has been provided by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, through a Department of Interior grant.

Major funding was provided by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Wells Fargo is proud to be part of the northern Nevada community for over 150 years.

Wells Fargo, The Next Stage.

Additional funding has been granted by the City of Reno Arts and Culture Commission.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Hi, I'm Marla Carr and this is House with a History .

In the 19th century men from all over the world descended on the gold and silver fields of California and Nevada.

Many just abandoned their families and headed West.

In their search for the mother lode they braved the elements, a variety of animals and the very dregs of mankind.

All for untold wealth.

Few succeeded in acquiring it but those that did built elaborate homes, state of the art residences.

They wanted the world to know that not only had they survived, but they had triumphed.

One such man was Duane L. Bliss lumber tycoon.

♪♪ Bliss Mansion in Carson City remains as a testimony to the Duane Bliss.

Built in 1879, it was, for a time, the largest residence in the state nearly 8,000 square feet, including a 3rd floor ballroom compete with stage.

Today we'll visit this beautifully restored bed and breakfast with owner and innkeepers Joyce Harrington and Ron Smith.

♪♪.

Hi Ron, Joyce, it's really good to see you.

What a beautiful verandah.

Thank you, it really is.

It's an amazingly beautiful place to sit in the evenings too.

Come on over here and I'll show you some of the.

.

.

The house is Victorian Italianate and was built in a time when the social life was more formal but less hectic, when courting was genteel and well chaperoned, and conversation was still an art.

The verandah was a place to while away the time, to greet one's neighbors and to sit in gracious comfort.

It originally surrounded two sides of the house, but was enclosed at one end to expand the second parlor.

There are medallion windows and carved roof supports, or corbels, covered by a 15-foot high ceiling.

The porch is roomy and inviting shaded by large trees and enhanced by a sketching of flowers and shrubs.

♪♪ Probably my favorite part of the house is the verandah.

Again it's a lovely place to sit in the evenings, afternoons, a good six months out of the year, spring through fall.

And, that is a beautiful architectural part of that.

Many of these old homes do have the porches and that is very special.

I'd like to point out this maple tree as we're coming down the stairs here.

We were told that this is the oldest maple tree in the state of Nevada.

Wow, it's beautiful.

It's quite a beauty.

Yes it is.

It's great.

Let's go around to the front of the house now.

♪♪ ♪♪ When the Bliss Mansion was built it sat on the edge of town, in the posh district.

Men who had made their fortunes directly or indirectly through mining, chose to live in the capital city.

Because Carson City had ridden on the coattails of the mining industry, its decline in the late 1870s had serious implications for Nevada's capital.

♪♪ It was probably reaching its height in population, approaching maybe 6,000 people.

And, that was big for Carson City.

In fact, it wouldn't reach that size again for almost another 100 years.

But, it was also facing the decline of the Comstock, the Great Comstock mines were beginning to play out.

While Carson City was the capital city and some of the elite's had come here to enjoy their fortunes, including Bliss, D.A.

Bender and others, it was a community in transition reaching its height, but soon to begin its decline in the 1880's.

♪♪ ♪♪ In this economic climate, D. L. Bliss continued to amass his fortune, first in lumber, then railways and finally tourism.

His peers thought him brilliant.

Today historians concur.

♪♪ But, what was so powerful, and this is the genius of Duane Leroy Bliss, it's what I call 'vertical integration' of his businesses.

What I mean by that is he controlled every facet of the business.

He owned the land and the trees.

He owned the ships to move it and the barges to move it.

He owned the sawmills.

He owned the railroad, built the railroad.

He owned the flumes.

He owned everything.

He didn't have to rely on another capitalist, another entrepreneur for anything.

From the minute the wood was cut, and of course he paid the workers, they were his workers, to the final product being delivered, every bit of it along the way was all about Duane Leroy Bliss and his industrial monopoly.

Brilliant, brilliant genius from a business point of view to control something at that comprehensive level.

♪♪ If there was an architect who designed the Bliss Mansion he remains unknown.

It took six years to assemble the materials, and a matter of months to actually build the house.

Three train cars full of bricks to build four massive chimneys.

Sandstone quarried at the prison east of Carson City for the foundation.

Carved marble from Italy, Vermont and Georgia for seven fireplaces.

Doorknobs of quicksilver under glass.

Window catches and keyholes of Comstock silver.

Fourteen-carat gold leaf trim and staircases and woodwork built by Germantown, Pennsylvania craftsmen.

♪♪ Though no definitive price tag has been placed on the construction, it has been well documented that Bliss spent nearly $12,000 for these "incidentals."

However, this total doesn't include the cost of the lumber.

That came from Bliss's mill -- and nothing would do but perfection.

It was built out of white sugar pine.

Furniture grade.

And, when they removed all the plaster, it was the original plaster but it was beginning to fall off, all of the wood, no knots in it anywhere, it was just so clean and beautiful.

Even the structure, you know, the framing.

The attention to detail that characterized Bliss in his business dealings held true in the construction of his home.

Everything was of the best, the finest, the most up-to-date.

No detail was left to chance.

The house we're in today, Duane Bliss' house, was state of the art for 1879.

And, gas had just been introduced as the ability to light and fuel a residence or commercial buildings.

And, he designed this house or he had this house designed for that purpose.

So, as the first residence in Carson City to be completely run with gas, very, very true, wherever you can introduce things like that.

And Alexander Graham Bell had just devised the telephone, patented it in 1876.

Within two years Duane Bliss had set up a whole telephone relay system between his business office near the Virginia & Truckee depot all the way up through Clear Creek Canyon and Spooner Summit to Glenbrook.

So, our first telephones that we know of, two years after they're developed, it's this mogul with all of these progressive ideas.

Again, thinking about the advantage, the business advantage in this, he has it in place right here in Carson City connecting with Glenbrook.

Phenomenal achievement.

♪♪ Duane Bliss died of acute pneumonia in 1907 while visiting Carson City.

He was buried on Christmas day, leaving an impressive legacy Bliss Mansion.

But as time passed the Bliss house became a relic not a residence.

Oh, people bought it -- passing it through the appreciative hands of families who loved the grand old building, but it was difficult to maintain...expensive -- and finally it sat in a sad state of disrepair.

♪♪ When I bought it I talked with one of the supervisors here and he said they had toured this to decide whether to demolish it because it was such an eyesore, this whole block, you know, and the Governor's Mansion, this is all they could see.

And, it was, had been vacant for so long and people were complaining and they were trying to decide whether to demolish it or not.

Theresa Sandrini purchased the house in 1992, shortly after the death of her husband.

It became an enormous project that helped her to work through her grief.

She comments that she saved it from the landfill and it saved her life.

♪♪ The end result of Theresa's passion is largely what you see today.

But the house is more than the structure and the furnishings.

She feels strongly that it has a warmth, a nurturing and inviting quality.

It was this quality that tipped the scales in her decision to buy it.

I didn't quibble about the price or anything, I just because I felt it was a spiritual thing, you know?

After I'd looked at it, I came back and stood here (sighs) and I just felt this is where I belonged.

In 2000 health issues made it necessary to sell, and Theresa was determined to find buyers that would continue the revitalization of the house.

Enter Joyce Harrington.

It was a very bizarre thing.

I just started looking around Reno, Virginia City, prices were more affordable than the Bay Area.

I was also at a transition in my life at that point in time.

I had been in high tech for 25 years, San Jose, Silicon Valley arena.

And, I was really ready to make a life change.

And, so in my quest I just came over into the Carson City area, Virginia City area one weekend.

Saw B and B for sell up in Virginia City, thought that was a little bit too far away.

Asked the real estate agent, was there anything else like that?

At that point in time they proceeded to bring me to the Bliss Mansio.

Like Theresa, Joyce recognized the expert workmanship, the elegance of the Mansion.

Neither was aware of its historical significance.

For both women the decision to purchase was made on less tangible considerations.

I think it was just built with a wonderful energy that somehow has continued through, through the years.

Come on in.

As you walk in the double doors in the entryway, there's a gorgeous walnut hand-carved staircase.

It's symmetrically just immaculate and supposedly there are no nails in that.

I'm not, I don't how to explain that from a carpenter's perspective, but it's just rock solid.

And, it's been there since the beginning of the house in 1879.

That's beautiful.

It's a very wide stairway versus a lot of the older stairways are much more narrow.

And this is just a gorgeous piece of furniture.

Theresa Sandrini, the lady who did the restoration of the home brought in some of her personal antiques.

And this is one of them.

And she said all of her antiques are now at home in the Bliss Mansion.

What a wonderful spot.

We're lucky to have that.

The only original window is at the landing on the staircase.

And, there are defects in it.

It's wavy.

It's really quite beautiful.

And, many of the original windows were in the house when they did the renovation, But so drafty and, as they are almost ten foot windows in many cases, they were certainly not energy efficient.

So, they're all now double paned except for the one window.

It's here, in the entryway, that Joyce has placed a photograph of Duane and Elizabeth Bliss.

Together they built this house, raised their children, accumulated their wealth.

♪♪ For Duane, his journey from Massachusetts to Carson City, Nevada began in 1849.

♪♪ Duane Bliss was 16 when he was lured west from Massachusetts with the promise of gold.

In 1860 at age 27 he crossed the Sierra Nevada from San Francisco.

He settled into Gold Hill and became a partner in the local bank.

That year a traveler described the area as "frame shanties pitched together as if by accident: tents of canvas, of brush, of blankets, of potato sacks, and old shirts.

♪♪ In 1863 Bliss brought his leery bride, Elizabeth Tobey from South Wareham, Massachusetts.

Fortunately, the city had matured in three years, and Elizabeth was delighted with her new home.

♪♪ The Bliss fortunes continued to grow when Duane established the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company, and the decision was made to resettle in the state capital.

♪♪ Duane Leroy Bliss first moved to Carson City it was in 1872.

He'd come up from Gold Hill where he'd lived 12 years.

He had, at that time, a wife and three children, and he purchased a house on the northwest corner of Minnesota and Telegraph.

Still there today and the Laxalt family of governor/senator Paul Laxalt fame grew up and lived there.

He lived with his family there seven years, looks like he modified that building.

The family continued to grow two more children.

And maybe this mansion could take care of a wife and five children as well as all of the other types of things he was interested in, social entertainment.

But, even in his time this house, for Duane Bliss and his family, was considered by a mansion by everybody and everybody talked about it.

Come on into the parlors.

Oh these are beautiful.

So then this was the main parlor and this was the smoking parlor?

I think so.

The first floor contains two parlors, one of which was probably used as a smoking room for the gentlemen.

Nine-foot high pocket doors would have permitted the men to have their port and cigars in private, while the women chatted, played the piano or did needlework in the main parlor.

You want to see something very interesting?

These pocket doors weigh about 200 lbs.

a piece and their 125 years old and with just 1 or 2 fingers you can flow it all the way to the wall.

Wow those are beautiful.

Aren't they gorgeous?

Yes And it looks like you have a new addition to the living room since I was here last.

We do.

We were gifted.

This lovely Victorian piano.

A wonderful woman in town whose husband had lived in this home, approximately, I guess, 30 years ago and had acquired the piano from the home at that point in time.

They suspect it's possible it could have been here early on in the years.

I think it's probably moved around.

But it's very much the type style of piano that would have been in the original home.

♪♪ Fireplaces warmed each room.

A task made difficult by 12ft.

high ceilings and an abundance of large windows.

♪♪ ♪♪ The dining room is beautifully proportioned.

The black and white marble flooring carries in from the entryway.

The windows in this room are 10 feet high.

The fireplace is the only one of the seven in the house that is wood burning.

The others are coal.

Angels are a reoccurring decorative item throughout the house, added by Theresa.

She commissioned a local artist to paint the ceiling mural.

♪♪ ♪♪ There are some things of particular interest I'd like to point out in this room.

Theresa purchased the chairs.

They're hand carved reproductions, nearly 100 years old.

These chair arms or handles have dolfines carved into them, which represent hospitality in French royalty.

And a carver named Mr. Martinez took that idea and when he made the china cabinet, he put the dolfines in the cabinet.

Oh that's amazing.

So he actually copied this wonderful design.

He did a beautiful job.

Yeah, he's pretty special.

They're just lovely.

And did he also do the table then?

And he did the table also.

And you notice the legs on the table too, which match the legs on the chair.

It's beautiful.

It's a complete set even though 2 pieces only go back a little over a decade.

The remodeled kitchen is a gourmet's delight.

It's efficient, but charming, an essential characteristic for a bed and breakfast.

♪♪ The room to the right of the kitchen has an enviable bay window and contains some of the collectibles, which Joyce has acquired over the years.

The mining light was her grandfather's --- saved from his tenure as a silver miner in 1924.

She's hung part of an antique door over the bay window, and placed wine bottles in the aged rack fitted against the wall.

Since the furnishings that Theresa incorporated in the renovation stayed with the mansion, Joyce has added her distinctive touch through these smaller details.

One endearing example is her collection of tea towels, whimsically held in place with her mother's clip on earrings circa 1950.

I had collected many of the little towels that were often used, the linen towels that are hand-embroidered in the most beautiful designs.

And, of course, you end up with this whole stack in the drawer of all these towels.

And, I said, "These are beautiful, they need to be seen. "

So, I put up three or four racks in the bathroom with all of these towels.

And of course they're not meant to be used.

They're meant to be looked at.

And it's just a beautiful display of handiwork.

The second floor can be reached from the back of the house through the kitchen staircase -- which was, most probably, used by the Chinese servants.

They were in permanent residence while the family traveled seasonally to one of their four homes.

Initially the second floor contained six bedrooms, one linen and trunk room and one bathroom.

The bedrooms accommodated Bliss's five children four sons and one daughter.

When converted to a bed and breakfast, the number of rooms was reduced to four, and private baths were added.

Guests often ask me on the phone, "Well, which is the nicest? "

The big four-poster bed in the Carson Suite, which was probably originally the master bedroom, is just exquisite and a wonderful room to sleep in.

Although at the other end, the Comstock Suite has a bed from the Rinkle Mansion here in town, so that bed was in town in Carson City in the 1860's.

And, it's now been retrofit as a queen-sized bed.

And, that's a very sunny room right across from the Governor's Mansion.

So, that, again, is a lovely one.

And, the Tahoe Suite and the V & T, Virginia-Truckee, in between those, each of those.

If I had to say between the guests which is the most favorite, I'm having a difficult time doing that.

The third floor of the house has been retooled as a living area for the B&B management.

It no longer is the vast open space where Elizabeth Bliss entertained the socially prominent of Virginia City, or later where children roller-skated across the wooden floors.

♪♪ Theresa and Joyce both had strong reactions to the "feeling" of the house.

Joyce believes it's the strength of a benevolent and loving Elizabeth Bliss.

It's said that the family was a happy one, close knit.

And perhaps the sense of well being that pervades Bliss Mansion is the sense of family created by Elizabeth and Duane Bliss.

Whatever the reason that Joyce and Theresa had for stepping into the history of the house, we can only be grateful.

Without them the wonderful building might be gone.

We have to find ways to do that for future generations to understand how previous generations conducted their lives and their business.

It's critical.

Nevada is so caught up in the moment sometimes, it still is a state on the make, that it doesn't take enough time to preserve that past as you might find in a Massachusetts or a South Carolina.

And, I think it's critical that these houses and commercial buildings are physical evidence that other people lived here and died here, made fortunes here.

But I argue that historic preservation, historic districts, historic landmarks are essential.

And, that as a maturing state, that we'll be doing more to save buildings like this.

Historic preservation is critical.

Institutional memory dies with people.

But, the buildings remain long after they're gone.

Duane Bliss would have been considered socially liberal in his lifetime.

According to his daughter, Hope, he actually initiated health insurance.

For 50 cents per month, a man could insure that all his medical bills were paid.

Now think about that.

A well-paid worker earned about $4.00 a day.

So fifty cents would be equal to an hour's work.

Quite a bargain by today's standards.

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

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Principal production funding for House with a History has been provided by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, through a Department of Interior grant.

Major funding was provided by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Wells Fargo is proud to be part of the northern Nevada community for over 150 years.

Wells Fargo, The Next Stage.

Additional funding has been granted by the City of Reno Arts and Culture Commission.