This Italianate building dates back to the 1870's and was moved to Carson Valley from Virginia City before the end of the 19th Century. It was somewhat commonplace to move buildings from Virginia City after the Comstock Lode Era.

Town founder Lawrence Gilman used the building as the bar and dining room for the Gardnerville Hotel. The hotel had formerly been the Kent House in Genoa before being moved to a spot just north of here.

The Gardnerville Hotel burned down and was never rebuilt.

Source: Adapted from an interpretative marker on the building.

Buildings that Moved

It's not just that the people of the American West are restless, the buildings themselves sometimes pack up and move when - for one reason or another - the neighborhood no longer suits them or the neighbors no longer want them or opportunity waits down the road.

And when buildings remain in place, they are often searching for their identities.

Of the buildings and structures we have visited, the original Reno Arch holds the record for number of moves. It has been moved five times since it was built in 1926.

Jax Truckee Diner holds the distance title. The building moved from New Jersry to Pennsylvanis in 1948, then from Pennsylvania to Califonia in 1992.

Probably the most ambitious relocation occurred on July 4th 1904, when the Southern Pacific Railroad loaded most of the town of Wadsworth, Nevada, onto rail cars and transported the town thirty miles west to create a new town which became known as Sparks.