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Patent drawing for U.S. Patent No. 139,121, Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings, granted to Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss & Co. on May 20, 1873.
Jacob Davis: The Reno Tailor Who Riveted the First Blue Jeans
In the winter of 1870–71, a woodcutter's wife walked into a tailor shop on Virginia Street in Reno, Nevada, and asked for a pair of work pants her husband could... Read more...
Vintage Bee playing cards made for Harolds Club in Reno, one card showing the Smith family (photo by AnelGTR, CC BY-SA 3.0).
Harolds Club, Reno: The Casino Behind ‘Harolds Club or Bust’
For a generation the sentence “Harolds Club or Bust” was painted, printed, and bolted onto the American roadside, on barns and billboards and the license-plate frames of passing cars. It... Read more...
The Reno Arch over Virginia Street in downtown Reno, Nevada, photographed by Sarah Stierch (CC BY 4.0).
The Reno Arch: How a City Became the Biggest Little in the World
Stand at the foot of Virginia Street, where it climbs north from the Truckee River, and the sign arrives the way a headline does: RENO in lit letters, and beneath... Read more...
The concrete double-arch Virginia Street Bridge over the Truckee River in downtown Reno, Nevada.
Reno, Divorce Capital of the World: The Six-Week Residency Era
For more than sixty years, a woman could step off the train in Reno, take a room, wait out a short residency, and walk down the steps of the Washoe... Read more...
The reconstructed Mormon Station trading post stockade in Genoa, Nevada, at Mormon Station State Historic Park.
Genoa and Mormon Station: Nevada's Oldest Settlement in Carson Valley
Carson Valley opens at the eastern foot of the Sierra Nevada like a green lap, and at its western edge, tucked against the granite, sits Genoa — a town of... Read more...
A 1914 newspaper advertisement for Sierra Beer, brewed by the Reno Brewing Company. Public domain.
The Reno Brewing Company: Sierra Beer and Fourth Street's Brewery District
Walk East Fourth Street past Spokane today and the brewery district announces itself in taprooms and patios. The street earned that reputation in 1903, when the Reno Brewing Company opened... Read more...
The brick Rainier Brewing Company Bottling Plant of 1905 at 310 Spokane Street in Reno's old Fourth Street brewery district. Photo by JMcFNV, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Rainier Bottling Works: Seattle Beer and Reno's Brewery District on Spokane Street
On a short street beside the railroad tracks in east Reno stands a plain brick building most people drive past without a glance. Its walls went up in 1905 for... Read more...
Vintage 1950s lithographed steel Olympia beer can, a period tavern object.
The Copenhagen Bar: The Quilici Family Tavern on Old Fourth Street
Follow East Fourth Street out of downtown Reno and it runs east past the freight yards, over the county line, and changes its name to Prater Way. On that stretch,... Read more...
Mid-century Knowles China Company restaurant plates with a scalloped rim and pink floral garland, an object from The Eclection collection and not a photo of the restaurant.
Casale's Halfway Club: Reno's Oldest Family-Run Italian Restaurant on East Fourth Street
Drive East Fourth Street out of downtown Reno toward Sparks and a brick building appears at 2501 East Fourth with a family name over the door. Casale's Halfway Club has... Read more...
A vintage Olympia Brewing Company lithographed steel flat-top beer can, c. 1950s, with the horseshoe and waterfall device. An object of the postwar bar era, not a photograph of the Coney Island Bar.
Coney Island Bar: Sparks' Tamale Factory Turned Neighborhood Landmark
Where East Fourth Street gives way to Prater Way, just inside the Sparks line and hard beside the Interstate 80 on-ramp, a low brick building has been pouring drinks and... Read more...
Antique George Jones Crescent transferware plates displayed on a wooden table in front of shelves of antiques at Viridian Eclection, Reno.
How Much Is My Antique Worth? Valuing Antiques and Finding an Appraiser in Reno
How professionals value antiques: identifying what you have, researching sold prices, fair market value versus replacement value, when to hire an appraiser, and how to find a credentialed appraiser in... Read more...
The Nevada State Capitol in Carson City photographed in 1875, a few years after its completion, with its cupola, picket fence, and young trees. Nevada Historical Society, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Nevada Day: How Nevada Became the Battle Born State on October 31, 1864
Nevada entered the Union on October 31, 1864, in the middle of the Civil War, after its constitution was sent to Washington in the longest telegram on record. Here is... Read more...