About this property
Riverside Hotel is a former hotel and casino located in Downtown Reno, Nevada, that sits on the exact location where Reno began in 1859. The building now houses apartments and studios for artists and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. C. W. Fuller operated a log building on this location that provided food and shelter to gold-seekers who were passing through the area in the reverse gold rush called the "Rush to Washoe" (meaning people were heading east from instead of west to California), spurred by the gold, and later silver, strikes of the Comstock Lode. Myron Lake owned the property from 1861 into the 1880s, running consecutive hotel businesses under the name Lake's House. After Lake's death, his daughter and son-in-law operated the hotel and renamed it the Riverside. A subsequent owner, Harry Gosse, converted the small frame building into a brick hotel, retaining the name Riverside. His daughter, Marguerite Gosse, was a Nevada Assemblywoman. This version of the Riverside Hotel was destroyed in a fire. Gosse intended to rebuild but was unable to finance the project and George Wingfield, Reno's most powerful man at the time, acquired the property. Nevada's pre-eminent architect and former mining engineer Frederic DeLongchamps designed the 1927 version of the Riverside Hotel for George Wingfield. At six stories high, the Riverside was the state's tallest building until Reno's seven-story El Cortez hotel was completed in 1931. For the building's design, DeLongchamps employed the rich red brick, so common in Reno, with contrasting cream-colored Gothic Revival style terra cotta detailing. Situated as it is along the Truckee River, next to the Washoe County Courthouse, also designed by DeLongchamps, the Riverside was Reno's most popular hotel. Following the passage of the liberal 1931 divorce law, George Wingfield installed an enormous roof sign advertising the hotel in glowing neon that was visible all over the Truckee Meadows. The Riverside had an international reputation and was mentioned in nearly all of the novels and films featuring Reno divorces. The Riverside Hotel was laid out to suit wealthy divorce-seekers, with 40 corner suites that included kitchen facilities and connecting rooms for children and servants. Each of the apartment suites was furnished with a specially designed cork-insulated and tile-lined refrigerator. Cold brine was circulated through the refrigerators from the main refrigeration plant in the basement. There were 60 single rooms for shorter stays as well. Such a room was occupied by Clare Boothe (award-winning author, editor of Vanity Fair, congresswoman and ambassador) when she arrived in Reno in 1929 to divorce her husband George Tuttle Brokaw:Her train arrived in Reno at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 6, 1929, in a fierce blizzard. Clare's mood turned bleak as the weather when she discovered that her reserved apartment at the Riverside Hotel (a red brick building between the Truckee River and the courthouse) was occupied and that she would have to settle for a 'cubby hole' of a room for the first three days.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Riverside Hotel
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Questions about this property
When was Riverside Hotel listed on the National Register?
Riverside Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 5, 1986.
What type of historic resource is Riverside Hotel?
Riverside Hotel is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Riverside Hotel?
The period of significance for Riverside Hotel is recorded as the early_republic era, specifically around 1859.
Can I research the history near Riverside Hotel?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Riverside Hotel will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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