Old Nevada
Posted by Bubba on June 23rd, 2007
First off, I want to be clear in my admiration of Scott Schrantz’ excellent web site, Around Carson (He is the master, I am the student). I eat up his “Then and Now” entries because it’s interesting to see what Nevada was before people other than Nevadans realized that this could be a good place to live.
The Bride works at the Nevada State Archives and she knows I like this stuff, so she’ll drop a picture on me from time to time to keep me amused. I’ll share the good ones with you and will, of course, refer to Scott’s page when he’s already done the legwork.
For instance, here’s a shot of beautiful downtown Carson City in the 1940s or 1950s (click on the picture for the 1.2 MB version) from the John Nulty collection. John was an old-timer who expressed his love through professional photography. His biography is a good read.
Photo: A view of Carson City from the John Nulty collection, courtesy Nevada State Library and Archives.
Top Left: Slide Mountain and a lot of snow. This picture was probably taken in during winter because of the snow on some of the streets…or it was taken June. This is Nevada, you know.
About Dead Center: the Nye Building that was demolished in 1990. I don’t remember it even though I lived in Carson beginning in 1975.
Lower Center: the Nevada State Children’s Home that was built in 1903 and tore down in 1963.
North of the Children’s Home: A bunch of vacant lots that now house State buildings and houses. Liz would probably know for sure, but I think some of those empty spaces was Carson’s old Chinatown that burned down in the first part of the 20th Century.
North of town: Pretty much nothing because it looks like the main “city” ends around Long Street. Today, the bend in the main road in upper center portion of the picture is in front of Safeway and if you live in Carson, you know the town ends far north of that and is in fact creeping up the hills now (ex: Lakeview).
Thanks again, Liz and Scott.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
During the 1950’s, one of those empty parcels north of Fifth Street was flooded during the winter and used as an informal skating pond for everybody. There would be bonfires on the berms and adults and children (many without skates - shoe skating) would glide and whirl in the frigid clear air and brilliant sunshine of a winter’s day.
As well, the Fifth Street Hill (not shown) to the West and the empty lot to the South would be used as a sledding area whenever the snow was deep enough which seemed to be the case in most winters back in the ’50s. The empty lot was basically a brush covered, very steep slope with ice channels coursing down its face where the daredevils would engage in their version of extreme sport with resulting scrapes, bruises, and bloodied noses.
During the ’50s, the northern edge of town was defined first by Long then Winnie then Hot Springs Road. Highway 395 was two lanes which on the other side of Lakeview then became Franktown Road. The various new four lane versions of 395 through Washoe Valley were built very late ’50s and early ’60s and Franktown Raod reverted to the pastoral lane that it is now.
I used to walk to the old High School on King Street from my home on Nye Lane near Hot Springs across the meadows to the West of 395, through the tall sage and bitterbrush and wild peach; this was of course in the days when kids could and would walk to school and as well, of course, the snow was twelve feet deep all winter long.
August 1st, 2007 at 8:07 pm
[…] Here’s a non-traditional view of Carson City, looking north to south. I thought this photo was from the same set of John Nulty photos that this pix is from, but there’s doesn’t appear to be snow on the ground here. It is probably from the 1950s or early 1960s: […]
September 6th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
[…] Carson City from the southeast looking northwest. Possibly from the same John Nulty set that produced this picture: http://blog.bbkld.com/2007/06/23/old-nevada/ […]