Major funding for this program was provided by the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs State Historic Preservation Office.

Additional funding was provided by Nevada Humanities and the Nevada Arts Council.

MUSIC >>Alicia Barber: Robert Lee Douglass was one of those men who lived life on the edge...to the fullest.

Born on a farm in Louisiana, Missouri in 1877, he traveled west to Fallon, Nevada at the turn of the century.

He was 23.

Ready for adventure.

He built banks, politicked, and wooed and won the Senator's daughter.

All was part and parcel of an extraordinary life.

And sitting in pink and pompous style, on what is now a main thoroughfare of Fallon, is his Queen Anne home.

Reputed to be haunted, it's a lovely bit of architecture.

MUSIC Even when this home was built in 1904 it sat on a major intersection in the small city of Fallon, Nevada.

Shortly after construction was completed, the streets were lined with Oak trees.

Traffic was mostly relegated to the horse and buggy - even though R.L.

was a proponent of the automobile.

R.L.

advocated new fangled things like planes and cars.

Locally he was the first to use an enormous harvester pulled by 38 horses.

Therefore it's surprising that his choice of architecture was a style that was actually going OUT-of-style.. Victorian Queen Anne.

>>Jane Pipelow: This house was built really at an end of the architectural era of the Victorian, the Queen Anne/Victorian style.

About 1880 to 1900 is a, a good time frame for this to have been very popular.

It's interesting, although I think Fallon was a rural area, so perhaps not up with the styles as you would've been in New York City or something like that....

This house has so many features that are just characteristic of the style.

The outside shows the turret, the round turret with the conical roof on it, um, the upper part of the outside stories has the shingles.

Sometimes they were, uh, fish scales shingles, different shapes.

The house today has that preserved, uh, below the home right now is stucco, but we know from old photographs and the owners know from their work on restoring this from the middle-1990's that there is the original wood siding underneath the stucco.

MUSIC The many roof-line, the intersecting gables outside, um, there was some evidence when the roof was replaced, and the old pictures show some cresting that would've been on top of the roof, that is no longer there today.

But, that all fits in to this, this style and the beautiful wraparound porch, the front of the building, um, the door with the sidelights, the transom over the door and the leaded glass windows are all high-Victorian style.

MUSIC Suzanne and Jerry Noonkester, present owners of the house, bought it in the 1990s.

It was a challenge to restore and maintain this piece of history.

The house was painted the subtle shades of pink that now adorn its complex frame.

They cherish the home and through their research, they have become quite fond of R.L.

Douglass as well.

>>Pipelow: This house was built in 1904.

Um, no one knows the exact architect of the home.

It's believed to have been Ben Leon, who was a Reno architect.

But, our papers are very vague and it just said, "Reno Architect" and no name was ever given.

But, Ben Leon would've been in Fallon the year before to design the Churchill County Courthouse and he would've caught up perhaps with Mr. Douglas, who wanted the house built and so it may have been designed by him.

So, 1904, this was a very big home.

>>Bob Erickson: The homes, in, uh, Churchill County originally were rather modest homes.

Uh, they were, uh, mostly built out of wood.

Uh, they probably would've ranged, um, in the area of, uh, oh, between 700 and 800 square feet and that was typical of the homes that were originally, um, established in Fallon.

Uh, this home, of course, was exceptional, uh, both in its size and grandeur, uh, primarily because of, uh, Mr. Douglass 's financial resources and that he wanted to build a home that was, uh, fitting for his new bride.

Adjacent to the house is a structure which is now an apartment building, but was originally R.L.

's garage.

His passion for cars was well documented.

This garage, with it's built in turntable ... for we must recall that the earliest cars did not come equipped with "reverse" certainly attested to that.

>>Pipelow: R.L.

Douglass was a great car fan, so he is credited, perhaps, with bringing one of the earliest cars into the state of Nevada when he arrived here and when the house was almost done he had to start work on his garage, to store his many cars and he had a turntable installed in there so that when he drove the car into the garage a manual turn of the crank would turn it around on the turntable, it would be facing the street and he never had to back in and out of his garage with the turntable So, when was the one storey garage converted into what is now a two story structure?

In 1913 when a "Dr. Nicholls" purchased the property.

>>Pipelow: When Dr. Nicholls bought the house he converted that garage and legend says lifted the garage and built a storey under it and it became the Cottage Hospital.

And, it stands today as an apartment building and a large two-storey structure, and it is sold with the house even today.

If someone buys the home, they buy the now apartment building next door.

Upon entering the home, we find ourselves in a nicely appointed entryway.

A staircase is directly ahead.. A door to our left opens to a library.

Above us is an original Vaseline lamp.

To the right pocket doors lead us into a front parlor.

The details in this room are remarkable.

The turret window with the original rounded glass.

The oak mantle on the corner fireplace, and all of the original gingerbread.

>>Pipelow: Inside of this house there are a lot of other things that make it quite Victorian and that is all, as people call, the gingerbread of it, and we have a lot of, uh, the spindle work that defines the rooms, the dividers between the rooms up above the doorways, those are all intact and, of course, have never been painted over, so the original, uh, varnish is, is still visible.

>>Pipelow: There's also the room that we're sitting in today is the, would've been the parlor, has that tower in it, the round bay window and the glass in these windows is still original and it's curved.

So, that certainly would have been something very precious having shipped over here from perhaps San Francisco and not something you could just go to a local glass shop and get.

And, it makes for just a really unique area in this parlor room.

The room also boasts a Vaseline lamp.

>>Pipelow: What's so amazing about the inside of the Douglass home is that...the Douglass people did not live here very long, it went through various owners, it became a hospital for a while, it was a doctor's home and his patients retreated here for many years.

When I arrived in Fallon 13 years ago it was a realty office and an antique store.

So, when the owners purchased it in the mid-'90's and redid it, I'm sure they were thrilled as we were to look inside and see that none of the woodwork in here had ever been painted, the built-ins have been, not been ripped out, the, uh, baseboards hadn't been changed at all, so it was wonderful to have it stay as it had been on the inside from the first years it was built.

There's an abundance of woodwork - and it's in amazing condition considering the last 100 years of wear.

>>Pipelow: The woodwork in here is pine.

Um, in another part of the country where hardwood would be more available, it certainly would've been oak.

But, the floors and all of the woodwork are pine with the exception of the fireplace mantle and that is, indeed, oak.

That could've perhaps been custom designed, shipped away for to bring it over here to have a little bit different kind of wood, um, that was a little fancier than what was available around here.

MUSIC >>Barber: The parlor is joined to the dining room by more of the elaborate woodwork.

MUSIC To the right of the room is a large, ornate window with a built-in window seat beneath it.

From the dining room we glimpse the butlers pantry, and beyond that, the kitchen.

By today's standards this four-bedroom house would be considered "comfortable."

In Fallon, in 1904, it was considered a mansion.

MUSIC >>Barber: Across from the parlor doors is the library.

A room that rivals the parlor and dining room with ornate built-ins enhanced by stained glass.

>>Pipelow: There are different types of glass in this house.

We have the leaded stained glass on the buffet doors, beveled glass pieces of clear glass, but there are two actual, colorful stained glass windows in this house, too.

One resides in the room that was referred to as the library and that, um, is a beautiful piece.

This is where guests were originally received.

Today, the space is used as the primary living area.

MUSIC A second door leads to a bathroom, and then to the bedroom beyond.

>>Barber:This is a fairly large space and is used by the present owners as the master bedroom.

Again, more built-ins, more woodwork.

MUSIC Off the hall is a steep and curved rear staircase that ascends to the second floor.

This was most probably the servants' staircase.

Though Suzanne has tried to maintain Victorian elegance in most of the house, here she succumbed to whimsy.

The Wizard from the land of Oz rules this stairway, the yellow brick road.

MUSIC R.L.

Douglass ventured west in 1900 to join his uncle, J.M.

Douglass, whose extensive land and cattle interests were headquartered in Virginia City.

The city of Fallon was in its very early stages.

>>Erickson: Well, the City of Fallon , uh, was first, uh, settled in, uh, approximately 1896 when Mike Fallon, who owned a small ranch where, right about where we're sitting right now, decided to create a post office, uh, to provide mail service for the surrounding ranching families who had been early settlers here starting in the early 1860's.

From those humble beginnings, the city was to grow and prosper ... due in large part to R.L.

Douglass.

But upon his arrival in 1900, the young man dabbled in mining on the Comstock, then headed to North to Alaska to work the gold fields.

It wasn't long until he returned to his uncle's ranch in the Island District in Churchill County.

>>Barber: In 1904, R.L.

's uncle passed away.

His estate was divided between his two nephews.

In February of that same year, R.L.

married Eleanor Ernst, and began work on their new residence.

>>Andrea Rossman: Eleanor Ernst was, the daughter, the youngest daughter of Senator George D. Ernst who was from Nye County.

And he was in the political arena during the late-1800's.

Eleanor and Robert L. Douglas, or R.L., met at a country dance.

And, Eleanor had this ability to play the piano and sing.

And, I think that, that R.L.

Douglas was sort of taken by this woman and according to the storyline is that before this dance happened, R.L.

Douglas, um, she wanted to meet R.L.

Douglas, she had heard about R.L.

Douglas in the community.

Well, she had asked her mother if she could borrow her diamond rings so that she could impress R.L.

Douglas at the dance.

>>Barber: The two were obviously smitten.

In February 1904 they traveled to San Francisco to marry.

In April, R.L.

purchased two lots in Fallon to build his bride a home.

>>Barber: The couple lived in the house for a very short while.

In 1905 Charles Ernst, Eleanor's younger brother, was staying with them when he contracted typhoid fever and died.

Some suggest that Eleanor was superstitious; others say she was devastated by the loss of her brother.

The more pragmatic declare the house was simply too large and servants were hard to find.

For whatever reason, she requested that they move to the Island Ranch.

So in 1906, R. L. completed a home for her that was equally as elaborate as the Queen Anne, but in another style altogether, the prairie style.

One would think that R.L.'

s life was beyond busy.

He had two new homes, was running a 15,000-acre ranch, and beginning a family.

But the young man soon became a primary influence, not only in Fallon, but Churchill County, and to some extent, the state of Nevada.

>>Erickson: Mr. Douglas was a man of, uh, many interests.

He, uh, had an uncle from Virginia City who, uh, who staked him and, um, uh, encouraged his interests in, uh, Churchill County.

Uh, among those interests were, of course, uh, creating a, a huge ranch, uh, he was also in the banking business and as a banker, uh, he provided financing for the, uh, construction of the city of Fallon... and, uh, and the establishment of many enterprises within, within Churchill County and the rest of the state.

He also had, it's my understanding, uh, substantial interests in, uh, mining in Tonopah-Goldfield area.

And, uh, so his interests were statewide, but he was located in Churchill County and he, and he provided, um, uh, the capital for basically a good part of the building of the city of Fallon.

>>Barber: In 1900 when R.L.

cruised into Fallon he may have been driving one of the states first automobiles.

He definitely built the first bank building and was President of the Churchill Bank, the first bank in Fallon.

He started the Fallon Meat Company the Douglass-Cano-Hazen-Fallon Stage Line.

>>Barber: From 1907 to 1911 he represented the Churchill County in the Nevada State Senate.

He was also a Democratic presidential elector and bearer for Nevada's electoral vote for President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C. in 1917.

>>Barber: During Douglass's tenure as Senator, U.S.

Senator Francis Newlands introduced the Water Reclamation Act and fought to have it enacted.

Douglass opposed what many feel was a farsighted answer to Nevada's future.

>>Erickson: Well, Senator Douglass, along with some of the early-time settlers who had acquired, lands that were, rich in water rights that had been, uh, uh, had an early priority, water rights go by a priority, were, were not, uh, extremely, uh, amenable to joining the, Reclamation Project because in order to become a part of the Project they would have to give up, uh, their water right priority.

And, it was a controversy, some of the older, landowners here who had had established a very valuable, water rights that predated the Project which, like I said, was in 1903.

And, so, um, uh, Mr. Douglass was one of those and, uh, in, he had extensive ranch holdings I think approaching 15,000 acres of, of ranch lands, one of the larger ranchers in the area along with, Senator Williams and, uh, Senator Douglass opted not to be part or, uh, was opposed to becoming a part of the Reclamation, Project.

>>Barber : In the midst of this hectic life, R.L.

never lost his passion for cars.

He continued to not only collect a myriad of fast and expensive vehicles, but to race them.

In 1904 he purchased a 6 passenger Pope-Toledo and entered it in the Hazen-Fairview run in 1906.

In 1914 Douglass won the trophy cup in a Reno race driving a stylish Stutz Bearcat.

>>Barber: In 1919, He was the first civilian to ride in an airplane from Fallon to Reno, and it's been suggested that, for a time, he pursued obtaining his pilot's license.

>>Barber: From 1927 to 1932 he served as chairman for the Nevada State Fish and Game Commission.

1n 1932 R.L.

Douglass was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Internal Revenue Service as collector for the state of Nevada, a position he held for 18 years in Reno.

He resigned as an agent in December 1950 on his 73rd birthday.

>>Erickson: I think he probably would've been a, a very aggressive businessman, a risk taker which is, uh, both in his business interests as well as his driving abilities.

And, somebody that was on top of innovation.

Uh, his ranch, from what I understand, uh, was a very innovative place.

It, uh, used techniques that were, uh, were far seen and agriculture for the time and that, uh, he was extremely successful in almost everything that he did.

>>Barber: Perhaps it can be expected that a man with such a vivid life should find retirement unappetizing.

In 1952 R.L.

Douglass and Mantee, his second wife, sold their home in Reno and moved to San Francisco.

Shortly afterwards they moved on to Oakland.

In 1954, at age 77 Robert Lee Douglass died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

At the time, Josephine, his youngest daughter, said that her father, was not in ill health.

He simply found he could not adjust to retirement.

>>Rossman: Although he died in Oakland, California his body was brought back here to Fallon, Nevada.

His funeral was very well attended.

And, it was fit for a person of his stature.

MUSIC >>Barber: Now we ascend to the second floor.

The wainscoting in the staircase is lincrusta - an early linoleum product made of pressed linseed oil and wood pulp that's embossed by pressing it in a mold.

This can be painted to achieve a variety of looks, including metallic.

MUSIC >>Barber: The landing at the top of the stairs is quite large.

A leaded glass window is positioned above a built-in window seat.

But the opulence doesn't doesn't equal that on the main floor.

>>Pipelow: Going upstairs, in this house it's an example of putting the fancy things down below where the, your public is going to see.

And, going upstairs we still have the pine woodwork, unpainted, uh, but the, it's more plain.

There's not a lot of the spindle work, the gingerbread-type things.

Uh, the, one of the bedrooms upstairs is still, uh, large size and it's on the wall where the turret is, below the windows are curved, the windows up above in that bedroom are on the turret, but they're flat, so something that you could get perhaps locally if something broke them.

Because of the many cross gables on the exterior roof, the ceiling within the bedrooms are angled, adding visual and architectural interest.

MUSIC >>Barber: The bedrooms are equipped with small sinks.

A convenient amenity, but original?

>>Pipelow: In 1913, Dr. Nicholls purchased this property and he was a doctor, uh, in his fifties when he came here to Fallon, and he practiced, his office was in this building and then his patients were seen in this building.

For a little while he had it even as a hospital, so the two upper bedrooms do include corner sinks for either the hospital patients or the doctor when he went into the examining room to look over the patient, so that's interesting that they're still here today, but that's a leftover from Dr. Nicholls.

>>Barber: The house that R.L.

Douglass built for his bride is now a landmark in Fallon.

It has maintained its dignity and its architectural integrity through a variety of owners and more than one hundred years.

>>Pipelow: For me, I think what I find the most enchanting, really, about this home are these rooms that we're in today that, the, the entry rooms that the visitor would come in to see the, um, decorationsx that are here today, the fact that the woodwork has never been painted, all of the Victorian bric-a-brac is, is visible and it just has a warm, welcoming feeling to it.

MUSIC R.L.

Douglass would have appreciated a continued presence in Nevada.

>>Erickson: Mr. Douglass, uh, was a unique man, of course, as we, uh, as we have talked, uh, he, um, he opted to come to Churchill County and, uh, I believe probably, um, had great financial success here especially in the early years.

Uh, many people who throughout Nevada's history have, uh, have struck it rich, if you will, have opted, um, to, uh, take their wealth and, and go elsewhere and invest it elsewhere and live elsewhere.

Um, uh, Mr. Douglas, I believe, enjoyed Nevada.

I believe he enjoyed the lifestyle of Nevada.

I believe he was a risk taker which fits in to the character of Nevadans.

And, uh, he reinvested in his community.

And, at some times, I believe, probably at times of great risk, uh, he took great risks to insure the, uh, the development of, uh, of his community and, um, and like, uh, we've discussed with the, uh, buildings along Main Street, the evidence of that remains today.

>>Barber: R.L.

's love of cars was legendary.

In May of 1914 he entered the Reno Auto Race.

Two thousand people attended the race which was held at Moana Springs.

Headlines read "Wild Enthusiasm Exhibited as Racers Flash by at Great Rates of Speed.

The Stutz Bearcat finished the 77-mile race in two hours and 2 minutes, and R.L.

Douglass took home the grand prize of $250.

If you'd like to know more about the Douglass House, or any of the houses in our series, go to our website knpb.org.

Until next time, preserve the architecture and enjoy the heritage in your community.

MUSIC Major funding for this program was provided by the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs State Historic Preservation Office.

Additional funding was provided by Nevada Humanities and the Nevada