The Holiday Hotel: A Riverfront Chapter of Reno's Casino Era

The Holiday Hotel is one of the quieter chapters of downtown Reno's riverfront story. It was never as famous as its neighbors, and it began with a premise that sounds almost unthinkable for a Nevada hotel of its day: no gambling at all. According to Reno Historical, it opened in December 1956 on the south bank of the Truckee River, and within a year it had become a casino hotel like the others along the water.

Less has been written about the Holiday than about the Mapes or the Riverside, so this article keeps to what the record supports. We lean on Reno Historical, an entry by historian Alicia Barber, and on Wikipedia's history of the property, and we leave out anything we could not trace to a source. The building itself still stands, under a different name, and the era it belonged to still leaves traces collectors can hold in their hands.

A Hotel on the River

In 1953, millionaire developer Norman Biltz announced plans to build the Holiday Hotel on the south bank of the Truckee River, between Center and Lake Streets. Biltz was a major developer of Lake Tahoe, and Reno Historical credits architect Frank Green with the design.

When it opened in December 1956, the Holiday was an eight-story hotel in a striking green with rose-colored touches. It took full advantage of its setting: balconies on all of the north-facing rooms looked toward the water, and a ground-floor dining room called the Rainbow Room had large windows overlooking the Truckee.

The Holiday was also, per Reno Historical, the first hotel in Reno to offer full services for motorists. Guests could drive into a spacious garage beneath the hotel and have their bags taken directly to their rooms while they registered. It was a fitting amenity for a city that had long been a highway town, from the days of the Lincoln Highway that we trace in The Lincoln Highway in Reno to the postwar boom in car travel.

A Sportsman's Paradise, Without the Tables

What set the Holiday apart on paper was its refusal to gamble. Biltz insisted that, unlike the neighboring Mapes and Riverside hotels, the Holiday would offer no table games. Its investors planned instead to promote the area as a sportsman's paradise, an aspect Biltz felt had been all but obliterated by the city's reputation for gambling and divorce. His line has been preserved: "For every ten crapshooters, there are a hundred who would rather shoot birds."

The idea was risky enough that the Wall Street Journal picked up the story, asking whether a non-gambling hotel could survive in Nevada. The hotel even had its own game reserve, 4-1/2 miles east of Dayton, where guests could hunt on 1,000 acres with no license required.

The experiment did not last. By Biltz's own account, one week after the hotel opened, "you could shoot a cannon through the place."

The Casino Era Arrives

In July 1957, the hotel was purchased by Newton Crumley and associates, who immediately added a casino floor to the southwest section of the building. Reno Historical notes that the Holiday went through many changes of ownership in the decades that followed, though it does not detail them, and neither do we.

The turn toward gaming placed the Holiday squarely in the world that had taken shape after World War II, when, as Reno Historical describes it, Americans jumped into their cars and hit the highways in search of fun and adventure, motels popped up along every major entrance to town, and the downtown casinos were booming. The Mapes, which we cover in The Mapes Hotel: The Rise and Fall of Reno's Art Deco Landmark, was one of the neighbors the Holiday had set out to be different from, and it became more like them in less than a year.

Changing Hands, Closing, and Reinvention

The Holiday closed at the end of October 1998, after 42 years in business, according to Wikipedia's history of the property. A few years later the property was completely gutted and remodeled, reopening on July 31, 2001 as The Siena Hotel Spa Casino.

The Siena's own path was uneven. The Wikipedia history records that it closed on October 21, 2010, was bought at auction by Grand Siena, LLC, and reopened on April 18, 2011. In May 2015 the owners agreed to sell, the casino closed on June 30, 2015, and a group led by developer Fernando Leal took over. After renovations, the property reopened in April 2017 as the non-gaming Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel, operated by Marriott.

Put another way, the building that began as a hotel without a casino ended up, after a long run as a casino hotel, as a hotel without a casino once again.

What Remains

The building is the through-line. The hotel on the river today occupies the same structure as the Holiday: the Reno Historical entry notes that the Siena "retained only the building's basic structure," completely renovating the interior and exterior. The green-and-rose exterior of 1956 is not what a visitor sees now.

What does survive is a visual record. Reno Historical illustrates the Holiday with postcards, construction photographs, newspaper advertisements, and images credited to Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries. These are the same kinds of paper objects that make the era collectible.

Collecting Mid-Century Reno

We have no catalog of items made specifically for the Holiday, and we will not pretend otherwise. But the hotel belongs to a broader category that collectors of Nevada history and mid-century design do pursue: the paper, glass, and barware of the postwar casino years. Think vintage Reno postcards, hotel and casino advertising, matchbooks, ashtrays, ice buckets, bar glasses, and the cocktail-hour pieces that furnished the lounges and rooms of the era.

A few habits serve a collector well. Look for the printed name and location of the establishment, since a piece is only tied to a particular hotel if it says so. Compare postcards against dated photographs before assuming a decade. And treat any claim that an object "came from the Holiday" as something to be documented, not assumed. For a look at how we hunt for pieces in person, see our notes on the Reno Antique Faire.

At a Glance: The Holiday Hotel, Reno

• Announced in 1953 by developer Norman Biltz for the south bank of the Truckee River, between Center and Lake Streets.
• Opened in December 1956 as an eight-story green hotel with rose-colored touches, with balconies on its north-facing rooms and a riverview dining room called the Rainbow Room.
• Began as a non-gambling "sportsman's paradise," with no table games and its own 1,000-acre game reserve near Dayton.
• Was the first Reno hotel to offer full services for motorists, with a garage beneath the building.
• Bought in July 1957 by Newton Crumley and associates, who added a casino floor; it closed in 1998.
• Reopened in 2001 as the Siena Hotel Spa Casino and, since April 2017, is the non-gaming Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the Holiday Hotel open in Reno?

It opened in December 1956 on the south bank of the Truckee River, after being announced by developer Norman Biltz in 1953. It opened as a non-gaming hotel.

Did the Holiday Hotel have a casino?

Yes, though not at first. In July 1957, the hotel was purchased by Newton Crumley and associates, who immediately added a casino floor to the southwest section of the building.

What is on the site of the Holiday Hotel today?

The same building, extensively remodeled, is now the Renaissance Reno Downtown Hotel, a non-gaming Marriott property that opened in April 2017. In between, it operated as the Siena Hotel Spa Casino, which opened in 2001; the casino closed on June 30, 2015.

Is there Holiday Hotel memorabilia to collect?

Period postcards and advertising are documented, and mid-century Reno hotel and casino ephemera is a collecting field in its own right. We cannot point to a specific catalog of Holiday-branded items, so look for pieces that carry the hotel's name and verify any provenance before you buy.

Conclusion

The Holiday Hotel is a reminder that Reno's casino era was not inevitable at every address: here was a riverfront hotel that bet on the outdoors, was reportedly nearly empty a week after opening, and had a casino floor by the following July. Its later lives as the Siena and the Renaissance add layers, but the original story of a green hotel on the Truckee remains the most distinctive part.

To bring a piece of mid-century Reno home, explore our curated collection at The Eclection — chosen not for their shine, but for the craftsmanship and history they carry.

Resources & Further Reading

For deeper study of Reno and Nevada history, these organizations are reliable, non-commercial starting points:

• Online Nevada Encyclopedia — Nevada Humanities' reference on the state's history, people, and places.
• Reno Historical — a digital history project with entries on downtown Reno landmarks, including the Holiday Hotel.
• Nevada Historical Society — the state museum and research library for Nevada history.