Nevada buildings added to national historic register

Eleven Nevada buildings -- 10 of them in Austin -- have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Austin properties were listed as a result of a grass-roots effort organized by the Austin Historical Society to attract more tourists to the central Nevada town. Society spokesman Ray Williams said tourism would provide the town with more economic stability.

"The listing of these sites in the National Register will increase the number of stopover days that travelers spend in Austin and attract new visitors to the area," he said.

The sites listed are: the Lander County Courthouse, Austin Methodist Church, Gridley Store, Austin Cemetery, Austin City Hall, St. George's Episcopal Church, Austin Masonic and Odd Fellows Hall, Stokes Castle, St. Augustine's Catholic Church and Nevada Central Turntable.

All but one of the buildings dates back to Austin's heyday in the 1860s and 1870s. At one time, it was Nevada's second largest city with 10,000 people.

The exception was the three-story Stokes Castle, a replica of a tower outside of Rome. Built of granite in 1897 for eastern financier Anson Phelps Stokes, its roof was an outdoor living room surrounded by curtains.

Two of the churches on the list -- the Methodist and St. Augustine's Catholic -- were built in 1866. The third, St. George's Episcopal, dates back to 1878.

The Pearl Upson House at 937 Jones St. in Reno was also listed. The home was built in about 1902 as part of a subdivision called the Powning Addition. Christopher Columbus Powning, then owner of the Nevada State Journal, built several classic Queen Anne-style homes on 122 acres from Jones Street near the Truckee River to northwest Reno.

"The remaining Queen Anne homes in the addition, as represented by the Pearl Upson House, are especially significant as reflecting the initial settlement phase of the subdivision," said historian Mella Harmon of the state Historic Preservation Office.