Historic Reno Preservation Society

I'm always astounded by the people who attend HRPS walking tours, but the May 8th tour has left me speechless (hard to believe, I know). When I pointed out that the Stone Building on the grounds needs some missing roof shingles replaced, folks just pitched in some money and before all was said and done, it ended up being $52. It will be more than enough to get what is needed, I'm sure. Thanks to all of you for showing how important the historic buildings at Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services are to you. I will let you know how it all turns out.

As all well-run organizations should, the HRPS Board held its annual Strategic Planning session recently. We assessed our past year and looked ahead to significant activities.

Accomplishments for 2009-2010

• Development and successful implementation of the Fourth Grade Education Project
• Powning Conservation District awareness extended through upcoming McKinley exhibit, sign toppers throughout the District and proposed pillar
• Received grants to help with special projects (for Literary Reno documentary and new Nevada Humanities grant)
• Excellent schedule of tours (including new tours) and number of participants
• Good leadership and board participation
• Monthly programs were varied and the subjects excellent
• Website gets better and better; tour registration online is great (as is phone registration)
• Membership and budgeting helped by changing year from July-June
• Newsletter continues to be excellent
• Good schedule of events, including the Mackay tour, Caughlin Ranch summer tour and Fall Social
• Close connections to City of Reno's Historic Resource Commission
• Increased community partnerships and outreach (NTA convention, downtown casino event in summer, Mt. Rose School celebration, Powning exhibit). We are now known as "The Preservation People!"

HRPS continues its support of good community projects that highlight Reno's history:

• The Board provided financial support for a new display on the Powning Addition. The exhibit is being curated by Drew Gerthoffer, a student in Alicia Barber's Museum Studies class at UNR. The display will be at McKinley Arts Center and uses Sanborn maps and oral histories to focus on the process of community building, especially in the Italian-American community. The exhibit is slated to open in May. HRPS is providing funding and assistance in marketing.
• The Mt. Rose School Centennial exhibit, supported by funding from HRPS, will present the main display in 2011. There is already a small case on display with some items so leave some time before or after one of our monthly programs to take a look.
• The Board approved a donation of one of the HRPS-funded Literary Reno DVDs to the Nevada Historical Society. We will continue to make these available to appropriate sites as requested.
• The Powning Addition Pillar continues through the commissions and Reno City Staff. Parks and Recreation has approved the project and now it goes before the Neighborhood Advisory Board.

The HRPS Board wants to thank our many members who responded to the recent renewal mailing. Our membership now tops 600 and we are still seeing renewals trickle in.

The month of February put the HRPS leadership in planning mode for 2010:

• HRPS tour leaders met to create the schedule for tours. A full schedule is planned for May, July and September. A Children’s Tour will be slotted for 2010, the popular Bricks and Stones walk will be back and we are working on creating the Downtown Church Tour.
• The HRPS Board scheduled its annual Strategic Planning session for March. This allows the Board to consider significant issues that often get overshadowed in the day-to-day operation of our organization.

The HRPS Board wants to thank our many members who responded to the recent renewal mailing. Our membership now tops 600 and we are still seeing renewals trickle in.

We wasted no time in 2010 getting to business at the monthly Board meeting on January 7th:

Community Involvement:

• Nevada Humanities Grant: The Board was pleased that our proposal was funded for $2,203 in a highly competitive field. HRPS will use the funding to underwrite costs for the Education Project (especially buses and educational items for the children) and for the website and research.
• KUNR and the StoryCorps project: HRPS representatives will attend a Community Partnership meeting to learn more about how we can participate.
• Washoe County Courthouse Activities book: the Board authorized to spend up to $2,000 for these booklets, as needed by the County. Funding from the County is in question and the Board thought the booklets are useful for our Education Project.

This past year, Rosie Cevasco and I have been immersed in research about the early history of  Nevada's state hospital (now called Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services). Our goal is simple: collect as much history as possible, in the form of photographs, historical documents, and oral histories, and make them available online for everyone to view and use. Although we have accumulated a great deal of data on the 125+-year-old institute, we're sure there are HRPS members and other local residents who might have some stories or artifacts they would like to share with us. Our initial concern was to draw attention to the wonderful historical buildings on the hospital grounds at the corner of Glendale Avenue and Galletti Way in Sparks. I wrote an article about the history of those buildings in the Summer 2009 FootPrints newsletter and Rosie recently gave several tours to NNAMHS employees of the old "Stone House" on the property.