FDedicatedo to Preservingo and PromotingtP Historic Resourcesri in then ts SPRING 2019 Truckee Meadows through Education, Advocacy and Leadership. vol. 22 no. 2 Of Banks and Odd Fellows: Reno’s Oldest Commercial Building by Debbie Hinman Editor’s Note: Deciding what the oldest commercial building in Reno This was originally the I.O.O.F/Reno Savings Bank building. is can be a problem. Yes, the original courthouse was built in 1873, but Not only is the building similar in age to the Masonic/ it was covered up by Frederic DeLongchamps’ 1909 façade, followed by Mercantile, it too was commissioned by a fraternal additions on the sides and back of the building in 1946, 1949, and 1963 organization, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Like The 1873 building is still be inside, but it is not visible on the exterior. We the Masonic building, the second floor was used for I.O.O.F. feature 195 N. Virginia, a property whose original architecture is visible. activities and the first floor rented to various other tenants; for nearly 60 years, a series of banks claimed the first floor t has been a sad few months for local history as our oldest corner space. commercial building, Ithe 1872 Masonic/ The Odd Fellows had been a presence in Reno since the Mercantile building on the formation of the town. Theirs is a service organization, created corner of Commercial Row to elevate members to a higher, nobler plane and to extend and N. Sierra Street, has sympathy and aid to those in need. Their first hall was located slowly been dismantled, on the east side of Virginia Street and their chapter was known vestiges of its brick exterior as the Truckee Lodge, No. 14. The moving spirit behind the crumbling to dust. With Reno organization was none other than city founder, Myron the loss of 147 years of C. Lake. The Lodge purchased a large lot on Virginia and history comes the question: Second from Lake for $3,000 what structure now in March of 1876. The holds the title of “Oldest Italianate-style building was Commercial Building?” designed by local architect John Sturgeon (the following Many might guess it year he would design a home to be the 1915 bank for Washington J. Marsh, building incorporated today Reno’s Lake Mansion). into Harrah’s, housing The local firm of O’Hara & Ichiban Steakhouse, but there is an Ferguson were contracted to older structure diagonally across do the stone and brickwork from that one, on the southwest of the 44x100-foot building; corner of Virginia and Second Streets. construction costs were This current “oldest commercial estimated at $20,000 but A zincograph (top) of the original I.O.O.F./Washoe building,” nearly obscured by overran by almost double. marquees proclaiming “T-SHIRTS County Bank property built in 1876; an early T-SHIRTS T-SHIRTS” and a large, postcard (bottom) of the same building. Note the The upstairs quarters would glitzy sign bearing the word “LOANS” tower has been removed. The zincograph is from the be the Odd Fellows lodge was constructed in 1876, opening for Weekly Nevada State Journal, April 28, 1877. quarters with ante rooms business January 1877. Its original Postcard courtesy UNR Special Collections. and a 23x40-foot library. The lovely red brick has been buried under pièce de résistance, however, coats of peeling yellowish paint and an odd boxy clock was was the lodge hall. It was an impressive room, 50x34-foot affixed to the top of the building during a 1980s remodel, in a horizontally and 20-feet high, with a heavy cornice 14 feet misguided attempt to reclaim its historic appearance. Only the from the floor. From this point, the ceiling rose in the form of lovely double-arched windows on the second story remain as vestiges of its original beauty. continued on page 2 Reno’s Oldest Commercial Building continued from page 1 an elliptical arch. The hall was a declared the collapse of the bank popular venue for local events as was a “local calamity second only well as Odd Fellows activities. A to the great fire (a reference to grand celebration and dedication the Great Fire of March 2, 1879, of the Hall took place on April which this building miraculously 26, 1877, “paying tribute to the survived).” The Odd Fellows enterprising spirit which has re-purchased their building at a erected another monument to Sheriff ’s Sale. man’s benevolence…” (Reno Evening Gazette, 4/24/1877) The Odd Fellows continued to rent out their Hall and at some point The downstairs corner would be it became known as “Arcadome occupied by the Reno Savings Hall,” with the building often Bank; the room adjoining the bank Directors and employees of Washoe County Bank, referred to as the Arcadome to the south was rented to Sanders Reno in 1921. Note the unique coffered ceiling. Building. There was a quite famous & Co., later Sanders & Neale’s. Just Courtesy UNR Special Collections. Arcadome Hall in Wooster, Ohio two years previously, Sanders had at the same time period as the purchased a 40-acre tract of land opening in January 1877, the Reno I.O.O.F. Building; perhaps our on a rise north of town, overlooking the Evening Gazette proclaimed: “A large Arcadome was named for it. Today the budding city. He sold parcels of the land, Savings Bank is what Reno has needed word is in current usage to describe but kept a small tract which became for some time. We now have a good one, inflatable arches for outdoor events. Hillside Cemetery. Sanders’ business in one which is a credit and ornament to the I.O.O.F. building was an odd sort of the town. The men under whose control By 1887 however, the Odd Fellows, still furniture store; in addition to the usual it is are honorable business gentlemen. struggling to satisfy lienholders, sold chairs and beds, advertised were “coffins, Patrons of the Bank are perfectly secure the building to the First National Bank caskets and undertaker’s goods,” in entrusting their banking business of Reno (FNBR) and relocated to Sierra quite enterprising on Sanders’ part. to the hands of the officers of the Reno Street. The bank quickly obliterated the The second story facing Second Street Savings Bank.” word “Arcadome” from the building and accommodated some of the city’s leading painted the words “First National Bank” attorneys and medical practitioners. In 1879, with the Odd Fellows unable on the Second Street side. The bank to meet their debts, the Savings Bank would occupy the ground floor corner The Reno Savings Bank was a boon to purchased the building from the Lodge. and the Post Office would rent the space the fledgling town. Its list of trustees Only a year later, the confidence earlier next door. read like a page from Who’s Who of expressed in the bank leaders was badly Nevada with Myron Lake, city founding shaken, as townspeople visited the bank The FNBR, originally established as father; Granville Huffaker, wealthy to find the doors locked and a card the Washoe County Bank in 1871, rancher; J. E. Jones, formerly Washoe bearing the word “suspended” pasted to re-organized in May of 1880 as FNBR County Sheriff; L. L. Crockett, State the inside of the glass door. The bank at the office of D. A. Bender & Co.; Treasurer; and J. H. Kinkead, former had overextended itself and closed for the “Co.” included George Mapes Washoe Deputy Sheriff. Upon its good. Reform Club speaker H. H. Beck and Charles Bender, D.A.’s brother. Panoramic postcard of 2nd and Virginia with I.O.O.F./Washoe County Bank in center, 1906 A. Cummings. Courtesy Nevada Historical Society. 2 HRPS historicreno.org FootPrints Spring 2019 vol. 22 no. 2 The Benders were not new erected on a site just north of to banking, D.A. having the river on Virginia Street, established a local bank in and First Street. The post 1871. office and some government workers who occupied the In 1889, the First National second floor of the bank Bank of Reno hired local building relocated there. architect George Holesworth to build an annex directly On June 28, 1915, Charles behind the bank building, Theodore Bender lapsed into in the space between it and a diabetic coma in his chair the Nevada State Journal at the bank. His sons carried office. Today one can observe him to his family home on the difference between the Ralston Street (demolished in original building and the 2018) where he died at age 65. annex; the upper-story Bender had come to Reno in windows have a similar 1868 and joined his brother shape and style but are About 1890, on the left, the U.S. Post Office and on the right, D. A., who had founded D. A. less ornate. The annex was on the corner of N. Virginia and Second Street, the Washoe Bender & Company. He had immediately popular, with the County Bank on the first floor. been cashier and a member following descriptive phrases Courtesy Nevada Historical Society. of the Board of Trustees ever from local newspapers: since that time. “new and handsome corner and building a large, much-admired apartments…the finest offices in town” home on Mill Street. Martin passed In July of 1929, the Washoe County and a dentist with “elegant parlors in away in 1901 and George Mapes Bank, no longer able to operate, merged the First National Bank annex which are assumed the bank presidency. with the Scheeline Banking & Trust Co.