The Glendale School, built when the town of Glendale was named Stone and Gates Crossing, was the first educational institution in the Truckee Meadows.

In 1857, Charles C. Gates and John F. Stone established a trading post in the area and a rope ferry across the Truckee River. Three years later, they erected a toll bridge. Ranchers and farmers began to take up land in the area and several businesses were established.

In 1863,Erastus C. Sessions, an educated rancher from Vermont, opened a school in his home and taught it himself. He helped raise money to fund a 20x30 foot woodframe schoolhouse.

The new school opened in April of 1864 drawing students from as far away as ten miles. The building also served as a social and cultural center. It was a rare week which did not see a dance, meeting, or social function of some kind within its walls.

The community of Glendale ceased to grow after Reno was established to the west.

The school continued to function until 1958 when the state of Nevada withdrew funding. (As an isolated school, it was eligible for special state funding.)

The Glendale School had eighteen students when it closed.

Source: Adapted from the NRHP nomination form submitted in 1978.

In 1976, the Glendale School was moved to the intersection of South Virginia Street and Kietzke Lane in Reno. In 1993, it was moved again to its current location in Sparks.

Glendale School is also Nevada Historic Landmark 169.

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.