Old Carson house to be demolished

After failing to find someone who could move it to another location, the old green house on the corner of Sixth and Nevada streets in historic Carson City will be torn down Wednesday.

City officials asked developers, who are waiting to build two new single-family homes and a duplex on the site, to try to find someone to move the house instead of demolishing it. But after fielding several calls from people interested in the free house, no one could figure out a way to move it, said Pat Clark, president of Building Concepts in Gardnerville.

"You can only move it so far without having a problem," Clark said. The one man who had the best chance of pulling it off called Thursday saying he couldn't find a way to do it.

Carson Historical Society walked through the house and identified several items to salvage. Clark and a partner developer, S.C. Development, will now let the society remove items before tearing the structure down.

Clark said many people wanted to remove floor boards or other objects, but he is doubtful anything in the house will be worth saving. The liability of people tearing up things inside the house is also an issue, he said.

"Everybody thinks there's some special stuff in there but there's not," Clark said. "It's a bunch of junk. It wasn't a rich person's house. It's really been used up."

The house is at least 130 years old, as it is shown on a map drawn by an insurance company in 1875. But through the years, owners have added onto it, enclosing a wraparound porch and adding rooms. The last owner used the house as a rental before the home was abandoned.

Even though they were unable to relocate the house, Clark said the city worked hard to help with the project.

"They understand that you can't save everything really, no matter if we'd like to or not," Clark said.