling around
Mexico to purchase art and handcrafted goods. He was a participant in the early meetings that led to the
formation of the Midtown District. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 14
Peter Stremmel
Executive Director, Stremmel Gallery
1400 S. Virginia Street
Peter Stremmel moved with his family from California to Reno when he was just a child. His father, Bill
Stremmel, was in the horse-booking business and founded Stremmel Motors at 1492 S. Virginia Street in
the mid-1950s. Peter founded the Stremmel Gallery at 1466 S. Virginia Street in the early 1970s. He is
now the Executive Director of the much-expanded Stremmel Gallery. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Angela Watson
Owner, Black Hole Body Piercing
912 S. Virginia Street
Originally from southern California, Angela Watson moved to Truckee in 1992 and to Reno in 1994,
when she purchased Black Hole Body Piercing. She later moved the business to 675 South Virginia Street
from its original location on California Avenue and around 2003 moved to its current location in a
renovated house at 912 S. Virginia Street. Photo by Patrick Cummings.
Midtown History Project 15
3.0
RENO HISTORICAL ENTRIES
The Reno Historical app and website (renohistorical.org) is a map-based digital platform offering stories
and images about historic places throughout Reno. Based in the Special Collections department of the
University of Nevada, Reno Library, Reno Historical is a collaborative effort involving the UNR Library,
Nevada Historical Society, City of Reno, and Historic Reno Preservation Society.
For the Midtown History Project, 25 new Reno Historical entries for the Midtown area were created,
adding to the three pre-existing entries for the area. Each entry includes a narrative description of the site,
three to ten historical and contemporary images, and in some cases, video and/or audio clips from oral
histories or documentaries. Many other sites were researched, and can be incorporated into future stories.
Included here are the main narratives for each Midtown site, with a sampling of photos.
Reno Historical Midtown Entries
Levy House
California Apartments
Jack Bacon Building
Southside Fire Station (site)
Hale Building
Osen Motor Sales Company
Peerless Cleaners
Martha Wingfield House
Frohlich Building
Giraudo Apartments/Penguin Café
Reno Pet Food Market
Western Building
Nevada Auto Service
Barnes Radio Service
Crystal Springs Ice Company
Shoshone Coca-Cola Bottling Company
Ho Hum Motel
Sidney Leggett Building
Solari Building
Dr. Pepper Bottling Company
Auto Painting & Trimming/Heidtman Motor Co.
Ponderosa Meat Company
Benetti Block
Landrum’s Hamburger System No. 1
Sewell’s Supermarket
El Reno Apartments (original site)
Miguel’s Restaurant
Eddie’s Corner Bar/Mr. O’s
Midtown History Project 16
Levy House (1906)
Sundance Books & Music
121 California Avenue
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/129
Merchant Wilhelm Levy immigrated to America from Prussia (Germany). Later, he moved to Nevada and
operated dry goods stores in a couple of mining boom towns. In 1887, he moved to Reno and with his
partner, Jacob Morris, rented a first-class store. The mercantile was finished with an iron façade and two
plate glass show-windows.
In 1895, Levy opened his Palace Dry Goods and Carpet House in a two-story shop on East Second Street
between North Virginia and Center Streets. One month later, Wilhelm married Tillie Goldsmith of
Prussian ancestry in San Francisco. After their wedding, the Levys moved back and forth between San
Francisco and Nevada. Their daughter Fritzie was born in San Francisco, while daughter Mildred was
born in Reno.
In 1906, the Levys bought the land on the corner of Granite Street (now South Sierra Street) and
California Avenue to build a mansion in the Classic Revival architectural style. The front portico has six
Ionic columns reaching up to the hipped and truncated roof with two dormer windows.
When she grew up, Fritzie spent her life in San Francisco, while Tillie, Wilhelm, and Mildred lived in the
mansion until their deaths. Wilhelm died in 1920, and Tillie in the 1930s. After Tillie died, the sisters
inherited the house. They subdivided the land, jacked it up, and moved the house to the west side of the
property, turning it to face California Avenue. In 1941, the new address of the house was 121 California
Avenue.
Mildred continued to live in the house, while Fritzie took the east side of the property and leased it to
Signal Oil for a gas station facing South Sierra. In 1970, South Sierra Street was widened and the gas
station was demolished.
After Mildred’s death in 1978, a group of attorneys and other businesses located their offices in the
mansion. Today, the Nevada Museum of Art owns the mansion and has leased it to Sundance Books and
Music. The house was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Midtown History Project 17
California Apartments (1921)
45 California Avenue
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/2
In 1921, Reno's so-called "Divorce Colony" was thriving, and building in general was booming. In
addition to a growing permanent population, Reno needed housing for its temporary residents, the
divorce-seekers. On March 29 of that year, the local paper announced that at least three new apartment
buildings were planned. Edward Vacchina and his wife Cora (née Pincolini), both Italian immigrants,
purchased three house lots on the corner of California Avenue and Granite Street (now S. Sierra) in the
Marsh Addition.
The Vacchinas engaged prominent Reno architect Frederic J. DeLongchamps to design the eleven-unit
brick apartment house, which he rendered in a restrained Classical Revival style characterized by the
Classical portico supported by a double set of Doric columns over the entrance. The California
Apartments drew a high-class clientele from among locals and divorce-seekers.It became a practice
among those catering to the divorce trade, especially divorce lawyers, to set their wives up as managers of
apartments and boarding houses. In the case of the California Apartments, Mrs. Vacchina was the on-site
manager, while Mr. Vacchina held positions elsewhere in town. Among his jobs, he served as the
proprietor of a soft drink parlor, a liquor store, and the manager of the Ritz Hotel on Commercial Row.
The rental business continued to be lucrative through the 1920s and '30s, and by 1940, the Vacchinas
believed the time was ripe to expand their business, which they did by building a second apartment
building facing Granite Street, just ten feet behind the original apartment building. The new building
opened in August 1940, comprising 16 modern “bachelor” apartments. Each was furnished, and contained
a living room, cedar closet, kitchenette, and a Murphy bed. The exterior design hinted at Art Moderne
with the entrance flanked with rounded glass blocks and a stainless steel marquee over the entrance. Joe
Tognoni, a young architect who had recently designed the Dog House nightclub, designed the new
California Apartments. In 1941, Tognoni designed the “novel and ultra-modern” Regina Apartments on
Island Drive for owner Jean Sigg.
These two buildings, both with illustrious careers in Reno’s housing history, still stand and function as
apartment buildings in one of Reno’s newly-revived shopping districts.
Midtown History Project 18
Jack Bacon Building (1927)
Feast
516 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/136
Like many of the brick commercial buildings along South Virginia Street, this one started as a family
grocery. There were already several in the neighborhood in 1927, when Frank Greene had this one-story
store constructed in front of the older wood-frame house where he and his wife, Mamie, had lived for
many years. A longtime grocer originally from Indiana, Greene had leased market space in a number of
downtown buildings through the years. Now approaching 60 years old, he surely was proud of finally
having financed his very own.
The street was tree-lined and residential at the time. But Reno was growing southward rapidly, and soon
the growing popularity of the automobile would draw increased business to the thoroughfare. A fire
station designed by Frederic DeLongchamps to resemble a bungalow had been erected on the lot just to
the south in 1917. To the north, on the other side of a small house, the Q-ne-Q root beer and ice cream
stand opened on the corner of Stewart Street at around the same time as Greene’s grocery.
Frank Greene died in 1932 and Mamie ran the market alone until her own death six years later. After that,
the building was divided into three small storefronts, which housed a variety of businesses in the decades
to come. In the 1940s alone, these included a candy store, a piano and organ dealer, a barber shop, a
physician, and an insurance office. In later years, tenants included Friden’s business machines, a laundry
service, and a bar called The Depot.
Midtown History Project 19
The storefronts were combined again in the late 1980s to serve as the offices for Walt Collins’ various
restaurant businesses. Jack Bacon bought the property in 1998 and for the next fifteen years, operated
Jack Bacon & Company, specializing in custom book publishing, framing, and autographs. After Bacon
moved his business online, the building was purchased and remodeled, reopening in 2015 as a restaurant
called Feast.
Southside Fire Station (1917; site)
532 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/156
What is now a driveway and parking lot at a busy urban intersection was once the site of Reno’s most
charming fire station. First known as the Southside Station, it was designed by prominent Nevada
architect Frederic DeLongchamps to resemble a bungalow, complete with a front porch and meticulously
landscaped yard.
Opening in 1917, the station replaced the old Southside at Center and Liberty Streets, a building that had
been constructed in 1908 for horse-drawn equipment. This new facility was specifically designed to
accommodate motorized apparatus, which were just arriving in Reno that year. DeLongchamps designed
a second station in a similar style that was built on East Fourth Street at the same time.
The station’s residential look nicely complemented the neighborhood, which had yet to become a
commercial corridor. Originally, it was flanked on either side by private homes. In 1927, Frank Greene
built a brick grocery on the station’s north side, and much later, in 1946, the Hale building appeared to its
south. Inside, the apparatus room extended along the building’s entire north end with a small kitchen at
the back. The other side contained an office, a dormitory lined with wooden lockers, and a washroom. An
air raid siren was installed on a four-foot tower on the building’s roof in January 1942, to sound the signal
in case of air attack.
Reno’s needs, as well as its equipment, eventually outgrew the little fire house, which closed in the early
1980s, when a larger station was constructed on Moana Lane. Sometime after that, the building was
demolished.
Midtown History Project 20
Hale Building (1946)
Truckee Bagel Co./Ceol Irish Pub
538 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/125
The transformation of South Virginia Street from a quiet residential neighborhood into a thriving business
district was well underway by 1946, when Edward F. Hale financed the construction of a modest brick
commercial building next door to the fire station at California Avenue. Hale was a heavy equipment
distributor from Hayward, California who had long counted a number of Reno businesses among his
clients. When the war ended, the pent-up demand for new household appliances spurred him to open a
retail store in Reno, and the double occupancy building allowed him to earn money from an additional
tenant on the north side.
When the building opened in December 1946, that tenant was the Modern Music Center, founded by local
musicians and music teachers Earle Hultberg and Robert O’Briant. The forerunner of Maytan Music, the
center offered musical instruments, sheet music and accessories, professional instruction, and five soundproof studios for practice and recording. In 1953, it moved to larger quarters, the old Martha Wingfield
House at 735 South Center Street. By then, Hale had gone out of business, and Farmers Insurance had
moved in next door.
Replacing the music store was Modern Radio and TV, operated by Jerry Cobb. Cobb was an early radio
pioneer, a proponent of applying “Frequency Modulation” technology to radio broadcasting. He had
petitioned without success to operate an FM station out of his private home, and in 1953, founded KNEV,
Nevada’s first successful FM station, in a studio behind his television and radio sales room. The station’s
proximity to the firehouse came in handy, as the telephone pole housing the station’s antennas
occasionally caught fire, prompting brief breaks in transmission to extinguish the flames.
KNEV moved to Kietzke Lane in 1964, and the building went through a number of tenants. The north
side housed a series of restaurants, from Festina’s (known for its pizza pie) to the Asian-inspired Imperial
Restaurant (where a scene from the 1973 Walter Matthau movie Charley Varrick was filmed), to
Midtown History Project 21
Starbucks Coffee, and eventually the Truckee Bagel Company. On the south side, a series of retail stores
culminated in the establishment of Ceol Irish Pub in 2008.
Osen Motor Sales Company (1923)
Midtown Community Yoga/Dollar Store/Discount Food & Liquor Store
600 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/124
The Osen Motor Sales Company opened its beautiful new Frederic DeLongchamps-designed building at
600 South Virginia Street in 1923, when the neighborhood was still almost entirely residential. It was a
bold move for the company, which had operated a showroom and repair shop in downtown Reno for eight
years. Its original location was alongside the railroad tracks on Plaza Row, widely known as “Auto Row”
for its high concentration of automobile dealers. Many doubted the company could be successful so far
from the center of town.
The physical relocation was prompted by two developments: the company’s need for more spacious
accommodations and the street’s emerging status as a motor thoroughfare. Upon opening a Reno branch
in 1915, the California-based Osen-McFarland Auto Company had exclusively offered Mitchell cars, but
it was its second brand, Dodge Brothers, that sent its sales skyward. In short order, George Osen, Jr.
Midtown History Project 22
moved from the Bay Area to Reno to manage the company his father had co-founded, prompting its name
change to Osen Motor Sales and its eventual move to South Virginia Street.
The $40,000 building set a new standard for auto sales and service. Its richly decorated exterior surface
features both raised and recessed brick from the Reno Pressed Brick Company, rows of bricks laid in
horizontal decorative patterns, and ornamented foliated pilaster capitals with medallions of terra cotta.
The emblems inside these medallions, resembling a Jewish Star of David, are formed of two interlocking
triangles with the interlocked letters D and B, for Dodge Brothers, in the center. The emblem served as
the company’s logo through the late 1920s.
Inside, the building oozed with luxury. The expansive sales room was bathed in natural light from large
plate glass windows. The ground floor also featured a repair and service shop in the rear, a conference
room, private offices, and a stock room. An interior mezzanine level, reached by a stairway from the sales
room, contained a reception hall, a ladies’ restroom, and George Osen’s private office.
In 1927, further success prompted the construction of an addition—the southern half of the current
building—where the company offered used car sales, a service area, shower and bathroom, and battery
store.
Osen died in 1944 from complications following injuries sustained while serving overseas. Philip E. Dietz
then bought the company, and the building later housed a series of auto dealers including the Dimond
Motor Company, Les Schwimley Motors, and Nevada Chrysler Plymouth. No longer offering autorelated services, the building is now devoted to retail, dining, and various other businesses.
Peerless Cleaners (1946)
698 Forest Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/149
Midtown History Project 23
There’s something soapy at the intersection of St. Lawrence Avenue and Forest Street. Two businesses,
separated in time but linked by a passion for keeping things clean, have perched on this little hilltop since
1906, when it was still the outskirts of town.
The first to build here was the Commercial Soap Factory, constructed in 1906 after operating at American
Flat, near Virginia City, for thirty years. The company sold a variety of washing powders and so-called
“toilet soaps,” including Paul Savon, Golden West Savon, Borax, and Chemical Olive Soap. August
Frolich purchased the company in 1913, and sold the business and most of its machinery to the newlyformed Sierra Nevada Soap Company in 1932. Three years later, the entire complex, then vacant, burned
down.
The surrounding streets were reoriented after the fire. Originally, St. Lawrence Avenue ran westward
from Plumas Street but dead-ended at Forest Street, where it was blocked by the soap company. From the
other direction, a very narrow street called Steiner extended from Virginia Street for just two blocks, also
dead-ending at Forest. After the demolition of the soap company's remnants, St. Lawrence and Steiner
Streets were linked, with the entire street eventually renamed St. Lawrence.
The factory site stood vacant for several years until the construction of Peerless Cleaners, a dry cleaning
plant, began in 1946. The building also housed Beatty Hatworks, run by Roy Beatty. Less than a year
after opening its doors, Peerless owner Bob Cantrell was seriously injured in a car accident, and in 1949,
Fred Bonnenfant, Sr. bought the business from him. An experienced businessman, Bonnenfant had
founded Blue Goose Cleaners in Sparks, and later ran the Lustrlux Cleaners on Sierra Street in Reno.
Bonnenfant and his wife, Maxine, found great success with Peerless Cleaners. Their son, Fred, began
working there after graduating from high school, but Fred Sr. continued to run the place until his death in
1991. The family added a laundry room in the 1950s, primarily for laundering shirts. A new boiler room
and offices were also added to the south side of the building.
Although dry cleaning procedures have changed over time, the business has retained its wide range of
clientele, handling wardrobe for area casinos, from Harolds Club to the Silver Legacy, as well as
individual customers. In 2006, the Bonnenfant family partnered with Norm Davis, with Fred Sr.'s
grandson Mark managing the operation.
Midtown History Project 24
Martha Wingfield House (c. 1912)
Mountain Music Parlor
735 South Center Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/130
The South Side Addition was platted in 1903 along with the construction of the South Side School located
on the block bounded by Center and Sinclair Streets, and Stewart and Liberty. The new residential area
south of it formed a wedge shape running east from Virginia Street to Holcomb, and extending four
blocks southward from Moran Street. In the years to follow, the neighborhood slowly filled with
bungalows and other comfortable homes.
Born in Arkansas in 1848, Martha Matilda Wingfield moved to the neighborhood from the Bay Area to
live near her son, George. He had become a resident of Reno in 1909 after making a fortune in the central
Nevada mining town of Goldfield. Together with his partner, George Nixon, Wingfield gained ownership
of a large number of banks, and would eventually become known as the “Emperor of Nevada” for his
extraordinary economic and political influence.
For her Reno home, Martha Wingfield selected a 1912 Craftsman bungalow, a style that was experiencing
widespread popularity in the U.S. during the early years of the twentieth century. At the time of her move
to 735 South Center Street, Mrs. Wingfield was a fairly recent widow. Her husband, Thomas, had died in
San Francisco in 1906, and her move to Reno may have been hastened by the birth of son George’s first
child, Jean, in February of 1912.
Once in Reno, the new grandmother became active in many local organizations, including the Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the local chapter of the American Red Cross, and the Order of the
Eastern Star. The Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Church and the WCTU both met
frequently in her home.
Martha Wingfield died in 1940 at age 91, and in the years to follow, the house was converted to
commercial purposes and its new owners constructed additions on the south and west sides. In 1953, it
became the Modern Music Center, the precursor of Maytan Music. With the construction of a new
Midtown History Project 25
building at the corner of Cheney and South Center Streets in 1979, the Maytans transferred ownership of
the Martha Wingfield House to their contractor, Duke Morin. He ran his construction business and other
ventures out of the house for several decades.
Upon his retirement, Morin’s daughter, Renee Lauderback, turned the house into the Mountain Music
Parlor, a combination performance venue, music shop, and instructional space dedicated to traditional
American music.
Frohlich Building (1926)
Saint Lawrence Commons
701 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/135
What is now the cornerstone of a busy Midtown intersection started out as two modest storefronts facing
Virginia Street. The year was 1926, and the Memphis-based Piggly Wiggly grocery chain was eager to
open a second Reno store. Constructed here especially for that purpose was a single-story brick structure
with two storefronts, 711 and 713 South Virginia. Piggly Wiggly originally occupied just the northern
half of what was commonly referred to as the Frohlich building, after property owner (and one-time Reno
mayor) August Frohlich.
Midtown History Project 26
At the time, a wood frame house long owned by the Stiner family still stood next door, on the corner of
Saint Lawrence Avenue, which was then called Steiner Street. It was the Stiners who had platted out the
three blocks extending west from Virginia Street back in 1907 (the misspelling of Stiner when naming the
street was likely a clerical error). In 1934, Piggly Wiggly expanded into the second storefront. By then the
two-story Giraudo Apartments had been built next door, boasting two ground floor commercial spaces. In
1936, all area Piggly Wiggly stores, including this one, were bought out by the Nevada-based Sewell’s
chain, which operated in this spot for the next five years.
Big changes came to the intersection in 1941. The old Stiner house on the corner had been moved in order
to widen Steiner Street, and a new storefront was added to the north side of the grocery. In March 1941, it
opened as Heric’s Doughnut Shop (really a full café). The new addition largely matched the appearance
of the original brick building, with a few distinct touches—most notably, the beautiful black and red tile
beneath the large plate glass windows flanking the corner entrance. That same year, Sewell’s moved out,
to a new building constructed at 445 South Virginia. Taking its place here was the Mount Rose Market,
which eventually built a rear addition for selling appliances. The market closed in the late fifties, as large
supermarkets began to push independent groceries out of business. Heric retired in the mid-sixties,
closing his café and moving to Arizona.
From 1965 through the early 2000s, the corner spot was occupied by a series of nightclubs that eventually
took over the remaining commercial spaces—first, Club-a-Go-Go, followed by the Peppermint Lounge,
Del Mar Station, and Coco Boom. In 2009, the entire building was purchased, completely renovated, and
divided into six separate storefronts. It reopened as Saint Lawrence Commons, housing retail, food, and a
local theater.
Giraudo Apartments/Penguin Café (1928)
Shea’s Tavern/Midtown Eats
717 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/123
The Giraudo Apartments were constructed in 1928 from a design by Nevada’s premier architect at the
time, Frederic DeLongchamps. The building featured two storefronts and one apartment on the ground
Midtown History Project 27
floor, with six apartments upstairs. It was a popular address for divorce-seekers serving out their six
weeks in the years when Reno reigned as the Divorce Capital of the World.
The darker bricks used on the building’s façade exemplify some popular decorative styles. The wide
course running across the building’s midsection is laid in a soldier formation, in which the bricks are set
upright. The wide borders surrounding the upstairs windows and forming smaller rectangles above them
are set in a rowlock style, where bricks are laid on their narrow sides with the short ends exposed. The
arched center doorway leading to the upstairs apartments adds an additional note of elegance.
The building’s first commercial tenant was Gunter’s Grocery, operated by Louis E. Gunter, who had been
running a market just down the block at 745 South Virginia Street. His new grocery ran the entire length
of the north side of the building, and opened despite being adjacent to the Piggly Wiggly, a chain grocery
that had opened just two years earlier. That two markets could operate in such close proximity was a
testament to the large number of houses in the area, which had yet to develop into a commercial district.
Through the years, various tenants occupied the ground floor. The larger commercial space on the
building’s north side later became the Virginia Market, then the Seven Fifteen Bar (named for its
address), Duncan’s Pub, and eventually, Shea’s Tavern. The smaller space on the south side, which
fronted the downstairs apartment, served as a cleaner’s, a drug store, a rose shop, and for many years,
Penguin Ice Cream, which reportedly served 4500 customers during its opening week in 1935. Perks
included curbside service and free delivery for orders of a quart or more. The Penguin, with its familiar
black-and-white checkered floor, eventually transformed into a full-fledged cafe, and following its closure
in the 1980s, the space housed several restaurants including the original Luciano's and, finally, Midtown
Eats.
Reno Pet Food Market (1923)
Green Rush Eco Clothing
745 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/128
Midtown History Project 28
The Reno Pet Food Market opened at 745 South Virginia Street in the midst of the Second World War, as
grain and meat rationing strained production for many pet food manufacturers. In response, the
entrepreneurial Combs family cooked up a special vitamin loaf for cats and dogs from a recipe featuring
wild horse meat, powdered milk, ground carrots, soy bean and corn meals, all cooked onsite in a giant
steam pressure cooker. The full-service market also offered fresh cuts of meat, pet care products and
accessories, free delivery, and even a drive-through window.
Rachael Combs ran the place while the men of the family served their country during the war. Upon their
return, an ad reassured the public, “To those who inquired as to whether the Reno Pet Food Market has
changed hands, we are happy to say it has not—we are merely giving the girls who carried on so ably in
our absence a well-deserved rest.” At various times, the store sold puppies, kittens, turtles, birds, and even
Shetland ponies.
The building itself long predated the Combs’ shop, having opened in 1923 as a grocery operated by Ruel
O. James and then by Louis E. Gunter. In 1928, Gunter opened a new market just up the street inside the
Giraudo Apartment building, and the vacancy was filled by Ruth’s Bakery and then Oden Cyclery until
the Combs family opened their store in 1943. It finally closed its doors in 1975.
The second storefront, 743 South Virginia, was the home of Dick Lusetti’s home appliance store from the
1940s to the 1980s. Before that, it housed a donut shop run by Jack Heric, and even earlier, Elmer
Brown’s cleaners. From the start, Lusetti did a brisk business, capitalizing on postwar consumer demand
for everything from the new automatic washing machines to deep freezers. Since the 1980s, various
businesses have operated in the twin commercial spaces.
Western Building (1951)
Gaia Fitness & Dance Studio/Recycled Records
818 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/155
As South Virginia gradually converted into a business corridor, many of its longtime residents began to
develop their properties for commercial purposes. Some had their houses demolished and constructed new
Midtown History Project 29
buildings where they had stood. Others attached new commercial additions to their residences,
transforming either the front sections or the entire structures into businesses.
The Segales took a different path. Giacomo “Jack” Segale, a native of Italy, had immigrated to the U.S. in
1897 and pursued mining for many years on the Comstock, in the Manhattan District and in Olinghouse, a
mining camp once located about nine miles north of Wadsworth. In 1912, Jack married Jennie Ghiggeri,
twenty years his junior. About five years later, the couple settled for good in Reno, where Jack ran a
plumbing and heating business out of their home at 818 South Virginia Street.
Jack died in 1932 at age 59, and Jennie continued to live in the house with their only child, Vernon.
Slowly, the neighborhood began to change. More and more brick commercial buildings were joining the
landscape of longstanding single-family homes. Finally, the time had come to join them. In the late
1940s, Jennie and Vernon hired the Bevilacqua House Moving company to transport their house to a
piece of property on the other side of the block, where Jennie continued to live.
In its place, Vernon had a new business building constructed, one that was not like any other in the area.
Most of the neighboring commercial buildings were either single-story businesses with high ceilings for
industrial uses, or two-story buildings with stores on the ground floor and apartments above.
The Western Building opened in June of 1951 as a commercial building with a spacious second floor
composed entirely of “Reno’s Newest Modern Offices.” It was a savvy move, as downtown Reno was
becoming increasingly congested, and parking was at a premium. On South Virginia Street, businesses
literally had more room to grow. The earliest tenants included Granata and Lucini Realtors and Insurers
and New York Life Insurance. Longtime retailers occupying the ground floor included Pabco Paint Mart
and the American Shoe Company. Jennie lived out the rest of her days at 801 S. Center Street, and died in
1976 at age 82. She is buried at Mountain View Cemetery next to her husband, Giacomo.
Nevada Auto Service (1929)
The Saint
761 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/152
Midtown History Project 30
In the late 1920s, South Virginia Street was heeding the siren call of the automobile age. Service stations,
dealers, and repair shops were popping up all along the thoroughfare, gradually adding a different
character to the formerly quiet stretch of road.
Constructed in 1929, the beautifully patterned brick building at 761 South Virginia started out as Nevada
Auto Service, Reno’s authorized Buick service provider. Bob Nelson managed the shop, which he ran
until the late 1940s. In later years, he lived in the apartment upstairs. From 1950 through the late 1960s,
the ground floor was the home of Ayres Auto Parts and, later, to a number of other auto supply stores.
In 1963 or 1964, the 777 Motel was constructed next door, replacing a used car lot of the same name.
That history accounts for the partially covered “777” and downward arrow painted on the south-facing
wall this building shares with the newer motel. A wood frame duplex long occupied the lot just north of
the building, and burned down in 1950. It was never rebuilt, and in later years the site was dedicated to
used car sales.
Barnes Radio Service (1940)
Lasting Dose Tattoo & Art Collective
888 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/151
James A. Barnes was a true Reno radio pioneer. His lifelong passion began as a hobby during World War
I, as he learned to assemble kit radios he had ordered from magazines. By the early 1920s, he was selling
a few radio sets out of his garage and his mother’s store, Barnes Cash Grocery on West 4th Street.
His interest only grew in the years to follow, even as he pursued full-time work as an oil truck driver, and
then as a mail carrier for the United States Post Office. Things got a bit more serious in 1930, when
Barnes moved into a new house he had built on Nixon Avenue, where he sold radios out of his living
room in the evenings, after punching out from his day job.
Finally, in 1940, Barnes quit the post office for good and paid cash to have this multicolored brick
building constructed at 888 South Virginia Street. Its architect was Laurence Gulling, whose other local
designs include the Southside School Annex (1936) on Liberty Street. The arched roof is supported by a
steel truss that exerts pressure on the inside walls, requiring no additional interior walls for support.
Midtown History Project 31
Advertised as Nevada’s only exclusive radio sales and service shop, Barnes Radio Service offered retail
and repair for radios of all kinds—home, car, and portable. The business closed for 42 months while
Barnes served as a commissioned officer during World War II, and triumphantly reopened to the public in
December 1945. After that he began to deal in televisions, too.
Barnes suffered a heart attack in 1976, and a year later, his son, James A. Barnes, Jr., and daughter-in-law
Elizabeth took over the company. Jim, Jr. had grown up with the business, working for his father since his
high school days. Changes in technology and the increasing tendency of consumers to replace rather than
repair their electronic devices took their toll, and Barnes Radio Service closed for good in 2013.
Crystal Springs Ice Company (1930)
Brasserie Saint James
901 South Center Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/127
By the mid-1920s, commercial ice production had shifted from ice harvesting along the Truckee River
and Boca Dam to large mechanical ice production companies. Reno businesses and homes relied on these
producers to supply their refrigeration needs; an “ice today” sign left in the window would notify the
delivery man to leave a block in the ice box.
In 1929, local entrepreneurs George Kornmayer and Earl Compton hired contractor Steve Rastelli to dig a
well and build the Crystal Springs Ice plant in the Southside Addition. Rastelli drilled through 100 feet of
granite and discovered water at the 285-foot level. Completed in June 1930, the mission-style building
was the first commercial enterprise on Center Street south of the Truckee River.
Kornmaker and Compton soon ran into financial problems, and before long, Rastelli found himself the
primary stock holder and eventually the owner of the plant. Manufacturing 20,000 pounds of ice daily, he
could store 80,000 pounds of surplus ice on the premises.
By 1931, the company introduced delivery of bottled water and also installed what could be considered
Reno’s first water vending machine—a simple hose in front of the building where customers would fill up
Midtown History Project 32
their bottles for free. That ended in 1935 when the health department made them install a sanitary vending
machine.
Among other early customers, the Crystal Springs Ice Company supplied the courthouse, hospitals, jail,
downtown casinos, and the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, whose tracks were located directly across the
street. The company also had a side business of storing hunters’ venison in its cold storage room. Steve
Rastelli added garages and remodeled the buildings until the complex grew to what it is today. He drilled
another artesian well in 1945, when ice delivery was at its peak.
The mass production of refrigerators and home freezers after World War II brought the demise of ice
delivery. In 1965, the Rastellis sold the ice division to Union Ice and shifted to the delivery and
dispensing of water, along with the distribution of coffee, hot cups, and soups. After Steve Rastelli’s
death in 1971, the family sold the bottled water business to Doug Hird, who upgraded the facility to meet
all the modern sanitary requirements for bottled water.
Hird and his extended family ran the business until selling it in 2008. Arthur Farley purchased the
building in 2010 and two years later, opened Brasserie Saint James, a restaurant and brewery using the
water from the property’s celebrated artesian wells.
Shoshone Coca-Cola Bottling Company (1927)
Junkee Clothing Exchange
960 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/133
The Shoshone Coca-Cola Bottling Company was a commercial enterprise doubling as entertainment
destination. On any given day, a row of children could be found standing transfixed outside the large
windows on the building’s south side. There, Karl Breckenridge remembers “watching the parade of
green-hued clear bottles down the conveyer line. They marched like sparkling soldiers in lockstep from
west to east, or left to our right, being squirted four-at-a-time full of Coca-Cola, to then disappear from
view just as another machine capped them—poetry in motion.” Occasionally a young spectator would be
rewarded with a free Coke, courtesy of a kindly attendant.
Midtown History Project 33
Brothers Les and Stanley Farr, along with Leslie’s son, Curtis, ran the operation from the mid-1920s
through 1970, but the Shoshone Soda Works was already a successful soda manufacturer when it won the
exclusive western Nevada franchise for bottling Coca-Cola in 1929. The company benefited from its own
water supply, Diamond Springs water, a business dating back to 1903, when Reno did not have a reliable
municipal drinking water system. Sensing an eager market, founder George Pettigrew, the area’s bestknown artesian well borer, had marketed and distributed Diamond Pure water from his own well on
Reno’s south side.
By 1919 the Daudels had bought Pettigrew’s water company and began to manufacture soda water and
ginger ale at their Daudel Bottling Works, located on this site. In 1924, Leslie O. Farr bought the whole
operation, which included a service station and small grocery in a small wood frame building. The
company sold Eagle Punch and Bluebird soda, among other brands, distributing them regionally. In the
early years, Les used a foot-operated pedal to fill the bottles, while Curtis recalled helping his father by
hand washing 25 to 30 cases of bottles every weekend.
The original brick building, now the southwest wing, was constructed in 1927. That portion continued to
house offices while the later one-story additions, built in 1939 and 1941, were dedicated to the bottling
operations, warehousing, and shipping. Stanley Farr sold his interest to Les when he retired in 1957, and
Les and Curtis ran the company until 1970 when they sold it to a Texas bottling firm. After the Coca-Cola
operation moved to Vassar Street in 1972, the building became the home of Resco Restaurant Equipment
& Supply Company. Junkee Clothing Exchange opened there in 2008
Ho Hum Motel (1953)
1025 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/119
Tucked between two commercial buildings on South Virginia Street, the Ho Hum Motel has one of the
most charming names in the business. It opened in 1953, when Virginia Street was not only a major
business thoroughfare, but the north-south highway through Reno. The location made it an ideal place to
stay for tourists who wanted a little distance from the clubs and casinos of downtown.
Midtown History Project 34
Original owner Sidney Leggett was already in the lodging business, having opened the Sutro Motel on
East 4th Street in 1951. The property where the Ho Hum sits was adjacent to commercial buildings he
already owned, including his namesake building just to the south (see separate entry).
The Ho Hum features the same architectural style as the Sutro Motel: brick construction with a Spanishstyle red barrel tile roof. In order to maximize the number of rooms for its small lot, the L-shaped, 18-unit
motel is two stories tall in the rear. The open building to its south, now used as motel parking, was
originally a commercial building where Rauhut’s Bakery and Coffee Shop operated for many years.
With the construction of U.S. Route 395/Interstate 580, South Virginia Street no longer served as a
highway, and its tourist lodgings shifted primarily to weekly and monthly rentals. And yet the Ho Hum
retains exceptional architectural integrity, adding a picturesque touch to this stretch of historic
commercial buildings.
Sidney Leggett Building (1931)
Pirate Tattoo
1039 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/115
Sid Leggett was one of Reno’s original ad men. He and his wife, Helen, moved to the Biggest Little City
in the mid-1920s from San Luis Obispo, California, where Leggett had worked for years in outdoor
advertising. In 1931, he moved his poster and display sign company into a brand new brick building at
1043-1045 South Virginia Street.
Leggett was a true pioneer of local advertising. As the city’s gaming industry took off, Leggett produced
outdoor signs, both billboards and so-called “painted bulletins,” for a number of prominent clients
including the famous Harolds Club. For years, Leggett operated as the town’s sole “posting plant,” the
only business renting billboard space by the month. Leggett purchased the pieces of property where the
signs would be erected, in the process acquiring many pieces of land on the area's major thoroughfares.
He also constructed the wooden supports to display the large signs.
Midtown History Project 35
In the early thirties, South Virginia Street was rapidly transforming into a bustling business district, where
many buildings, like this one, featured commercial spaces on the ground floor and living space upstairs.
Besides Leggett’s ad agency, the building’s original tenants included the wholesale Dan Dee Baking
Company and an auto repair shop.
Within a year, the bakery merged with another local company and moved out. Leggett got divorced in
1932 and moved into the spacious upstairs apartment. At some point, he gained ownership of the
property, and in 1939, he received a permit to build an adjacent commercial building, just to the north.
Through the 1940s, he shared the property with a variety of small businesses, including a mining supply
company and a series of furniture stores. Leggett continued to live in the building with his second wife,
Freda, even after selling his ad agency to Jess Heywood in the 1940s. In the following years, he began to
develop some of the property he had purchased for his billboard business, constructing the neighboring
Ho-Hum Motel and the Ox-Bow Lodge, also on South Virginia Street, as well as the Sutro Motel on East
4th Street.
In the decades to follow, this building became a popular address for businesses selling everything from
sporting goods to martial arts training. Sidney Leggett died in 1969, and his family, including his two
sons, John Brice and Les, inherited many properties throughout the city, including the motels and
numerous lots along South Virginia Street.
Solari Building (1938)
Adult Bookstore & Theater
1052 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/116
From 1948 to 1974, the two-story brick building at 1052 South Virginia Street was known across Reno as
the home of the Hansel & Gretel clothing store, offering “quality clothes for children.” Upstairs were the
Solari Apartments, named for Camill Solari, who financed the building’s construction in 1938. It was
designed by the prestigious architectural firm of Frederic DeLongchamps and George O'Brien.
Midtown History Project 36
At the time, Solari lived in a modest house that long stood next door at 1042 South Virginia Street. By the
1930s, he was known as Reno’s “Decorator De Luxe.” Born in Switzerland in 1897, Solari had
immigrated to the United States in 1914, and after working for a time in the railroad shops, started a
painting, papering, and decorating business. Quickly, he won praise as a true craftsman, becoming the
decorator of choice for commercial and residential projects across town. Eventually he partnered with
prominent business owners and real estate developers including Dick Graves and Norman Biltz.
Solari’s commercial building served as half investment property and half storage space for his growing
painting operation, C. Solari & Sons. The ground floor featured two storefronts and one apartment, with a
paint warehouse on the Holcomb Avenue side and six more apartments upstairs. The building is
constructed of concrete and multicolored brick, with decorative courses of contrasting pressed brick bands
near the top of the front façade, and rows of brick headers bordering the door and window openings and
corner edges. Local residents fondly remember purchasing everything from Catholic school uniforms to
Easter dresses and fancy coats at Hansel & Gretel. Known for stocking hard-to-find shoe sizes, the
owners used an x-ray machine to ensure a precise fit. Prior to the children’s clothing store, the ground
floor housed other tenants including a beauty salon and a furniture dealer. Lee and Donna Erickson
purchased Hansel & Gretel in 1969, and in 1974, moved the business south to Moana Lane. Camill Solari
died in 1976, and the apartments were later renamed Ciraolo Apartments.
An adult movie theater took over the building in the mid-1970s, after Virginia Street was displaced as the
main north-south highway through town and most retail moved to the newer shopping malls and
commercial strips. At some point, an addition to the south side of the building housed a club called Le
Cabaret, which was topped by one of the larger-than-life showgirl figures from downtown’s Primadonna
Club. Most of that addition was later removed, but the original 1938 brick structure, with its beautiful
decorative brick, remains intact.
Dr. Pepper Bottling Company (1939)
The Melting Pot World Emporium
1049 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/153
Midtown History Project 37
“Enjoy the helpful, wholesome habit of 3-a-day at 10, 2 & 4 o’clock!” So urged an advertisement for Dr.
Pepper upon the soft drink’s official arrival in Reno in 1939. The promotional blitz (with its somewhat
questionable nutritional advice) accompanied the opening of a new plant specifically constructed to
produce the popular beverage.
This single-story brick building at 1047 (later renumbered 1049) South Virginia Street contained
everything needed for manufacture and distribution. Its 6,000-square feet included a complete water
purifying outfit, an automatic bottling operation, and an ample warehouse for storage. The machinery had
a capacity to fill 1,800 bottles per hour.
Chris Weske employed eight people at the plant, which he sold in September 1941 before leaving Reno to
join the Navy in San Francisco. The fledgling business did not survive the war. By 1944 the building
housed Ray’s Auto Body Works and it later served as the economy store for the adjacent Nevada Home
Furnishers.
Beginning in 1950, the building was associated with William Gravelle, first as the home of Sellman and
Gravelle Upholstery, and then Interiors by Gravelle, his furniture business. A Las Vegas native, Gravelle
became a pillar of Reno’s business community, even serving for a time on Reno City Council. The
Melting Pot World Emporium moved into the building in 2006.
Auto Painting & Trimming/Heidtman Motor Co. (1936/1927)
Double Edge Fitness
1055 and 1065 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/154
Midtown History Project 38
Now combined as a single business, this was originally two separate buildings, 1055 and 1065 South
Virginia Street. The southern half was built first, opening in 1927 as the Auto Painting & Trimming
Company. The company offered complete overhauls of automobiles as well as painting, body and fender
work. By 1932, that business had vacated, and around 1934, 1065 South Virginia became the Bell
Telephone Company’s truck garage, which it remained for the next twenty years or so. For a time
beginning in the 1980s, it housed the Casa Margarita restaurant.
The north building arrived on the scene in 1936. It was built by H.C. Heidtman, a businessman who was
president of the Washoe Realty Company and owned two used car lots, at Virginia Street and Plaza, and
904 East Fourth Street. Heidtman used it as his truck department, and in the years to follow, the building
housed various businesses, mostly auto- or furniture-related.
Ponderosa Meat Company (1947)
1264 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/126
The Ponderosa Meat Company had its start in 1947 as Reno Frozen Food Lockers. Brothers-in-law
George L. Siri, Sr. and Willie Carano opened the butchering business and frozen locker plant after
Midtown History Project 39
partnering for years at downtown’s Silver State Bakery, which they sold to Frank Welsh in 1946. Siri
purchased the land and topped the business operation with four small one-bedroom apartments.
Their new venture was perfectly timed for the postwar era, enabling customers to rent lockers to store
food that could not fit in the typical home freezer. Advertised as the “Most Modern Frozen Food Plant in
the West,” the building contained 972 lockers, each six cubic feet in size. In addition, the business offered
butcher service, aging and chill rooms for meat, and cold storage for fur coats and accessories.
Siri’s son, George L. Siri, Jr. bought his father’s interest in the business after returning from service in the
U.S. Navy in 1954, and for a short time, he and his wife, Sue, lived in apartment #4 upstairs.
The deer hunting season, generally September to the end of November, brought an enormous annual
surge of business—at one point bringing in more than 2,000 deer in a single year. As Siri, Jr. recalls, “We
hired extra help, usually a butcher, a deer skinner, one or two women meat wrappers and a cleanup crew.”
Many area ranchers also brought in their beef for processing.
In 1973, Siri and Carano sold the business to Don O’Day and Bruno Mastelotto and left to help run the
family’s new Eldorado Hotel-Casino. Finding that the casino business wasn’t for him, Siri partnered with
O’Day and Mastelotto in 1974 to create the Ponderosa Meat Company.
The new corporation entered into the wholesale meat business with restaurants, casinos, and other clients,
prompting an expansion of the building on the Holcomb Avenue side and a gradual phasing out of the
rental lockers. Today, the company is a full-service retail and wholesale butcher shop run by members of
its founding families.
Benetti Block (1946)
Chocolate Walrus, Sierra Nevada Chocolate Company
1274-1298 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/137
March of 1946 marked the greatest building boom in the history of Washoe County. Just six months after
the close of the Second World War, forty major construction projects were underway in the Reno-Sparks
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area, including the Mapes Hotel, the Trinity Episcopal Church, and a new wing on the Washoe County
Courthouse.
Also in the works was a new single-story commercial building at the corner of South Virginia and Arroyo
Streets, financed by Italian-born Louis Benetti. With five storefronts spanning the addresses from 1274 to
1298, the reinforced concrete building with blue tile accents represented a sizeable investment of $45,000.
The first of the storefronts to open was Martins’ Furs, on the southernmost end, run by brothers Theodore
and Melvin Martin. Builders and Farmer’s Hardware anchored the building’s northern end for the next
twenty years. Filling out the row were a cleaners, the Ma Rue Beauty Salon, and Molini’s Fountain, a
popular family restaurant. Within the next two years, Reno Frozen Food Lockers (later renamed the
Ponderosa Meat Company) was built to the building’s north and Landrum’s Diner just south of Arroyo,
with the Sprouse-Reitz store joining the Washoe Market across the street. The cluster of shops and
services formed a busy little commercial and dining district.
One of Reno’s most inclusive bars, The Chute, operated at no. 1278 from 1981 to 1990. The block was
later home to a number of antique and secondhand stores, including the Thrift Bazaar, Eileen’s Attic, and
Julie’s Collectibles.
Landrum’s Hamburger System No. 1 (1947)
Beefy’s
1300 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/49
Landrum's came to Reno on a railroad flat car, off-loaded from the Virginia & Truckee Railroad tracks
behind the property, and assembled on its present site in 1947 by Eunice Landrum, who named her new
diner "Landrum's Hamburger System No. 1." The system was intended to be a chain of hamburger shops,
but the original expansion plans never developed. Eunice Landrum sold the diner in 1953 to Olive
Calvert, who operated it until 1986. It has had a series of owners—and uses—since then.
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Roadside diners trace their roots to Providence, Rhode Island in the 1870s, but the American hamburger
was born in Wichita in 1921, the brainchild of fry-cook Walt Anderson, the founder of White Castle
Hamburger System. In the 1930s, diners and hamburger stands were proliferating along with America’s
love of the automobile. To meet the need for easy-to-build, easy-to-clean restaurants, various companies
developed porcelain-covered steel buildings with parts that bolted together. Arthur H. Valentine in
Wichita was an innovator in the design and construction of hamburger stands.
All one needed was a piece of land on which to lay the foundation, and provide utility hook-ups. It was
the perfect entrepreneurial activity for a country coming out of a devastating depression. These small
diners made good economic sense, since they were one-man operations with limited menus. After World
War II, small prefabricated diners offered ready investment opportunities for returning veterans.
Landrum's was a landmark for three generations of Reno citizens. In 1984, it was listed in the Nevada
State Register of Historic Places. In recognition of the honor, Nevada's governor Richard Bryan visited
Landrum's and sampled the fare. Of the hamburger, Bryan said, "The bun is fresh. The beef is tasty. The
lettuce is crispy, the tomato firm, and the onion tangy." Of the diner, Governor Bryan said, "This is a
Reno legend. In the 1920s and 1930s, diners like this were everywhere. This is the last of its kind. It is a
part of Americana and I hope they keep it here forever."
Sewell’s Supermarket (1959)
Statewide Lighting & Accents
1311 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/150
Midtown History Project 42
Abner W. Sewell opened his first general merchandise store in the northeastern Nevada town of
Tuscarora in 1897. A native of Ohio, Abner had ventured west with his brother in the 1880s, working as a
cowboy on various Nevada ranches before entering the retail business. He and his wife, Katherine, had
three sons, Abner, Harvey, and Herb, who followed in their father’s footsteps by opening the first
Sewell’s Market in Elko in 1920.
In 1922, the Sewells came to Reno, opening their first store on Commercial Row and in 1942, building a
second one at 445 South Sierra Street. By that time, Sewell’s had expanded throughout Nevada, with
stores in Elko, Ely, Las Vegas, Winnemucca, Fallon, and Sparks. By midcentury, small family markets
were giving way to large supermarkets offering large varieties of goods and spacious parking lots. The
Sewells embraced the shift and, in 1948, replaced their two smaller Reno branches with a large
supermarket at 445 North Virginia Street (the future site of the Silver Legacy Hotel Casino).
Reno’s growth southward represented a new opportunity, and on December 10, 1959, the company
opened another Sewell’s, identical in appearance to the North Virginia location, at 1331 South Virginia
Street, between Arroyo and Pueblo Streets. A huge paved lot on the store’s north side offered parking for
200 cars, and the exterior was vitro-glazed in varying pastel shades of brown, beige and blue panels.
Inside, the décor oozed with charm. The four walls were painted soft pastel colors ranging from pink to
aqua to beige. Cartoon-like wooden cut-out figures high on the walls above each department helped ease
navigation, and butchers worked in clear view of the customers.
In 1966, the Sewell’s chain merged with Mayfair grocers, and by 1970, this location had closed.
Statewide Lighting moved into the building in 1973 after dividing its main floor into three separate
storefronts. There, Rader Rollins and his family sold lighting, accessories and, later, accent furniture, for
private home building, custom construction, and regular retail customers. The family’s partner ran a
corresponding Las Vegas store, prompting the adoption of the “statewide” name.
Midtown History Project 43
The building’s west end originally housed Nevada Bank of Commerce, later changing to Nevada National
Bank, and eventually Nevada Fine Arts. Other building tenants have included a barbershop, a health food
store, a butcher, and Hedwig & Ludman Interiors.
El Reno Apartments (1936; site)
1307 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/8
In 1936, the architect Paul Revere Williams, who had completed at least two commissions in Reno by that
time, designed two houses for the illustrious California House and Garden Exhibition. One was a French
cottage, and the other was a three-room “Steel House.” The steel house employed modern materials in
such a way as to look traditional. From a distance, the steel walls looked like wood, and the interior wall
treatment suggested painted wood paneling.
The use of steel in home construction had been experimented with since 1890. It had proven to be too
expensive for the average home buyer, however, until the Los Angeles company, W.C. Lea, Inc., invented
and patented new processes for manufacturing pre-fabricated steel components that could be shipped to
any location and constructed on-site. The company employed the eminent Paul R. Williams as their
consulting architect. In a July 1936 L.A. Times advertisement, Paul Williams declared, “If you can buy a
home of any kind, you can buy a Lea Steel Home!”
With Reno’s housing market continuing to boom, Roland Giroux, known as “Joe,” developed a complex
of small detached apartments at 1307 South Virginia Street, between Arroyo and Pueblo streets, on what
Midtown History Project 44
was then the edge of town. Giroux’s intent was to attract Reno’s transient work force, tourists, and the
ubiquitous divorce-seekers. Named the El Reno Apartments, the complex consisted of 15 Lea Steel
homes. Each unit was furnished and fitted out with the latest of Westinghouse kitchen appliances, metal
kitchen cabinets, comfortable and efficient floor plans, decorative exteriors, and all the benefits of steel
buildings: permanence, as well as resistance to fire, termites, dry rot, and earthquakes.
Construction was quickly completed by local workers, who poured concrete foundations and assembled
the pre-fabricated sections that had come from the factory. All that was needed was finishing work,
anchoring the components to the foundation, and building the roofs. Outside and in, the units looked like
traditional construction, but closer examination revealed everything was steel.
The El Reno Apartments were popular through World War II, after which a raise in the rent forced
tenants to find other lodgings. Within a few years, the complex was no longer sustainable and the units
were sold off individually; most were moved to other locations around town. The little houses have
retained their distinctive bay windows, spurring a local activity of trying to identify El Reno units. As
many as 13 of the original 15 have been found so far.
Miguel’s Restaurant
1415 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/158
Far more than just a restauranteur, Miguel Ribera was a beloved community leader with a passion for
helping local Hispanic youth. Born in New Mexico in 1918, Ribera bought the restaurant at 1415 South
Virginia Street from its previous owner, Maria de Flores, in 1959. She had opened the converted house as
Casa de Flores in 1956, offering Spanish food well into the wee hours of the morning.
Ribera renamed the eatery Casa de Amor, or “House of Love,” switched the menu to Mexican cuisine,
and announced it would be open 24 hours a day. The popular chef served as something of an ambassador
of Mexican food to the eager local community. By 1961 “Chef Miguel” was demonstrating Mexican
cooking at the Reno YMCA for demonstrations of “foreign cooking.”
Midtown History Project 45
Ribera’s wife, Maralyn and daughter Antonia also worked in the restaurant, which soon took on the
popular chef’s name. The generous family provided scholarships to many of their employees, including a
young Emma Sepulveda, who went on to become an accomplished writer and professor at the University
of Nevada, Reno.
Ribera moved his restaurant to another location for a brief time in the seventies, and this space became
the Jolly Roger and then The Cove. By 1980, it was back to Miguel’s Fine Mexican Food.
Miguel Ribera passed away in 1998. For his years of dedication to the community, the Miguel Ribera
Family Resource Center at Pine Middle School and Miguel Ribera Park are both named after him. In
2001, Elmer and Adilia Figueroa bought Miguel’s, which they continued to operate under his name.
Eddie’s Corner Bar/Mr. O’s (1937)
40 Mile Saloon
1495 South Virginia Street
http://renohistorical.org/items/show/134
The small brick building on the northwest corner of South Virginia and Mount Rose Streets has been a
busy neighborhood bar for generations. When constructed in 1937, however, it was a simple market and
service station on the southern reaches of town.
Its transformation into a bar began in 1945, with the addition of slot machines and a beer license. A few
years later, Duncan Dorsey took over, becoming the first of several well-known proprietors. Dorsey, who
had grown up in Los Angeles, played football for the University of Nevada in the 1930s. After serving in
the U.S. Navy during the war, he worked as a bartender at the Little Waldorf while finishing his degree.
Popular and athletic, Dorsey renamed the place “Dunc’s,” spelled out on a big sign in front of the
building’s covered porte cochere.
By the early 1950s, the surrounding neighborhood was experiencing some significant changes. A
Safeway grocery store opened across Mount Rose Street in 1952, transforming a former auto camp and
Midtown History Project 46
pasture into a paved parking lot. To the north of the bar, a private home was converted in 1956 into a
Spanish restaurant called Casa de Flores, and two years later was bought by chef Miguel Ribera. Dunc
left to open another bar across town, and the little spot on the corner of Mount Rose was briefly known as
the Office Bar before that establishment moved up the street, taking its charming neon sign with it.
In December 1958, Eddie Boehme, a former employee of Club 116, the Trocadero Lounge, and Harrah’s
Club, completed a round of improvements to the place and reopened it as “Eddie’s Corner Bar,” which it
remained through the 1980s. Beginning in the mid-1960s, Boehme also operated The Wonder Bar on
South Wells Avenue. In 1987, Paul O’Gorman bought the establishment, presiding over “Mr. O’s Corner
Bar” for the next twenty years. Thoroughly renovated, the bar opened as Chapel Tavern in 2008 and in
2012, became 40 Mile Saloon.
Midtown History Project 47