History

The Lake house moves. Again.
In June, people who park in the city parking lot at Court and Arlington got notices on their windshields warning them to find a new place to park, and it angered them.

“There isn’t a lot of parking downtown,” says Rebecca Thomas, a university instructor who must regularly visit the county courthouse two blocks away to do research.

A city spokesperson said there are no plans to develop more parking to replace the spaces lost, and he suggested drivers use the city parking garage at Sierra and First. The Court Street lot contained 53 spaces and generated about $6,000 a year. It was used most heavily on weekends and during special events.

The parking lot is now occupied by a house that for the past 30 years has been on the southern tip of the triangular land bounded by Peckham, Kietzke and Virginia. The house was moved there in 1971 from the corner of California and Virginia to make way for an office building. The campaign that saved the house was supposed to continue developing the Kietzke/Virginia location into a “historical complex,” but those plans were never accomplished by Washoe Landmark Preservation Inc., formed to save the structure.

Built by Washington Marsh, the house was the one-time home of pioneer Reno resident Jane Lake. She received it in a well publicized divorce during which her beatings at the hands of Reno founder Myron Lake (who never lived in the house) became an issue.

Last week, when it was moved by truck back downtown, the house passed its original location. After two trips up and down Virginia, at its third site, it should perhaps be put on wheels.