January 2025

HRPS News & Updates

Dear HRPS Members and Friends,

Let me be among the first to wish you a Happy New Year! Here at HRPS we're kicking off the new year with our January 12 program on Tahoe Tidbits, followed by a new book club that launches on the 15th. Details below.

Longtime board member and HRPS Secretary, Debbie Hinman, completed her most recent 6-year term in December. Thankfully Debbie will continue her involvement with HRPS as a writer/researcher for FootPrints, our most prolific Walking Tour Guide, and Home Tour researcher. Thank you, Debbie, for your contributions to the board!

Taking on the role of Secretary is Deedee Pace. Deedee has been our Membership Chair for the past two years and will continue in that role as she takes on the duties of secretary. Deedee also volunteers for our walking tours and home tour. Thank you, Deedee, for stepping up to the board!

If your New Year's resolutions include getting more exercise, plan to make our spring and summer walking tours part of your regimen. Or open up the Reno Historical app and go finding historical buildings and sites.

If they include stimulating your mind, start coming to our Sunday speaker programs, pay a visit to the Sparks Heritage Museum or the Nevada State Museum. Better yet, get out and visit other parts of our state. Here's a list of museums around the state courtesy of Wikipedia - List of museums in Nevada - Wikipedia - there are over 90 of them!

If you'd like to be better informed about development efforts that could affect historic buildings or locations in town, I can think of no better way than subscribing to The Barber Brief, by Alicia Barber. Her weekly updates provide a wealth of timely information.

And if your resolutions include becoming more active in the community, we can always use volunteers for our walking tours and Harvest of Homes Tour. Watch for announcements as we get closer to the dates.

However you start the new year, we hope our monthly newsletters and quarterly FootPrints publication will arouse in you a desire to learn more about the history of our community and take ownership in preserving it.

Cheers!

Joy Orlich, President

joyorlich@sbcglobal.net

775-544-0686

Donante to HRPS

JANUARY PROGRAM

Jim Bonar, Historian

Tahoe Tidbits, with Jim Bonar

Sunday, January 12, 2025, Noon-1:30pm

Downtown Reno Library, 301 S. Center Street

Free street parking on Sundays

Programs are free and open to the public

Historian Jim Bonar will take us on a trip around Lake Tahoe in the early 20th century and share a collection of old photos and videos of the lake and some little-known tidbits.

Bonar is a retired high school math teacher. He became interested in roads as a child in Green River, Wyoming, while watching the traffic passing through town on U.S. Highway 30. This encouraged him to study and research many western events. Jim is currently director and past president of the Nevada chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association and frequently gives presentations and tours.

HRPS Launches New Book Club

Discussions among our Walking Tour Guides at a planning session in November culminated in a recommendation that the Literary Reno walking tour be turned into a book club instead.

Our tour guides found it increasingly difficult to tie books about Reno to specific locations that could be covered in a 90-minute walk, and traffic noise and other distractions made readings challenging.

Walking tour guides Anne Benoit and Susan Mullen have agreed to host a monthly book club meeting this January through June 2025, to explore a series of books written by local authors.

The meetings will be held the third Wednesday of the month, 6:00pm at the Little Waldorf on N. Virginia Street. Book titles will be published as the group selects them.

As of this writing the 12 spots are already filled, with 5 people on the waiting list. But if you're interested, go ahead and email Peggy Boni at board@historicreno.org.

Historical Society Closed until 2026

Join Nevada Historical Society

As a reminder, the Nevada Historical Society is now closed through May 2026. Regular in-person programs are being hosted at alternate locations. Click the program schedule link below for details.

January 9, 10:30am - Docent Council meeting

Dave Santina, PBS Reno's 'Wild Nevada'

January 16, 12:00pm - High Noon with Neal Cobb

The Sparks Marina: From Gravel Pit to Jewel

Events from January 1, 2025 – April 10, 2025 | Nevada Historical Society

Hannah Clapp House Restoration

The Hannah K. Clapp House — or the T.B. Rickey House, as its signage indicates — has been purchased by professor emeritus Lisa McFadden. McFadden intends to restore the name on the plaque for its original owner and leading contributor to Carson City’s early childhood programs, the University of Nevada’s first instructor, librarian and female faculty member and Nevada Historical Society charter member, Hannah Keziah Clapp.

Carson City’s historic Clapp House being restored | Serving Carson City for over 150 years

Guy Clifton Tribute

Guy Clifton: A Nevada life, a Nevada journalism career in full | University of Nevada, Reno

Nevada journalist, Guy Clifton, was the subject of a recent article by John Trent, paying tribute to the legendary writer.

In addition to an award-winning newsroom career that included 22 years as a writer, editor and columnist at the Reno Gazette-Journal (RGJ), Clifton, a University graduate and former editor of the student-run campus newspaper, The Nevada Sagebrush, was the author of nine books – all of them in one form or another about Nevada.

The article includes comments from friend, former co-worker, and HRPS Program Co-Chair, Susan Mullen.

FootPrints - Winter 2007 - The Reno Arch

People gather every year under the Reno Arch to ring in the new year as fireworks blaze above, so we thought a visit to the origins and various incarnations of the famous Arch were appropriate for this issue. You can read the entire edition here.

Local New Year's Eve Nostalgia

These items appeared in the December 31, 1924

edition of the Reno Evening Gazette

Dining, dancing and movies were popular in 1924, but Prohibition was still in force!

The Reno Arch Moves to Lake Street

Photo credit - Max Chapman 2002

Historic Reno Arch - Now located on Lake Street, Reno's first arch was originally installed over Virginia Street in 1926. | 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