El Cortez Hotel

Built in 1931 (Art Deco architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

From the record

“The El Cortez Hotel, at 239 W. 2nd St. in Reno, Nevada, is a historic Art Deco-style hotel that was built in 1931 by Reno real estate investor Abe Zetoony. It was designed by Reno architects George A.”
Wikipedia article El Cortez (Reno), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 83 National Register listings published here for Washoe County · listed in 1984 · category: Building · built in 1931, Art Deco architecture, by George A. Ferris and Son.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 239 W. 2nd St., Reno
When was it listed? June 1984
Category. building
Census division. Reno North
When was it built? 1931
Architectural style. Art Deco architecture
Architect. George A. Ferris and Son
National Register reference number. 84002078 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

107 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 107 fires within 5 miles of El Cortez Hotel between 1992 and 2020, burning about 17,403 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 9 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	46
Recreation and ceremony	10
Equipment and vehicle use	9
Arson/incendiarism	9
Misuse of fire by a minor	7
Debris and open burning	6
Fireworks	6
Natural	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Smoking	4

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
23 September 2018	Misuse of fire by a minor	2.6 acres	Carson City District Office	ROCKY RIDGE
23 September 2006	Misuse of fire by a minor	5.0 acres	Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest	EISENBERG
22 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest	KEYSTONE2
21 September 1994	Smoking	under an acre	Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest	USFS 099
20 September 2009	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Carson City District Office	HIGHWAY QUEEN
20 September 1995	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest	CHIP
18 September 2017	Natural	50 acres	Carson City District Office	WOODCHUCK
17 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.5 acres	Carson City District Office	RNOX 22

Every fire recorded in Washoe County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 32 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 32 workings within 5 miles of El Cortez Hotel: 14 past producers, 11 occurrences, 4 prospects, 2 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silver, Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
(Facility) United States Platinum Refinery	REE, Uranium, Silver, Platinum, Gold	Plant
Arkell Mine	Silver, Gold, Antimony, Lead, Zinc	Past Producer	Anglesite, Argentite, Galena, Pyrite, Sphalerite
Black Panther Area	Titanium, Metal	Occurrence	Vein
Black Panther Mine Area	Titanium	Occurrence
Chalk Bluff	Diatomite	Past Producer
Desert King Mine	Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, Antimony	Past Producer	Anglesite, Argentite, Galena, Pyrite, Sphalerite
Moana Springs	Geothermal	Producer
Reno May	Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc	Occurrence	Galena, Pyrite
Unnamed Mine	Gold, Boron-Borates	Past Producer	Vein
Unnamed Prospect, Sec 29	Silver, Gold, Copper	Occurrence	Enargite, Galena, Pyrite, Sphalerite

Every working recorded in Washoe County

Storms near this property

39 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Reno, the town this property stands in, in 39 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 13 heavy rain, 8 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 3 lightning. The reports record 5 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2011	Lightning	West Reno	4 hurt	Lightning from a thunderstorm over the McQueen High School soccer field struck between two sets of bleacher seats on the afternoon of the 24th, causing 4 injuries. Two of the injured went to the hospital and were in stable condition while two others refused treatment. One man had his hair singed and the left half of his shirt burned.
May 1997	Lightning	Reno	1 hurt	A man was struck by lightning while walking in Idlewild Park in Reno, NV. He was injured and taken to the hospital for treatment.
July 2000	Dust Devil	Reno	$1,000	A dust devil damaged several outdoor booths during a special events celebration.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Reno	$1,000	no account filed
May 2009	Dust Devil	Reno	$500	A dust devil was observed in a field west of Pyramid Highway at Calle de la Plata north of Reno.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Reno	$500	no account filed
July 2025	Hail	Reno	-	Public reported 1 inch hail in south Reno. There were also multiple reports of 0.75 inch hail and accumulating hail throughout the city.
January 2023	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	COCORAHS stations located 1.7 mi E of Sparks, NV (NV-WH-31), and 1.7 mi WSW of Reno, NV (NV-WH-133), reported a 24 hour rainfall amounts of 0.97 and 0.99 inches respectively.
March 2023	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	A COCORAHS, NV-WH-164, located 22.1 mi NNW of Reno, NV, and COCORAHS, NV-WH-19 Verdi, located 9.0 mi W of Reno, NV, reported 24-hour rainfall totals of 1.7 inches and 1.8 inches respectively.
January 2019	Heavy Rain	West Reno	-	Mesonet AU849 3 miles west of Reno reported 1.50 inches of rainfall in a 24 hour period from 16 January 0826PST to 17 January 0826PST. Mesonet elevation 5174 feet MSL.
January 2019	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	CoCoRaHS station NV-WH-133 2 miles west-southwest of Reno reported 1.00 inch of rainfall in a 24 hour period from 16 January 0800PST to 17 January 0800PST.
April 2018	Heavy Rain	West Reno	-	Trained weather spotter 4 miles south-southwest of Reno reported 0.65 inches of storm total rainfall from 6 April 0210PST to 7 April 1410PST.
May 2018	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	Mesonet station ALMN2, 5 miles southwest of Reno (elevation 6160 feet) reported 1.11 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period from 16 May 0130PST to 17 May 0130PST.
August 2014	Hail	West Reno	-	The hail occurred at McQueen High School.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	West Reno	-	This report was from the same thunderstorm that produced the 1655PST gust at the NWS office.
July 2008	Hail	Reno	-	A trained weather spotter reported 3/4 inch hail at the intersection of South McCarran and Kietzke in Reno.
July 2004	Tornado (F0)	Reno	-	An F0 tornado was spotted in Cold Springs, north of Reno. No damage was reported. The weak tornado lasted less than 2 minutes.
August 2004	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	A total of 0.75 inches of rain fell in 45 minutes in Palomino Valley north of Reno.
July 2004	Flash Flood	Reno	-	Flash flooding occurred in Palomino Valley, north of Reno. The main flooding was along Whiskey Springs, Amy, Chieftain, and Pasture View Roads.
June 2003	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	A storm spotter in northwest Reno measured nearly one half inch of rain, .43, from a thunderstorm in less than 20 minutes.
August 2003	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	One half inch of rain fell in 25 minutes from a thunderstorm.
July 2003	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	A weather spotter estimated that .25 inches of rain fell in 10 minutes from a thunderstorm. Minor street flooding was observed.
November 2002	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	Spotter in southwest Reno reported 1.25 inches of rain.
August 2002	Hail	Reno	-	3/4 inch hail
August 2002	Hail	Reno	-	3/4 inch hail
August 2000	Lightning	Reno	-	Newspaper report of several lightning-caused fires. Residents were evacuated, but no homes were lost.
September 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Reno	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts of 64 mph recorded by automated weather sensor 10 miles NNE of Reno.
September 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Reno	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 kts observed at Reno National Weather Service office.
September 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Reno	-	Spotter report of thunderstorm winds of 63 mph in southwest Reno.
September 1998	Flood	Reno	-	10 minute rainfall in SW Reno: 0.20 inches due to thunderstorm resulting in minor street flooding and ponding on roads.
September 1998	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	45 minute rainfall: 0.71 inches from thunderstorm reported by spotter 5 miles north of Reno.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Reno	-	A weather spotter in Reno reported a wind gust to 51 kts from a severe thunderstorm.
August 1997	Funnel Cloud	Reno	-	An off-duty NWS employee reported a funnel cloud just north of Peavine Mountain near Reno. It lasted for about five minutes before dissipating.
October 1993	Hail	Reno	-	One inch diameter hail was reported in the Callahan Ranch area.
October 1993	Hail	Reno	-	Three quarter inch diameter hail was recorded by the Reno National Weather Service office.
October 1993	Hail	Reno	-	A storm spotter reported three quarter inch hail in Hidden Valley.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Reno	-	no account filed
July 2001	Wildfire	Reno	-	no account filed
January 1997	Heavy Rain	Reno	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Washoe County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral Complex	under 500 feet	2022
First United Methodist Church	0.1 miles	1983
20th Century Club	0.1 miles	1983
Francovich House	0.2 miles	1983
Nystrom Guest House	0.2 miles	2000
First Church of Christ, Scientist	0.2 miles	1999

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 84002078 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Washoe County	All 83 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.