August 2023

HRPS News & Updates

Dear HRPS Members,

Another successful walking tour season has just wrapped up! Over 700 people attended 23 walks. If you attended any of our walks, we'd love for you to take the short survey we sent out on June 30. Tour guides and volunteers will be gathering August 22 to do a final wrap-up. Your feedback will aid our discussions.

Meanwhile, we are busily finalizing plans for the 2023 Harvest of Homes Tour on Saturday, September 23. We have six lovely homes, including one signature home EVERYONE will want to see! Watch for the upcoming issue of FootPrints for descriptions of all the homes. Online registration will open by September 1.

We will need a LOT of volunteers for the Home Tour and will be sending out a sign-up form soon. If you can't wait, feel free to e-mail me at board@historicreno.org.

Hot August Nights arrives this week. One special event you might want to take in is the American Graffiti 50th Anniversary Celebration at the National Automobile Museum. Details below. We've also included a link to the entire HAN events schedule.

This month we have articles on a new documentary about Black Springs, the efforts of the Sons and Daughters of Erin to restore and preserve Hillside Cemetery gravesites, and a dilemma facing White Pine County's century-old schools, along with the August High Noon with Neal Cobb broadcast, and summer events at Dangberg Ranch.

Thanks to a grant from the John Ben Snow Memorial Foundation, Alicia Barber has been busy making extensive updates to the Reno Historical website and mobile app. This is such a great way to learn about or expand your knowledge of old Reno. This month's featured entry is on Bill Fong's New China Club. Scroll down for the link.

Thanks again to all who attended the walking tours, and especially to our faithful volunteers. Your dedication to the preservation of local history and the buildings where history happened is inspiring.

Carol Coleman, Acting President

Historic Reno Preservation Society

board@hsitoricreno.org

775-849-3380

Welcome New HRPS Board Member, Kathy Williams

Kathy has been a residential real estate agent & Realtor for over a decade. Prior to that she managed multiple radio stations in the Reno/Tahoe area and held securities licenses with New York Life. Kathy is a Lifetime Member of HRPS and brings a wealth of knowledge about older Reno neighborhoods to the board.

Vintage Autos Wanted for Home Tour Displays

HRPS is looking for 5-6 vintage automobiles or even a vintage bicycle from the 1920s/1930s to station in front of our Home Tour homes on September 23.

Your car doesn't have to be in mint condition, just something from the pre-WWII era. The cars are always a tour favorite!

Clay Carlson's '41 Mercury

Contact Bradley Carlson for details bradley.d.carlson@gmail.com

American Graffiti 50th Anniversary Celebration

Thursday, August 3, 2023, 5-9pm

National Auto Museum

1 Museum Dr., Reno, NV

Tickets - $15

Featuring the Tribute Team Graffiti Cars: 1932 Ford Coupe • 1955 Chevy 210 • 1958 Chevy Impala • 1959 Piaggio Vespa

Live entertainment by MANIA! The region’s most popular Beatles tribute band. We will open up the mic for Karaoke during intermission and we will be filming our next TV commercial so you could get discovered!

Soda and water included with ticket price. Food trucks onsite.

Event Detials & Tickets

Hot August Nights - July 28 - August 6, 2023

Hot August Nights Schedule

Nevada Historical Society and Washoe County Library present

High Noon with Neal Cobb

Eilley Orrum, From Rags to Riches at Bowers Mansion

by Sandi La Nae

Thursday, August 17, 2023, 12 Noon via Zoom and Facebook

Eilley Orrum’s life was one filled with adventure, travel, riches, poverty, happiness, and disappointment. She was the epitome of a pioneer in the mid-1800s, and a strong pioneering woman who forged ahead through all life’s situations that embraced or failed her.

Sandie La Nae

Sandi La Nae is a published author of history, nonfiction, and poetry. To date, she has written thirty books, many with co-author, Special Works Historian, Arline La Ferry. La Nae’s volumes include several genres: history, paranormal, memoirs, and minerals.

Program is free but advance registration is required.

August Events at Dangberg Ranch

Event Details

8/04,10-11am - Chautauqua performance, Lora Josephine Knight, widowed heiress and builder of Vikingsholm

8/05, 10-11am - Author Clare Frank presents readings from her book, "Burnt - A Memoir of Fighting Fire"

8/16, 6:30-7:30pm - Chautauqua performance, Agnes Train Janssen, one of the first curators of the Nevada State Museum.

A Black Springs Homecoming:

Finding History

An Award-Winning Documentary Film Produced by Nevada Humanities

and Directed by Tsanavi Spoonhunter

A Black Springs Homecoming: Finding History tells the story of Black Springs—a small Nevada neighborhood—and the ability of its residents to establish an enduring sense of community in the face of widespread racial discrimination and economic hardship.

Current and former residents of Black Springs recall how the community worked together in the 1960’s and 1970’s to secure their own volunteer fire department, reliable water service, a community center and park, and to purchase homes for Black families against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Black Springs Homecoming: Finding History — Nevada Humanities

Nevada Museum of Art will hold a screening on September 21, 2023. Details.

Preserving Reno’s Irish history: The Sons and Daughters of Erin club restores gravesites at Hillside Cemetery

The oldest cemetery in Reno—devastated by neglect, vandalism and urban growth—is being renewed by residents who see the plots as tangible links to Nevada’s storied history.

Among the graves in the restored Hillside Cemetery, at 10th and Nevada streets, are new and reclaimed headstones of some of Reno’s prominent citizens of Irish descent, whose names resonate on the city’s street signs and in historical documents.

Preserving Reno’s Irish history: The Sons and Daughters of Erin club restores gravesites at Hillside Cemetery • Reno News & Review (renonr.com)

White Pine County Has Few Options for Replacing Century Old Schools

At over 100 years old, David E. Norman Elementary School and White Pine Middle School in Ely are part of state history. But White Pine County School District Superintendent Adam Young said their age also makes them “inadequate and concerning.”

The elementary school, built in 1909, has poor indoor air quality and lacks a reliable heating and cooling system that can make it tough for students during extreme weather conditions. The middle school, built in 1913, has similar issues.

Both buildings have limited or noncompliant Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility.

White Pine Middle School, built in 1913

Why tiny White Pine County has few options for replacing century-old schools – The Nevada Independent

New China Club (site)

The New China Club offered 21, dice, roulette, keno, and slot machines. Eventually it had the first legal fan tan and pai gow games in Nevada.

New China Club (site) - Bill Fong opened the inclusive club in 1952, when other Reno casinos would not admit people of color. | Reno Historical

Join HRPS Today!

HRPS is "Dedicated to Preserving and Promoting Historic Resources in the Truckee Meadows through Education, Advocacy and Leadership". With over 500 members, your membership is a vote and a voice for historic preservation.

Do you have friends, neighbors, or family members who share an interest in local history? If so, forward a copy of this newsletter and encourage them to join HRPS! Or have them go to our website - Historic Reno Preservation Society - and click on the "Join Us" tab at the top of the page.

A single membership is just $25/year ($45 for a family membership), and you can now join and pay online.

Benefits of Membership