Lemmon-Anderson-Hixson Ranch, Cottage, 11220 North Virginia Street, Reno

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS NEV,16-RENO,4B-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

This building is significant as a contributing element of the Fielding-Hixson-Anderson Ranch, a property that has been determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. This wood frame and stone masonry building is probably the oldest building in the complex and was likely the first building built by Henry Anderson when he established his huge sheep operations at Peavine Ranch. It is possible that Henry Fielding built the stone masonry element of this building before he sold the ranch to Anderson in Description: The cottage at the Fielding-Anderson-Hixson Ranch is a small house built ca. in the simplified neo-classical style.

This building is on a plane with the main residence, located about 56 feet west of the front fence line and about 71 feet west of North Virginia Street. There are two distinct structural elements to this building: a wood frame house and a stone cool house to the rear. A small shed-roofed connector joins the frame element and the stone masonry element. The building as a whole is 25 feet wide and 48 feet long. The frame element measures 25 feet by 24 feet. The stone masonry element measures 20 feet by 18 feet. The shed-roofed connector measures 6 feet by about 25 feet. The main house is composed of two main parts, a narrow side gabled front and a wider rear gabled back, along with a small shed porch at the rear gable end wall.

The rear porch connects directly LEMMON-ANDERSON-HIXSON RANCH Cottage HABS No. (Page 2) to the stone masonry cool house. Although the house and stone structure are connected, they appear as distinctly different buildings. The main element of the cottage is a side gabled rectangle, facing North Virginia Street. At its fac;:ade, it includes a central entry flanked by wooden windows. The entry is sheltered by a bracketed gabled porch. The front door includes glazing on the top one-third. It is sided in horizontal shiplap. The roof eaves are narrow and boxed. The roof is covered with composition shingles. The windows are wood frame, with two-over-two double hung wooden sash.

The windows in the rear gabled element are shorter and wider than those in the side gabled element at the front, perhaps suggesting that this element was built at a different time. The house is set on a dry-laid stone foundation. The stone structure is square in plan, aligned flush with the west side of the house and not extending all the way to the east side. The narrow shed porch that connects the wood frame house to the stone structure is deeper on the south side, overlapping into the space of the stone structure. An open trellis fills in the final gap between house and stone structure. The solid stone walls of the structure are constructed of rough cut square and random stones, set in a concrete mortar.

The wood frame gable roof has vertical wood planks in the gable ends and wooden shingles on the roof. A gable dormer protrudes from the south side of the roof near the wood frame house. The only window opening is boarded over at the rear of the structure. The main access to the stone cool house is through the connecting shed porch and through an internal door from the frame building. The room arrangements are illustrated in the attached "Sketch Floor Plan." The uses of these rooms - living room and bedroom at the street, kitchen and bath at the rear - probably evolved over the years.

Historic Context: This building was built as part of the larger Peavine Ranch, which was operated as a cattle operation between the and the late and as a sheep operation from through the Unfortunately, little infom1ation exists as to the exact functions of the four remaining historical buildings, although their general functions may be inferred from archival data and the character of the buildings. The four buildings are: two residences (including this building), a blacksmith shop, and a summer kitchen. The two residences stand LEMMON-ANDERSON-HIXSON RANCH Cottage HABS No. (Page 3) side-by-side. Both are rather small: this building has a living space of about 800 square feet, minus the stone masonry cool house. The other residence has an area of about square feet.

The larger residence was clearly built after the sheep ranch was started in It is possible but not likely that this cottage was built before A more likely explanation is that this cottage was built shortly after the sheep operation was begun and the other house was added later, probably during the It is presumed that the two residences were used as housing for field hands or ranch managers for the sheep operation. The Peavine Ranch was a huge facility, covering acres. To the west (behind these buildings), the ranch was probably an open range. To the east, the ranch included irrigated pasture and alfalfa fields. There was a separate cluster of buildings, including at least one residence, along the edge of Silver Lake and another cottage west of these buildings.

The actual sheepherding operation did not require a permanent residence of this sort. This home may have been a residence for an overall manager of the ranch, including the sheepherding operation as well as the irrigated fields nearby. The fact that there is a cookhouse and blacksmith shop nearby supports this idea. This building includes both a living area and a stone masonry cool house that was probably used to store perishables.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS NEV,16-RENO,4B-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

This Historic American Buildings Survey documentation is being prepared to mitigate impacts of the Alturas Transmission Project. The Sierra Pacific Power Company of Reno, Nevada will construct a 345 kV transmission line and electric substations from a tap point on the Bonneville Power Administration lines near Alturas, California. It will extend to Reno, Nevada, crossing both private and public lands. This project will require installation of a power line along the west right of way of U.S. between North Virginia Street and the freeway. This line will pass across the street from the Lemmon-Anderson-Hixson Ranch property. It will also require installation of a power pole on the east side of North Virginia Street, across from the northeastern comer of the Lemmon-Anderson- Hixson property.

No part of the ranch parcel will be taken; impacts to it are strictly indirect, relating to the power line and power pole. A Memorandum of Agreement has been reached between the Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) regarding mitigation for these indirect impacts. Among the provisions was one that the

Lemmon-Anderson-Hixson Ranch

Cottage HABS No. (Page 4) buildings, structures, and landscape elements of this property be recorded to Level II of the Historic American Buildings Survey. LEMMON-ANDERSON-HIXSON RANCH Cottage HABS No. (Page 5) SKETCH FLOOR PLAN t/17EN A~'E:A a::. }< \"fLijf::.~ BAI\+ e>E.'0- N~ t(O.Otv'\ KoOM I C.orrAgE. ?~E-"Tt..\4- FLJ>oR PLA t4