Route 341 climbs north of Gold Hill and, after winding through a tight curve, continues onto Virginia City. The first significant structure you encounter as you enter the mining town is the Fourth Ward School (537 C Street), an elegant, four-story, Victorian-era school erected in 1876. Considered one of the West’s finest schools, it accommodated more than 1,000 students in 16 classrooms. Housed on its four floors were both a grammar school and a high school. The structure also boasted many modern conveniences—modern for the times—such as a central heating system, water piped to every floor, drinking fountains and indoor “Philadelphia-style,” patented, spring-loaded, self-flushing toilets.

Virginia City’s declining fortunes along with the school’s age and construction of a newer school resulted in the Fourth Ward School closing in 1936. For the next three decades, the magnificent structure stood empty, its fate uncertain. Starting in the 1960s, however, the community rallied around efforts to save the old school. Finally, in the 1980s, the building was rehabilitated. In 1986, it reopened as a museum devoted to the school’s rich past and to telling the history of the Comstock region.

Driving on C Street, you pass through Virginia City’s commercial core. The street is lined with dozens of buildings, each with a considerable history. For instance, the Presbyterian Church was the only original church to survive a disastrous fire that destroyed most of the city in 1875. Built in 1867 with funds raised by its congregation from mining stocks, the church has been restored and is open for tours and services.

Across C Street from the Presbyterian Church is the Firehouse Museum. Built in 1876, following the fire, it served as a broker’s office, a meat market, a saloon, and a brewery over the years. In 1930, it became the home of the Storey County Fire Department and was restored as a firehouse museum in 1979. It contains a fine collection of historic fire engines and fire-fighting equipment.
Another noteworthy historic structure is the Banner Brothers Building (corner of C and Taylor), built in 1876. It was originally a dry goods and clothing store, and later home of the Crystal Bar. In the 1990s, it became the Virginia City Visitor’s Center.

Of course, not all of Virginia City’s history is found on C Street. Off the main street, both up and down the slopes of Mount Davidson are the remnants of the glory that was the Comstock. Along B Street (one block up the hill from C Street) and on other avenues, you can find plenty of striking 19th century mansions and homes. Most of these homes are privately owned so respect the owners' privacy.

B Street offers perhaps the most splendid assortment of these magnificent survivors of a more opulent era. A few, in fact, predate the Great Fire of 1875, which destroyed nearly all of Virginia City. The best place to start your B Street tour is from the south end of Virginia City, where B Street merges with C Street. The first home you pass is the Edith Palmer house, a quaint two-story whitewashed home, now a popular bed and breakfast. Built in 1862, the home, which includes a stone wine cellar, was owned for many generations by the Kent family, involved in a wholesale wine business. Up the street from Edith Palmer's is the Captain Pooley home (384 South B), a modest whitewashed New England style house built by an early Virginia City pioneer.

A bit farther is "The Castle," an impressive Empire-style mansion notable for its central three-story tower. Robert Graves, superintendent of the Empire Mine, one of the Comstock's most productive mines, was the original owner of the home, which was constructed between 1863 and 1868. Graves spared no expense, installing black walnut trim, Italian marble, silver doorknobs and an Italian "hanging" staircase. Fortunately, nearly all of the original furnishings and architectural flourishes remain in the house, which is open for tours in the summer months.

Nearby is the Storey County Courthouse, built in 1877 on the site of an earlier courthouse that burned in the 1875 fire. This marvelous Victorian building remains in use and is notable for the large bronze figure of Justice, on the second floor, which is not blindfolded.

Up the street is Piper's Opera House, constructed in 1885, and host to many name performers in the 19th and early 20th century. This massive, gray wooden theater, which has been restored, boasts many of its original furnishings, including a hand-painted canvas stage curtain.

Adjacent is a tight row of Victorian storefronts that include the Miners Union Hall, Moran Building and the Knights of Pythias Hall, all of which have been maintained or restored.

Behind Piper’s Opera House is a Nevada Historical Marker relating the story of the Great Fire of 1875, which destroyed nearly all of Virginia City. The inferno was started about 50 feet from the marker site when a coal oil lamp was knocked over in a nearby boarding house and exploded in flames. By the time the fire was snuffed, more than 33 city blocks had been destroyed, including the original St. Mary's Church, the county courthouse, an earlier version of Piper's Opera House and most of the business district.
There are also a number of interesting buildings found below C Street. For example, on D Street, you will find the majestic Mackay Mansion (129 D St.) built in 1860 as the offices and residence of the Gould and Curry Mining Company, which was owned for a time by George Hearst. Later, it was home to mining magnate John Mackay, one of the Comstock “Silver Kings.” It is open for tours.

To the south is the Savage Mansion (146 D St.), built in 1861. The bottom floor of this three-story mansion, which is a private residence, originally served as the office for the Savage Mining Company, while the top two floors were living quarters for the mine superintendent. With its trademark mansard roof and dormered windows, the Savage is one of the last of the great Comstock mansions. One piece of historic trivia is that President Ulysses S. Grant gave a speech from the second-floor balcony in 1879.

South of the Savage Mansion is the Chollar Mansion, built in 1863 as a combined mining office and residence for the Chollar-Potosi Mining Company. If you continue farther east from D Street, you will reach other landmarks, including the St Mary in the Mountains Catholic Church (corner of Taylor and E streets), built following the 1875 fire. This impressive two-story, Gothic Revival brick structure, open to the public for viewing (there is a museum in the basement), has fine rosewood balconies and stained glass windows.

Another of Virginia City’s churches is St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, located one block northeast of St. Mary in the Mountains on the corner of F and Taylor Streets. Erected in 1876—an earlier congregation church that was erected in 1862 burned in the 1875 fire—St. Paul’s is entirely constructed of native pine and has arched ceiling beams and walls that are actually held together with wooden pegs. The original pews and wood-paneled walls are also nearly intact. Like St. Mary’s, it still hosts regular services.

For more information, contact the Virginia City Chamber of Commerce, 775-847-0311.

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