LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Silver State is home to some of the country's most unique historical landmarks— but city officials around Nevada are looking to develop land and demolish the roots that started the success of this state and brought in the locals we know and love.
As a result, a statewide historic preservation organization, Preserve Nevada, is on a mission to save them by creating a list of the Silver State's "Most Endangered Historic Places" to help raise awareness of these locations and their impact on the environment and community.
This year's list includes buildings and cultural or environmental elements that acknowledge historical contributions by Nevada's Italian, Basque and Japanese residents.
Here are the 12 most endangered historic places in Nevada and how their extinction could affect locals around the state:
Frontier Cemeteries
In the 1850s, hundreds of short-lived mining towns began popping up across Nevada. The harsh living conditions in these isolated towns made cemeteries an integral part of the communities.
When boom turned to bust, the cemeteries were the only traces of the past that remained. Later, fraternal groups and family members installed headstones for their loved ones. Occasionally, families visit to remember their ancestors with flowers. These flowers and cemeteries are an important record of the town’s existence.
The Nevada Legislature completed a cemetery survey in 1962 showing 3,000 of them around the state. The headstones and other grave markers have faced vandalism and sometimes removal. It’s important for the public to help keep these stories alive and preserve Nevada’s history for future generations.
Nevada's Historical Markers
The legislature approved the creation of historical markers throughout the state in 1967. But after major state budget cuts in 2009, the program came to a halt and maintenance of the approximately 270 markers has since suffered.
The Nevada Division of State Parks is responsible for marker upkeep, but funding for repairs, replacement, updates or expansion has not been included in budgets from the executive or legislative branches of Nevada government. As a result, several of the historical markers remain damaged or out of date.
Elko County Public Defender's Office
Built in 1896 as the first publicly funded high school in Nevada, it has changed hands many times — serving as a library, the Elko County Manager's office and now the Elko County Public Defender's office.
It was originally a two-story brick building, but a fire during World War II led to it being re-roofed to one story. A small building on the back of the lot was built in 1905 or 1906 as the science building. There is talk of razing the building and replacing it with a parking lot.
Arborglyphs
Basque tree carvings can be found throughout much of Nevada’s northern tier, where migrants from the Pyrenees brought their culture with them as they worked as sheepherders, ranchers and restaurant and hotel owners and employees.
Aspens typically live about 100 years and efforts are underway to document the tree carvings. The Arborglyph Collective received a grant in 2023 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to continue its work cataloging the carvings in hopes of creating a database.
Nevada Northern Railway Depot and Freight Building
The Nevada Northern Railway Depot and Freight Building dating to 1907 is one of the best-preserved railroad complexes remaining in the United States.
In the 1990s, after the railroad stopped operations, ownership of the depot and freight buildings was transferred to the State of Nevada, while the rest of the complex became the property of the Nevada Northern Foundation.
Nowadays, the foundation is suing the state for unrestricted access free from the responsibility to maintain, repair or support. As a result, the proposed rehabilitation of the freight building, which was funded and slated to begin construction, has been indefinitely postponed.
Emergency stabilization on the depot is underway, but desperately needed overall seismic upgrades have been put on hold until the legal issues are resolved.
Nishikida Laundry Building
The 1876 Nishikida Laundry Building is a property associated with Nevada's Japanese-American heritage. Closing in 1915, George Oka converted it to a laundry in 1918.
The Nishikida family bought the property in 1940 and operated the laundry until 1989. Since then, the building has been unoccupied and was recently struck by a car. The city and owner are seeking funds for cleanup and demolition.
Micca House
The Micca House is one of the rare Nevada examples of the Stick-Eastlake style of architecture left from the late 19th century Victorian Era.
The first portion of the building served as a warehouse for a dry goods and butcher shop located across the street. In 1879, a two-story adobe building was constructed directly to the right of the warehouse — housing a shoemaker, sundries store, pharmacy and boarding rooms on the top floor.
Italian immigrant Alfonso Pasquale later purchased the property, enlarging and mending the two existing structures to create the Micca House, named for his village in Italy.
The Micca House included a brick oven for baking bread, a meat market with a cooler to house the meats, a kitchen and dining room, offices of the Justice of the Peace, a beauty shop, apartments, a saloon, and storage rooms for food, coal and ice.
Hannah's Cabin
Hannah's Cabin, located in the Sierra Nevada high above the eastern side of Lake Tahoe, was built in 1929 as a summer retreat for Hannah Hobart, the granddaughter of lumber baron William S. Hobart Sr. The cabin is now part of the back country holdings of Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park.
In 2015, the Nevada State Parks system said the property was in a state of arrested decay and needed stabilization and maintenance work within two to three years.
Old Mormon Fort
Nevada's oldest existing structure stands in downtown Las Vegas as part of the Old Mormon Fort State Park. Built in 1855, the park's history includes serving as the home of the area's first post office, pioneer ranching families, the local Indigenous population and chemical testing for Hoover Dam construction.
Across the street, the City of Las Vegas has taken over the Grant Sawyer State Office Building and plans to raze it for a parking lot.
The fort may well be secure, but destruction nearby and an uncertain future for the city-owned property and sports field next to the historic site is cause for concern.
Southern Pacific Railroad Resources of Reno and Sparks
The transcontinental railroad played a critical role in the founding and development of both Reno and Sparks. Several historic Southern Pacific buildings are currently endangered due to long-standing vacancy, neglect and encroaching development.
Of foremost concern is the 120-year-old Machine Shop building in Sparks; this massive brick structure is the last significant remnant of the huge Southern Pacific yard and shop complex that sparked the city’s birth and inspired its “Rail City” nickname. The Union Pacific Railroad has plans to demolish the historic building to clear the way for truck parking.
In Reno, the former Southern Pacific Freight Depot sits underused and vulnerable, while the city-owned Southern Pacific Railroad Depot remains half-vacant and unimproved. In between, the American Railway Express Agency building has developed a newly constructed parking garage.
Bethel AME Church
Built in 1910, the Bethel AME Church served as a center of worship, activist and social life for Reno's close-knit African American community for much of the 20th century.
The congregation aided Black divorce seekers confronting Reno's defacto segregation and the church served as a meeting place for Civil Rights organizations in the 1950s and 1960s. Nowadays, the area around the church is the focus of intense private development. A recent attempt by developers to have the city abandon public streets and alleys in the vicinity would have severely affected access and viability of the church building.
Historic Theaters
The Huntridge in Las Vegas and the Lear in Reno are repeat contenders on this list because of their rich history— but they are two of many endangered theatres in the state.
A Southern Nevada group is working on the preservation of the Gem in Pioche and the Fallon Theatre. The group said the Crystal Theatre in Elko, the Nevada Theatre in Wells, the McGill Theatre in McGill, the Central and Capital Theatres in Ely, the Cinadome in Hawthorne and the Boulder Theatre in Boulder City are still standing but they want to ensure that the physical structures both survive and gain traction.
First steps to help preserve the history?
The group said that Las Vegas is well-known for its tourism-based economy that's based on current and future trends. However, they said there has been a long interest in vintage offerings throughout the state saying there is potential for tapping into an expanded heritage tourism market.
Preserve Nevada is working to partner with K-12 schools to infuse the social studies curriculum with local historical information.
If you would like to know what sites made the list in previous years, you can visit this link.