Tag: downtownreno

Downtown Makeover has the first downtown Reno photowalk of the year. 93 pictures!

Downtown Makeover has another photowalk around downtown Reno, looking at all the construction going on there. Like the new baseball stadium, the cover on top of the train trench, and a few residential projects that are almost finished. A lot of good stuff, and a way to keep up on what's happening in downtown Reno since I never go there.

Crossposted from the WNHPC Blog.

Google a little while ago posted a bunch of the old LIFE Magazine photo archive. I did searches for Northern Nevada, and didn’t turn up a whole lot. Here’s a taste of what I did find, though.

Gaming mogul Bill Harrah in downtown Reno in 1959. In the background is Harold’s Club, which closed in the 90s and was torn down, Harrah’s Club, which expanded to take up the whole block, and the First National Bank of Nevada, which still stands on the corner, but is also part of Harrah’s. Planet Hollywood was there for a long time, but now it’s Ichiban steak house and sushi bar.

This from 1945 shows Douglas Alley, looking from Virginia Street to Center. Lots of great signs here.

This aerial photo of Lake Tahoe was also from 1959, and must have been part of a feature story on Bill Harrah. In the foreground is Harrah’s casino at Stateline, which now has grown into a huge hotel-casino complex.

Photo by Flickr user RenoTahoe
Photo by RenoTahoe at Flickr

Reno yesterday celebrated the grand opening of the West Street Market. The market is sort of a permanent farmer's market, with bars and eateries in the mix; kind of a mini version of Seattle's Pike Place market. The market was built this year out of a couple of buildings and a courtyard a block away from the river, and it represents an exciting movement to make an area of downtown into a destination. The businesses that spring up in the market can then take advantage of that destination status. This is something that Carson City doesn't have, but desperately needs. This summer we had a good beginning with the Curry Street Promenade, but that by nature was just an ephemeral thing, focused around the Saturday farmer's markets. But there still aren't any real destination spots in downtown Carson, and for the revitalization of downtown to be a success, that's what we're going to need.

The Reno bloggers have done a great job of covering the West Street Market. Downtown Makeover has a slideshow, as does ecoBrand. Ken of The Urban Blog was down from Seattle and wrote a report on the opening. The Reno-Tahoe Blog looks at the opening, and the RGJ wrote a story about it.

I got this comment on an old post about the Mapes Hotel in Reno, memories from someone who used to work there.

I worked at the Mapes Hotel restaurant in 1968, and again in the mid-70's as an elevator operator. I was working the day that a theatre just next to the Mapes was demolished (we were informed of the time, and told to halt running the elavators for that short span because of possible seismic activity, that never really was noticed inside the hotel or elevator car); that event had caused a lot of controversy, as I'm sure the razing of the lovely old hotel caused. Public outcry didn't count for much in either case. I used to love it when the Sky Room was open for luncheons or special occasions. Such a nice view...from such a nostalgic room.

I was saddened when I learned of the demise of the place. It really was a special place. With all the ups and downs (pun intended), I thoroughly enjoyed working there.

DowntownMakeover.com has two photowalks of downtown Reno today. One shows the construction that is going on around downtown, including the new baseball stadium, and the other is just a stroll around some of the old houses and Fall colors along South Center Street.

Downtown Makeover has another downtown Reno walk, looking at all the new construction there.

Downtown Makeover has put together a photo gallery of construction shots of the new baseball stadium in downtown Reno.

Downtown Makeover is at it again, with another Downtown Reno photowalk this weekend, showing all the construction progress around town.

Downtown Makeover has posted another downtown Reno walk. This one showcases all the construction that's been going on around downtown, like the new baseball stadium and the cover over the railroad trench. I like looking through these slideshows, because I never go to downtown Reno anymore, but this lets me keep up on all the new developments that are going on down there.