January 2024

HRPS News & Updates

Dear HRPS Members,

It is with great anticipation that I greet you as the newest HRPS president. Carol's departure leaves big shoes to fill! We are pleased to welcome Derek Partridge as our new vice president as well.

Carol Coleman served as president of HRPS for 8 years, and her achievements will be recapped in the next issue of FootPrints. For now, I am grateful that she will continue to work with FootPrints, serve as an ex-officio member of the board, and as a mentor and guide to us all.

This is a good time to be taking the reins and a good time to be a HRPS member.

We have over 600 annual and lifetime members and are healthy financially. We have an excellent group of board members and committee chairs who actively participate in running the organization. We have a dedicated group of volunteers who help with our annual walking tours and home tour, and we have a talented administrator in Amy Burton, to help us stay organized and on track.

As we begin 2024, we have four great monthly programs coming up (please note the location change for January), our walking tour guides are refreshing and documenting existing walks or creating new ones, and the scheduling process will begin soon.

Our Home Tour committee will begin gearing up in January and will be looking for additional volunteers to help secure homes for 2024. If you'd like to help, or you know someone who might be willing to offer their home for the tour, please contact board@historicreno.org.

Lastly - and very importantly - we are searching for a new Treasurer! No special software skills needed, just some basic bookkeeping/financial background and a willingness to put in 5-10 hours/month to keep the books. You will have lots of support. Please contact me at the email below if you can help us out.

Thank you for your continued support of HRPS. All the best for an exciting new year!

Joy Orlich, President

joyorlich@sbcglobal.net

775-544-0686

P.S. - see below for a link to the very first edition of FootPrints

January Program

Dr. Eliza Cook, Nevada's First Female Licensed Physician

A Chautauqua Performance By DebiLynn Smith

Sunday, January 14, 2024, Noon-1:30pm

South Valleys Library

15650 A, Wedge Parkway, Reno, NV 89511

New Location for January & February

Eliza Cook, photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Dr. Eliza Cook was one of Nevada’s most prominent early women, and her story, as portrayed by DebiLynn Smith, takes you from her birth in Utah Territory to her passing in Gardnerville, NV. Dr. Cook was the first woman in Nevada to have a Doctor’s License to Practice.

DebiLynn Smith was born in Bishop, CA, and raised in Bridgeport, CA. She lived her young adult life in the Eastern Sierra, attending college for two years in Susanville, Calif. She did her first Chautauqua at age 13 in 8th grade when she portrayed Laura Ingalls Wilder.

DebiLynn considers herself a Living Historian and makes all of her own period-correct attire.

Program is free and open to the public. Seating is limited at this facility so we suggest arriving early.

Nevada Historical Society and Washoe County Libraries present

High Noon with Neal Cobb

The Reno You Know

Local History Comes to YouTube

with Steve Ellison

Thursday, January 18, 2024, Noon-1:00pm, via Zoom

Sharing the history of Reno and Northern Nevada with the world!

Steve Ellison, the proprietor of the YouTube channel "The Reno You Know" will share about the channel creation and some backstory on several existing and upcoming episodes. You'll learn many things you didn't know! 

 www.youtube.com/@SteveTRYK.

Admission is free but advance registration is required.

Steve Ellison

Steve Ellison is a 37-year resident of The Biggest Little City and has been endlessly fascinated with the historical aspects that make this little corner of the world unique.  He is a graduate of the University of California, a PPA Master Photographer, a Certified Cicerone (beer sommelier) and completed a full-length documentary on Harolds Club in 2015.

Tribute to Neon

Anna Newman's latest sculptures on display at the UNR Student Galleries South. Photo/Kris Vagner

Anna Newman has her finger on the pulse of a changing Reno. Her latest sculpture series consists of handmade tributes to the beloved old neon signs from demolished, downtown-adjacent motels that have come to serve in our public consciousness as symbols of the ongoing tensions around gentrification.

Newman has always been into vintage aesthetics, whether she’s making soft-sculpture toys or short documentaries. (Her favorite is on the late, subversive toy maker Frank Kozik.) She moved from the Bay Area to Reno in 2019 and is now a graduate student in the University of Nevada, Reno’s art department.

Signs of the times: Anna Newman’s handmade versions of Reno’s motel neon • Reno News & Review (renonr.com)

Back in Time - First Edition of FootPrints

You should have just received the Winter issue of FootPrints. Every so often it's fun to revisit your roots. Did you know HRPS held its first meetings in 1997, published its first newsletter in 1998, and officially became a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 1999? You could say we're in a rolling 25-year anniversary period.

In that spirit, we thought you'd enjoy taking a look at the very first HRPS newsletter - later to be called FootPrints. A special shout out to Frank Ozaki of Double Click Designs who continues designing FootPrints to this day.

The front page documents the organization's inaugural meeting in September 1997, the first officers - note that several are still active in some capacity - and presents our first and only official logo.

FOOTPRINTS FIRST EDITION

You can find links to all issues of FootPrints on the HRPS website.

Mt. Rose Elementary School

Designed by the architect George Ferris, Mount Rose is one of a quartet of Mission-style schools known as the Four Spanish Sisters or the Spanish Quartet. The four schools, McKinley Park (1909), Orvis Ring (1910), Mount Rose (1912), and Mary S. Doten (1912), were laid out in nearly identical fashion in a U plan with a wing housing the auditorium extending off the rear.

Mt. Rose Elementary 1912 - Source: Barry O'Sullivan

HRPS held its first meeting at this school and continued there for many years.

Mount Rose Elementary School - The Mission-style elementary school has been in continuous use since 1912. | 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