Positively 4th Street
A tour down Fourth reveals tours de force of entrepreneurial ingenuity
Photo By David Robert
Fourth Street, now known for its crack dealers and prostitutes, used to be U.S. Route 40, the main thoroughfare through town. The addition of two freeways diverted traffic away, causing economic decline. But Fourth Street is still home to independent businesses that have hung in there through changing times, adapted to new circumstances and, for the most part, have high hopes for Reno’s future.
What was a series of fleabag motels on the edge of town was transformed when Pat Campbell came along in 1994, looking to “retire.” She built Wildflower Village, her own little philanthropist’s paradise: two art galleries, an ivy-covered coffeehouse, a wedding chapel, artists’ residences and motel rooms. She likes what’s happened to her neighborhood near West McCarran Boulevard: “It’s become trendy and camp and very fun to be here.”
Photo By David Robert
The wedding-chapel industry and the neighborhood near Fourth and Vine streets have both been in decline. Margaret Flint, whose parents opened Chapel of the Bells in 1962, remembers wandering the neighborhood as a kid. But her children, ages 9 and 15, are not allowed to roam the streets, where the down-and-out push shopping carts along the sidewalk and try to camp in the yard. “We’re hanging in there right now,” she says. But she has to rely on hiring family members to keep costs down.
Photo By David Robert
“I have to put up with these guys,” jokes the bartender at Louis’ Basque Corner, gesturing to regulars Keko Maldonado and David Green as the two shake dice with gusto. Locals and tourists have been feasting on Louis’ big Basque dinners and lively atmosphere on the corner of Evans Avenue since 1967.
Photo By David Robert
The Reno Jazz Club, seen here from the windows of Louis’ across the street, looks as down-home on the inside as it does on the outside, but with a lot more personalized flair: a rock-tiled bar, a funky, bright-colored paint job. Owner Alex Panschar appreciates the city’s recent efforts to help Fourth Street businesses, such as new light posts and “street beat” cops, who patrol the neighborhood on foot. “This is going to be the Bourbon Street of Reno,” Panschar says. “It’s going to be slow, but it’s going to happen.”
Photo By David Robert
Bill Moffitt shows off a remote that can operate 100 trains and a train engine puffing “proto-smoke.” His shop, Reno Rails, at the nearly desolate corner of Fourth and Sutro streets, might seem an unlikely place for a specialty retail shop, but Moffitt points out, “We would not have lasted more than six months in a mall. The rent’s way too high.” Instead of relying on foot traffic, Moffitt’s found success with television ads, mail order and online sales.
Photo By David Robert
The 1910 Nevada California Oregon Railroad Depot is reflected in a mirror on the Alpine Glass Company Building across the street. These two architectural gems haven’t withstood changing times. The depot is now marked by tall weeds, hypodermic needles in the yard and cracked windows.
Photo By David Robert
The Archie Burnett mural outside Twin City Surplus is partially obscured under scratched plexiglass, installed to protect it from vandals. “This street flopped when the freeway went in,” says owner Larry Slider. Motorists headed straight from the exit ramp to the recognizable Holiday Inn, he says, rather than searching Fourth Street for a place to stay. But Slider is still there. “You have to be flexible to survive,” he says. He’s adapted by selling surplus gear online and industrial furniture from a lot across the street. “It’s going to be a long time before they take the prostitutes and the day laborers off the streets [or before] they want to put a Starbucks here,” he says.
Photo By David Robert
With big-game heads and a sign reading “Cowboys, Scrape shit from boots before entering,” Coney Island looks like your typical rural Nevada bar. When Ralph Galletti opened the place in 1965, just across the city line where Fourth Street changes its name to Prater Way, it just about was in rural Nevada. Galletti (namesake of Galletti Way, which was previously Coney Island Drive, after a now-departed local amusement park) has handed down the business to a couple of generations. Meanwhile, Sparks has grown, but inside Coney Island, where regulars have been coming for the food and the warm reception for decades, it seems time has barely passed.
Photo By David Robert
Sandman Motel owner John Matthews is eager to talk business through the thick black bars that separate his living quarters from his tiny front office. Matthews likes the motel business. The money is pretty good. The workload isn’t bad. The problem is, at $35 a night, the Sandman can’t compete with the casinos for tourists. “That’s why we are all weekly now,” he says. His clients are “mostly locals, people who’ve had ‘apartment problems.'” Matthews used to phone the police a few times a week to report drug dealers, but over his six-year tenure, he’s seen things improve.
Photo By David Robert
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