RGJ archives
| Reno Gazette Journal
A version of this article originally published on Oct. 27, 2016.
Reno’s most photographed landmark, the Reno Arch, turned 90 last week. But not the kitschy, ’80s-tastic version now on Virginia Street. And not the one before that, now living in Willits, California. It is the modestly lit one, previously known as the Exposition Arch now on Lake Street, that marked the milestone.
It’s worth pausing for a moment to note that, yes, Reno raised three arches in less than 100 years. New metal sheathing and lights will soon update the current Reno Arch, too. Does that count as a new one? No. But maybe we can call it Reno Arch version 3.1.
As with most else in Reno, when people grew tired of one arch, another was built anew. The current arch was built hoping it might inject new life into a flagging downtown, and tourists still flock to it for photo opportunities.
In a city that’s seen so many newcomers, it’s worth revisiting the sometimes-ridiculous history of our iconic arches that welcome all to the Biggest Little City in the World.
Arch No. 1: Party like it’s 1926
In 1926, the Lincoln Highway and Victory Highway converged to create the current Highway 40. Reno became an important stop on the connection between East and West. So naturally, there needed to be an arch commemorating Nevada’s 1927 Transcontinental Highways Exposition.
The arch was constructed in San Francisco and shipped over the mountains to be erected on Virginia Street and Commercial Row.
At the time, it was a huge deal and an impressive arch. Marvin Branch, the sign maker’s foreman, said he built many arches but this one was “by far the most elaborate he has ever put up” because of its size and number of lights, according to an Oct. 20, 1926, article in the Nevada State Journal.
The arch ceremony brought in numerous politicians both state and national, but it also brought more than 1,500 Shriners from the Islam Temple of the Shrine in San Francisco. They were coming to Reno for their own event, but joined the festivities and provided a 150-foot-long illuminated dragon, dancers and several bands. To top it all off, the dedication coincided with the University of Nevada’s homecoming day.
Needless to say, the arch dedication turned into a huge series of parades and parties.
In fact, someone from Iowa wrote an epic account of the night in a letter to the Nevada State Journal almost 40 years later:
- “The party lasted three days and three nights.
- $30,000 worth of whiskey was consumed, all of it supplied free to the revelers
- A Chief Wovoka of Pyramid Lake Tribe had several hundred of his braves performing ceremonial dances
- Reno’s restaurant owners fed the crowd breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days running, absorbing the expense themselves
- In addition to the better known movie stars of the era on hand, there were several hundred others of lesser stature who came in on a train chartered by Death Valley Scott.”
A reporter at the time could not corroborate this accounting. But he also could not deny it.
“I am at a loss to explain, if all this is accurate, just how the newspaper reporters of the day managed to miss it,” Frank Johnson wrote in 1964. “Even presuming they took part too freely in the $30,000 worth of free whiskey, it seems reasonable to assume at least ONE dedicated soul would have pulled himself together long enough to whip out a paragraph or two of grateful prose.
“On the other hand, if the description is not accurate, I am hard put to figure out why a gentleman in Iowa would bother to compile a set of circumstance which COULD fit in with Nevada’s background and mail it to the editor.”
Also strange was the fact that the Reno Evening Gazette published daily updates about the arch for weeks leading to its construction, then suddenly stopped writing anything about it for two days after the supposed parades and parties.
Perhaps the reporters were too hungover?
Gateway to the city
After the highway exposition, the Reno City Council decided to keep the arch as the city gateway. But no longer needing the exposition title, Mayor E. E. Roberts asked the city for a slogan.
Not being happy with any local ideas, he started a larger contest. G. A. Burns of Sacramento won the slogan contest in 1929 with his submission of “The Biggest Little City in the World.” He was awarded $100, which he donated to a Reno charity.
Interestingly, the slogan had already been in use for years. The first printed version of the slogan appeared in 1910 on flyers made for the Johnson-Jeffries boxing match.
Here are some of the non-winning slogans Reno could’ve been stuck with for eternity:
- Reno, a City You’ll Like
- Reno, the Best Out West
- East or West Reno Serves Best
- Reno, the West’s Highest Assay
- Reno, Biggest Little Town on Earth
- In Progressive Reno, Loiter, Linger, Locate
Arch No. 2: The centennial span
In 1963, casino managers from the Horseshoe Club, Nevada Club, Club Primadonna, Colony Club and Poor Pete’s wanted to replace the first arch with a new one to commemorate Washoe County and Nevada’s 100th birthday.
It was dedicated on New Year’s Eve. Then-Mayor Hugo Quilici pulled a fake slot machine arm to activate all the fireworks, balloons and the neon lights on the new arch.
As with the current arch, this one too, represented hope for Reno’s future vitality.
“It symbolized a new vitality in the community and in the downtown area,” Jud Allen, manager of the Reno Chamber of Commerce, was quoted in a 1964 Reno Evening Gazette article. “There has been so much new growth this year: new construction, facelifting and the new arch emphasizes this.”
Meanwhile, the old arch was moved to Idlewild Park to live out its days as a monument to old Reno. But six years later, a street-widening project forced it to move to Paradise Park in Sparks. And in 1988, it was taken down due to extreme metal fatigue, public safety and the high cost of repairs.
Arch No. 3: A New Hope
By the 1980s, the second arch was covered in pigeon droppings and “had lost its place as a meaningful symbol or centerpiece,” according to an article by Warren Lerude, former Reno Gazette Journal publisher.
The Biggest Little City Committee formed and raised funds for the current Reno Arch to replace the second arch. They also offered the original arch to the Smithsonian Institute.
“If they take it, I’ve got some historic old tires and coffee cans they ought to leap at,” Mark Crossman wrote to Reno Gazette Journal columnist Cory Farley in 1987. “Real slices of Americana.”
The Smithsonian Institute never replied. Reno moved on.
“On Aug. 8, 1987, 20,000 people gathered on Virginia Street,” Lerude wrote. “Dramatically, casino lights were turned off and a switch was thrown. Reno’s new arch announced its heritage and future simultaneously in a burst of light and color. The crowd roared.”
A procession of classic cars immediately paraded underneath it for the opening of Hot August Nights. And the arch was assigned an address: 255½ N. Virginia St.
Back in the public works yard, two other symbols of Reno’s future withered away.
Later that year, Lonnie Hammargren, former lieutenant governor of Nevada and guest star on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” TV show, offered to buy the first arch for $1,000. He wanted it for his personal collection in Las Vegas and planned to install it in the backyard of one of his houses.
The Reno City Council put him off in hopes they could keep it in Reno.
A Reno businessman, Steven Mack, also offered $1,000 for the arch. His plans did not involve putting it in his backyard, but he presented no other specific plans to the council other than keeping it in Reno.
The council decided to put the arch up for bid for 30 days in case a local nonprofit or government entity would offer a better plan. No one bid. Both arches sat for another two years without attention from anyone until Willits decided it needed an arch.
Arch No. 2 (again): Gateway to the Redwoods
“My father told me when I was a little kid that Willits was the gateway to the Redwoods; the heart of Mendocino County,” resident Dusty Whitney told the RGJ. “And I was talking to someone about that on Main Street one day and the guy said, ‘Do you know the old Reno Arch is coming down, how about that?’ and I said, ‘Gee, how about that.’ “
Whitney wanted an arch for Willits. But unlike Hammargren and Mack, Whitney preferred the ’60s look of the second arch.
“I couldn’t think of a more wonderful greeting to people coming through our community other than this arch,” he said.
Whitney wrote to the Reno City Council. He wanted a gateway to represent Willits’ position as entrance to the Redwood Forest, heart of Mendocino County and home to Frontier Days rodeo.
“I remember getting up at 5 a.m. to go to the Reno City Council meeting,” Whitney said. “That was a full-day situation. I remember the (Nevada Heritage) said not to let the arch go.”
The Nevada Heritage preservation group had made a last-minute $2,000 offer on the arch, but like the others before, had no specific plans for refurbishing or installing it somewhere.
The city attorney also said city property could not be disposed of by selling to private interests. Instead, cities must create an agreement to loan property to another public agency for public use.
That’s right, Willits has been “borrowing” the arch for 26 years.
The City Council voted to give the arch to Willits, with then-Mayor Pete Sferrazza voting nay.
“I suppose they could’ve put that one on Center Street, but the (original arch) was going to ruins,” Sferrazza told the RGJ. “We could’ve put that one up too and had three of them.”
Whitney and his team went to the public works yard and took Arch Two back that same day.
“When I first laid eyes on it, it was under three feet of snow in the city yard,” Whitney said. “It was taken apart and piled there. But I had seen old postcards so I knew what it looked like.”
When he returned home with the arch in tow, he realized his original plan to put it on a side street wasn’t grand enough. Instead, the second Reno Arch, now Willits Arch, belonged on Highway 101. But that created big problems: It was too small to span the road, it needed serious repairs, it needed to meet Cal-Trans standards and needed a new face.
It took Whitney five years to erect the Willits Arch. Between 1990 and 1995, he gathered the support of engineers, designers, Cal-Trans and numerous others who donated their time and skills to lengthen the arch, earthquake-proof it, design a modest face and finally stand it up over a state highway.
Many people spoke out against the Willits Arch before seeing it. They said a garish piece of Reno’s leftover glitz should not be erected in their fair city, according to 1995 articles in the Ukiah Daily Journal. The publisher of the Press Democrat was particularly scathing. Until she saw the arch.
“I have a 3-by-4-inch framed ad from the Press Democrat apologizing for their lack of vision on how this thing came out,” Whitney said. “How many times does a newspaper put out an ad thanking someone for their vision and admitting they’re wrong?”
What about the original arch?
The original Exposition Arch was getting a new life, too.
In 1994, a film company restored it for a four-day movie shoot on Fourth Street. Suddenly, Reno residents wanted their original arch back. The Holiday Hotel and city of Reno paid to restore and reinstall it on Lake Street in hopes it might draw tourists to the National Automobile Museum.
And so by the end of 1995, all three of Reno’s arches stood tall, proudly proclaiming “Reno, The Biggest Little City in the World” — oh, and “Willits, Gateway to the Redwoods, Heart of Mendocino County.”
Postscript: In 2018, the ‘80s-tastic third arch was refurbished, replacing the gold pillars and red neon with a more Nevada-appropriate silver and blue.
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