The Fourth Ward School Museum, a Victorian Era, Second Empire building reflects the late 19th century style.
Photo by Jessica Garcia.
Collecting the history of Virginia City’s Fourth Ward School Museum has been like solving a puzzle, Executive Director Nora Stefu said. Much of its legacy has remained intact as the “last one standing” of Victorian-style schools, but there are always pieces to find around the community it has served since 1876.
Exhibits inside pay tribute to the people who established the town in a booming space and quickly needed a school for the children who came with them.
Stefu said the building was desperate for revival but ongoing work is keeping Fourth Ward alive.
“A lot of passion went into this building to secure it, to preserve it, to make programming, to have it open for the public,” Stefu said. “It's a beautiful, preserved, historical town. Everybody should know about Virginia City.”
The Fourth Ward School at 537 S. C St., was designed by C.M. Bennett in the Second Empire style and built in 1876. Its four floors could hold 1,000 students. The school welcomed first through ninth grades initially before eventually adding 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
Builders provided electric lighting and plumbing with modern toilets. It maintained certain traditions with the two balconies. Girls maintained their privacy and walked through a classroom to a section leading them around to the balcony to use the facilities.
“When we did a proposal for the renovation, I said it was in pretty dire straits, you know?” Stefu said. “It had a lot of deterioration of the original wood. It was like 30 years since the building was painted. The last renovation was 2000.”
To find local contractors willing to adhere to the State Historic Preservation Office’s standards was difficult, Stefu said. Ultimately, Reyman Bros. Construction of Reno was hired and has maintained a long history of restoring the building. The company helped to hoist its 122-year-old school bell in its belltower in December 2001.
“Reyman Bros. Construction, they’ve been incredible. They know the building inside out, they were the first contractors who came into the building in the ‘80s,” Stefu said.
Darrell Linscott, project manager from Reyman, said his company started working to refurbish the south and west elevations about two years ago. Crews also have repaired woodwork on the walkway to the stairs outside and refurbished indoor spaces, he said.
“It’s all pretty much standard construction,” Linscott said. “It takes a lot of time because you have to be detailed and maintain the look they were creating when it was first built.”
It’s also virtually impossible to find the same materials originally used to construct the building, he added.
Stefu has a diverse background that has taken her between Northern Nevada and Greece while completing her academic degrees in Colorado or Ohio. She studied international affairs and political science with a focus on culture. She also obtained a master’s degree in management and cultural arts. She previously worked as a director of a folklore museum in Greece that was older than Fourth Ward. She became executive director in 2020.
“(I enjoy) preserving history, the heritage, driving up to an old town, that I feel like, I’m back in time,” Stefu said. The people are very generous and very communal, you know, everybody cares for each other and supports each other — our merchants, Storey County. We're like a big family, we're a big team. We have a common goal, and that’s important to me and we’re blessed to have this building open.”