Riverside Hotel (Reno)
Encyclopedia
The Riverside Hotel is a former hotel
in Reno, Nevada
, that sits on the exact location where Reno began in 1859. The building now houses apartment
s and studio
s for artists, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
-seekers who were passing through the area in the reverse gold rush
called the "Rush to Washoe" (meaning people were heading east from instead of west to California
), spurred by the gold, and later silver
, strikes of the Comstock Lode
. Myron Lake owned the property from 1861 into the 1880s, running consecutive hotel businesses under the name Lake's House. After Lake's death, his daughter and son-in-law operated the hotel and renamed it the Riverside. A subsequent owner, Harry Gosse, converted the small frame building into a brick
hotel, retaining the name Riverside. This version of the Riverside Hotel was destroyed in a fire. Gosse intended to rebuild but was unable to finance the project and George Wingfield, Reno's most powerful man at the time, acquired the property.
Nevada's pre-eminent architect and former mining engineer Frederic DeLongchamps designed the 1927 version of the Riverside Hotel for George Wingfield. At six stories high, the Riverside was Reno's tallest building at the time of its construction. For the building's design, DeLongchamps employed the rich red brick, so common in Reno, with contrasting cream-colored Gothic Revival style terra cotta
detailing. Situated as it is along the Truckee River
, next to the Washoe County Courthouse, also designed by DeLongchamps, the Riverside was Reno's most popular hotel. Following the passage of the liberal 1931 divorce
law, George Wingfield installed an enormous roof sign advertising the hotel in glowing neon
that was visible all over the Truckee Meadows
. The Riverside had an international reputation and was mentioned in nearly all of the novels and films featuring Reno divorces.
The Riverside Hotel was laid out to suit wealthy divorce-seekers, with 40 corner suites that included kitchen facilities and connecting rooms for children and servants. Each of the apartment suites was furnished with a specially designed cork-insulated and tile-lined refrigerator. Cold brine
was circulated through the refrigerators from the main refrigeration plant in the basement. There were 60 single rooms for shorter stays as well. Such a room was occupied by Clare Boothe (award-winning author, editor of Vanity Fair
, congresswoman and ambassador
) when she arrived in Reno in 1929 to divorce her husband George Brokaw: "Her train arrived in Reno at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 6, 1929, in a fierce blizzard. Clare's mood turned bleak as the weather when she discovered that her reserved apartment at the Riverside Hotel (a red brick building between the Truckee River and the courthouse) was occupied and that she would have to settle for a 'cubby hole' of a room for the first three days."
McKay and Graham decided that having access to a bank could fatten their wallets even more quickly than their casinos did. In the late 1920s, Graham and McKay worked with con men
from all-over the country to lure rich prospects to Reno. Once in town, the well-off vacationers were systematically fleeced of their stock holdings and sent on their way.
The casino inside the Riverside, run by Nick Abelman, provided high-class shows, excellent food, and enough table game
s and slot machines to keep hotel guests and local patrons coming back for years to come.
Abelman ran the gaming with his partners, Steve Pavlovich and Bert Riddick, until 1949, when Mert Wertheimer convinced Wingfield to let him expand the casino. Wertheimer, most recently working with the Nevada Club group after coming to Reno from Detroit, was well-financed from his operations at the Chesterfield Club (and others) in the Motor-City.
The Riverside added eighty-four guest rooms and the first swimming pool to be built in a Reno hotel. Wingfield sold the hotel in December 1955. Over the next 25-years, the club had a progression of owners, most of whom ran a casino.
In 1967, the Nevada Gaming Commission revoked the gaming license at the Riverside over a dice-cheating scandal, and the Riverside closed completely in 1968. In 1971, Jessie Beck purchased the property and opened her own casino.
Beck ran a profitable operation and in 1978, she sold the Riverside to Harrah's Entertainment
so they could make a deal for the Overland Casino owned by “Pick” Hobson. “Pick” took the Riverside and ran the hotel and casino until it finally closed in 1986, nearly 60-years since Wingfield rebuilt the hotel along the Truckee River.
The Riverside Hotel was the spot most watched by news correspondents who had been sent to cover the national phenomenon journalist Walter Winchell
dubbed "Renovation". Reno had nearly as many reporters on hand as divorce-seekers, with news bureaus representing Associated Press
, United Press, International News Service
, The Sacramento Bee
and the New York Daily News
, all looking for an exclusive story.
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
in Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
, that sits on the exact location where Reno began in 1859. The building now houses apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s and studio
Studio
A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...
s for artists, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Early history
C.W. Fuller operated a log building on this location that provided food and shelter to goldGold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
-seekers who were passing through the area in the reverse gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
called the "Rush to Washoe" (meaning people were heading east from instead of west to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
), spurred by the gold, and later silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, strikes of the Comstock Lode
Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located under what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range. After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area and scrambled to stake their claims...
. Myron Lake owned the property from 1861 into the 1880s, running consecutive hotel businesses under the name Lake's House. After Lake's death, his daughter and son-in-law operated the hotel and renamed it the Riverside. A subsequent owner, Harry Gosse, converted the small frame building into a brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
hotel, retaining the name Riverside. This version of the Riverside Hotel was destroyed in a fire. Gosse intended to rebuild but was unable to finance the project and George Wingfield, Reno's most powerful man at the time, acquired the property.
Nevada's pre-eminent architect and former mining engineer Frederic DeLongchamps designed the 1927 version of the Riverside Hotel for George Wingfield. At six stories high, the Riverside was Reno's tallest building at the time of its construction. For the building's design, DeLongchamps employed the rich red brick, so common in Reno, with contrasting cream-colored Gothic Revival style terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
detailing. Situated as it is along the Truckee River
Truckee River
The Truckee River is a stream in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river is about long. Its endorheic drainage basin is about , of which about are in Nevada. The Truckee is the sole outlet of Lake Tahoe and drains part of the high Sierra Nevada, emptying into Pyramid Lake in the Great...
, next to the Washoe County Courthouse, also designed by DeLongchamps, the Riverside was Reno's most popular hotel. Following the passage of the liberal 1931 divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
law, George Wingfield installed an enormous roof sign advertising the hotel in glowing neon
Neon sign
Neon signs are made using electrified, luminous tube lights that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in December, 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show. While they are used worldwide, neon signs...
that was visible all over the Truckee Meadows
Truckee Meadows
The Truckee Meadows is a valley in Northern Nevada which contains the cities of Reno and Sparks. The valley is approximately 10 miles square.Truckee Meadows is bounded by the Carson Range in the west and the Virginia Range in the east...
. The Riverside had an international reputation and was mentioned in nearly all of the novels and films featuring Reno divorces.
The Riverside Hotel was laid out to suit wealthy divorce-seekers, with 40 corner suites that included kitchen facilities and connecting rooms for children and servants. Each of the apartment suites was furnished with a specially designed cork-insulated and tile-lined refrigerator. Cold brine
Brine
Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...
was circulated through the refrigerators from the main refrigeration plant in the basement. There were 60 single rooms for shorter stays as well. Such a room was occupied by Clare Boothe (award-winning author, editor of Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, congresswoman and ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
) when she arrived in Reno in 1929 to divorce her husband George Brokaw: "Her train arrived in Reno at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 6, 1929, in a fierce blizzard. Clare's mood turned bleak as the weather when she discovered that her reserved apartment at the Riverside Hotel (a red brick building between the Truckee River and the courthouse) was occupied and that she would have to settle for a 'cubby hole' of a room for the first three days."
Casino
As an added bonus to the Riverside’s suites. Wingfield opened the Riverside Bank and leased out casino space in exchange for a sizable (up to 25%) cut of the club’s profits. He was already getting a share of the profits from clubs like the Rex and Bank Club being run by his protégés Bill Graham and Jim McKay.McKay and Graham decided that having access to a bank could fatten their wallets even more quickly than their casinos did. In the late 1920s, Graham and McKay worked with con men
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
from all-over the country to lure rich prospects to Reno. Once in town, the well-off vacationers were systematically fleeced of their stock holdings and sent on their way.
The casino inside the Riverside, run by Nick Abelman, provided high-class shows, excellent food, and enough table game
Table game
In casinos, the term table game is used to distinguish games such as blackjack, craps, roulette and baccarat that are played on a table and operated by one or more live dealers like a croupier or poker dealer, as opposed to a games played on a mechanical device like a video slot machine...
s and slot machines to keep hotel guests and local patrons coming back for years to come.
Abelman ran the gaming with his partners, Steve Pavlovich and Bert Riddick, until 1949, when Mert Wertheimer convinced Wingfield to let him expand the casino. Wertheimer, most recently working with the Nevada Club group after coming to Reno from Detroit, was well-financed from his operations at the Chesterfield Club (and others) in the Motor-City.
The Riverside added eighty-four guest rooms and the first swimming pool to be built in a Reno hotel. Wingfield sold the hotel in December 1955. Over the next 25-years, the club had a progression of owners, most of whom ran a casino.
In 1967, the Nevada Gaming Commission revoked the gaming license at the Riverside over a dice-cheating scandal, and the Riverside closed completely in 1968. In 1971, Jessie Beck purchased the property and opened her own casino.
Beck ran a profitable operation and in 1978, she sold the Riverside to Harrah's Entertainment
Harrah's Entertainment
Caesars Entertainment Corporation is a private gaming corporation that owns and operates over 50 casinos, hotels, and seven golf courses under several brands. The company, based in Paradise, Nevada, is the largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues $8.9 billion...
so they could make a deal for the Overland Casino owned by “Pick” Hobson. “Pick” took the Riverside and ran the hotel and casino until it finally closed in 1986, nearly 60-years since Wingfield rebuilt the hotel along the Truckee River.
The Riverside Hotel was the spot most watched by news correspondents who had been sent to cover the national phenomenon journalist Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
dubbed "Renovation". Reno had nearly as many reporters on hand as divorce-seekers, with news bureaus representing Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, United Press, International News Service
International News Service
International News Service was a U.S.-based news agency founded by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst in 1909.Established two years after the Scripps family founded the United Press Association, INS scrapped among the newswires...
, The Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento Bee is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its creation in 1857, the Bee has become Sacramento's largest newspaper, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 25th largest paper in the U.S...
and the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, all looking for an exclusive story.