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

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

MUSIC >>Marla Carr: Hi I'm Marla Carr.

Welcome to House with a History.

Tall-tales.

Myths.

Forklore.

Amidst the Italianate charm that is Virginia City's Piper- Beebe House we find threads of the truth interwoven with fiction.

The journey through the history of this residence challenges some long held beliefs.

Western history is often distinguished by its ever-increasing drama.

Sensational scenarios abound - improbable characters have a breeding ground of their own amidst stories of bloodshed, soiled doves, and fortunes won and lost.

John Piper, who for 30 years managed Virginia City's Piper Opera House, would most probably approve the tale about to unfold.

Certainly his sense of the dramatic as well as his sense of humor would come into play.

As, I would suspect, would Lucius Beebe's.

MUSIC >>Carr: The Piper-Beebe House.

A late 19th century Italiante charmer.

It was owned by the distinguished and well-loved Piper family - and then in the 1950's, restored by Lucius Beebe and his long-time companion, Charles Clegg.

At least that's what the plaque on the side of the house says.

The Piper-Beebe House sits two blocks above Virginia City's main street.

After the Great Fire of 1885, South A Street was surely lined with similar lings announcing the tenacity and the newly acquired sophistication of >>Bert Bedeau: It burned a large portion of the central part of Virginia City.

Uh, and so there was a lot of rebuilding activity that happened right around that time, 1875-76.

Um, the style of the house is what is known as the Italianate Style.

Um, it's a style that ah developed over the course of time beginning in the 1840's.

MUSIC >>Carr: It's a vivid home...painted with panache typical of the period and the style.

>>Bedeau: One of the things that you did in order to be able to create, uh, a better impression, a more refined impression, a more impressive building, uh, when you had a narrow street frontage, was to build a very tall house and to emphasize the vertical nature of the house.

So, if you look at the building, you see we have very tall, fairly narrow windows, uh, either individual or in pairs.

Uh, we have a very tall, uh, element on the front with the front bay that emphasizes the vertical nature of its design, its decoration.

You can see that the building itself is, is capped by a very imposing cornice.

Uh, this comes back to the idea that this style was also known as The Bracketed style because that cornice, in order to emphasize its importance and to draw the eye up to it, is supported by very large, very ornate brackets.

And, so you have the cornice going around the top edge of the building, uh, and these brackets supporting them.

So, so, that draws the eye up to the top of the building and gives a more imposing look.

So, So, ah, ah lot of these, these, elements these decorative elements, these vertically oriented elements are typical of the Italianate Style.

>>Carr: Characteristically, these houses would be stacked one against the next.

This house has a garden area to the east that extends behind the house continuing to the next street.

MUSIC >>Carr: Though maps show that the side property was assigned an address, it's thought that after the fire the lots were purchased together and a garden added.

MUSIC >>Carr: The house would have butted up against one behind it, with space for a privy and little more.

In the 1880s this garden would have been a relief in a town that sat cheek by jowl.

>>Bedeau: It was a very densely packed environment.

And, there wasn't a lot of, you know, open garden space even in what is definitely a higher end house in town.

Again, space, land was a premium in Virginia City at the time, um you had houses developed pretty much anywhere there was any kind of remotely level ground.

Um, even right up against, you know, very heavily industrial building like mills, and shaft house and, and foundries.

MUSIC >>Carr: Successive owners have constructed out buildings, a water feature and purchased the adjoining property to the rear to make an inviting retreat.

Beebe was leary of a town that had been so frequently destroyed by fire, so he constructed a brick building as a fireproof haven for his manuscripts and other valuables.

This house has been christened the Piper-Beebe House.

Built in 1876, it was bought by Lucius Beebe in 1949.

In fact, it's been intimated that Beebe may have made the purchase based on the property's connection to John Piper.

Beebe, as a journalist attuned to the arts, may have felt this faded bit of architecture was his connection to a more eloquent, vivid past.

MUSIC >>Carr: So, what was John Piper's heritage?

Why was he so important to Virginia City history?

>>Susan James: Well, John Piper was a young German immigrant when he arrived in Virginia City in the early 1860's.

He had been selling fruit in San Francisco and heard about the potential for the mineral discoveries in, ah Nevada, crossing over the Sierra, and he saw it as a grand opportunity and he was always, throughout his life, looking for an opportunity.

>>Carr: Piper began his Virginia City career by opening the Old Corner Bar, and then moved into the entertainment business in 867 when Tom McGuire, ownerx of the town's only opera house, decided to put the establishment up for sale.

Now, in the 1800s a Western Opera House implied entertainment of a different sort.

MUSIC >>Susan James: And, Virginia City became known as, and his opera house, as not only a place where could go and see the dog and bear fights, but you could also see some very nice productions.

Piper's Opera House became so important that every actor working the circuit between New York and San Francisco had to stop and perform at Piper's Opera House.

MUSIC >>Carr: John Piper was much loved by Virginia City.

He featured prominently in the tales that were told and re-told in the smokey saloons.

It seemed fitting that a brass plaque should commemorate his home.

And, in 1948 when Lucius Beebe arrived from the East coast looking for a past that could become his present, his reality.

He found it in the house that had once belonged to Virginia City's greatest showman, John Piper.

Or did he?

>>Ron James: Somewhere along the line, Lucius Beebe decided, or belieed that this house was The Piper House.

That it was associated with John Piper, the famous theater impresario.

And, he was looking, no doubt, for the right house not just for comfort and elegance, and this house has both, but for the right pedigree.

>>Carr: But did he find that?

Did he buy John Piper's house?

>>Ron James: He didn't build the house, we know that.

There's a tradition that he lived here, there's a tradition that his son, Edward Piper, lived here.

And, there's no reason to believe any of that.

It does seem that Edward Piper's widow, Lavinia, moved here after she remarried to Dan Conner.

And, that that was, ah, the connection to the Piper family.

>>Carr: So, the myth morphed into reality.

>>Ron James: There's been a longstanding tradition in the west of telling the tall tale.

The west celebrates a good lie, particularly when itás believed by others.

Mark Twain came here, and he was probably a passable liar because he was, after all, from Missouri.

But, he came here to study with the pros and he became an excellent liar.

And, that's the basis of Mark Twain, how Samuel Clemens arrived and left as Mark Twain.

Virginia City could be regarded as the, the core, the center of lying in the west.

>>Carr: It was a badge of honor to be able to stretch a tale to the breaking point and still have it seem credible.

The Comstock excelled at this skill.

>>Ron James: The people who founded Virginia City in 1859 were almost all gone by 1869.

So, the people of 1869 had to invent stories about their own past only a decade before.

And, that constant coming and going resulted in people who didn't know the past and so they could only relate to the past as it had been told to them.

Sometimes third, fourth and fifth-hand times.

And, so all that tumbled through history as a fabrication that grew and expanded and became more romantic and more magnificent.

>>Carr: The key is to separate fact from delectable fiction.

That applies not only to the history of this house, but to history in a broader sense.

MUSIC The present day owners of the Piper-Beebe House, Roy and Sue Chapman, have decorated it, family antiques.

The hall tree is one such example.

It's dressed stylishly with hats from generations of Chapmans.

The staircase has a well-polished newel post.

A myriad of family photographs and paintings march up the wall in typical Victorian fashion.

MUSIC >>Bedeau: The layout of the house is a, is a fairly standard double-parlor house, uh, with a side hall.

Uh, again, the emphasis in, in the Italianate Style, in addition to verticality, was also on asymmetry or not having everything even and balanced.

So, one of the, the typical, uh, design elements that you'll see in an Italianate house is an entry that's to one side or the other of the building.

And, as you see in this house, we have the front, the main entry of the house, uh, on the, on the, uh, side of the house rather than in the center.

Uh, that allowed for entry and also for large, uh, spaces at the front and immediately to the rear of the front, front parlor.

Um, so what we have is we have a side hall with a stairway going up.

MUSIC >>Carr: In deference to Lucius Beebe, the owners have created a small shrine in his memory.

MUSIC >>Carr: A mirror at the end of the hall, framed by what was once a doorway, is a reminder that Beebe would probably have double checked his ensemble before heading for the local saloons, or touring the town with Mr T-Bone Towser his beloved St. Bernard.

MUSIC >>Carr: We move into the front parlor which faces the street.

It houses more family antiques.

The small chest in front of the fireplace was Roy's great grandfather's and accompanied him when he came to San Francisco in 1849 - one of many who had gold fever.

The toy piano, which still chimes when played, belonged to his grandmother.

MUSIC >>Carr: The bookcases don't appear to be original.

They're lined with old volumes, as well as a healthy collection of Beebe-Clegg books.

MUSIC >>Bedeau: What we have on the main floor, uh, of the building is is that we have two formal spaces, one in front of the other.

The front parlor which would've been used for entertaining, but only on important sort of semi-public kind of, kind of occasions when you were entertaining the vicar or, uh, you know, having important people over or something like that.

This would not have been a room that was used typically for, uh, everyday use.

And, then behind that, to the rear of that you have, uh, a formal dining room.

MUSIC >>Carr: The two rooms became one for large social gatherings.

It was merely a matter of sliding back the pocket doors.

A dress maker's dummy stands to one side in the dining room.

Draped around its shoulders is a black beaded shawl.

It was used by Roy's grandmother and then passed on to his mother.

She was, for some time in the late '30 and early 40s, a dress designer.

MUSIC >>Carr: A charming souvenir of the 1950 Panama Pacific Expo stands on a side table.

The room is a gallery of pictures and furnishing that have significance for Roy and Sue.

MUSIC >>Carr: Because the houses were built so closely together, and one side was comprised of a stairway and hall, windows are at a premium, especially here on this first floor.

From the dining room we move in to the comfortable kitchen.

It's believed that this space was renovated in the 1940s.

A wall was removed making the dining room slightly smaller, and then the ceiling was lowered to keep the space warmer.

The stove is not original to the house, but still functions and is believed to have been added prior to the Beebe purchase.

MUSIC All three of these rooms enter into the hallway that has a single staircase to the second floor.

The hallway wallpaper, and that in Beebe's master bedroom, is from the 1950's.

It's reputed that Clegg hired Hollywood set designer, Robert Hanley at great expense, to re-decorate the house.

It was in shambles when purchased and needed structural work as well as cosmetic upgrading.

Shortly after acquiring this house, Beebe and Clegg purchased the "Golden Peak" railway car.

They re-named it the "Virginia City" and asked Hanley work his magic.

Purchased for $5,000, it was lavishly outfitted with antiques and Victorian frippery to the tune of $375,000.

Hanley had also refurbished their first rail car, the "Gold Coast" which is presently on permanent display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

Upstairs there are four original rooms.

The back bedroom is now used as a master bedroom, but in Lucius Beebe's time it was furnished with a barber's chair and a couple of slot machines.

At some point in time, Clegg added a steam room that has since been enlarged and converted to a bathroom.

The chandelier above the bed is reputed to be a Beebe find.

It's said that it was previously hung in the San Francisco hotel room where President Warren Harding died in 1923.

The front rooms of the second floor were probably a bedroom and adjoining parlor.

In Beebe's day, he and Clegg used this as an office.

It was here that they compiled a portion of the railroading books that they published.

Clegg photographed; Beebe wrote.

Two incredibly polished, wealthy men.

Why were they here, in Virginia City?

What was the attraction?

>>Ron James: The Big Bonanza was the glory time of Virginia City.

It was discovered in 1873 and it really kept the Comstock going throughout the 70's in a time of affluence and prosperity, but all good things come to an end.

Especially in mining communities.

And, beginning in the 1880's, this town began a steady downward decline.

Beginning in the 1930's, a certain Bohemian set from the east realized that there was something special about Virginia City.

They were looking for the magical western place where they could retreat to and do whatever they wanted, and imagine themselves to be gunslingers and whomever.

And, so Virginia City began to take on a certain ambiance in the late 1930's and attracted this set of writers, artists and just people with too much money and too much time on their hands.

>>Carr: Enter Lucius Beebe.

In 1940 he arrived to review the premiere of Virginia City starring Randolph Scott and Errol Flynn.

Ooh, the film made him cringe, but the town caught his imagination.

Lucius Morris Beebe was born to a wealthy and influential family on December 9, 1902 in Wakefield, Massachusetts.

He was what is known as a "personality."

He wrote over 30 books, appeared on the cover of Life Magazine, had the dubious distinction of being asked to leave both Yale and Harvard.

For several years he was named one of the ten best -dressed men in America.

In addition he had a gourmet taste and an acerbic wit.

As a journalist, he contributed to the New York Herald Tribune and the San Francisco Examiner as well as publications such as the New Yorker and Town and Country.

>>Ron James: He was a flamboyant.

He wore the best clothes and ah, one of the documents here on the wall in this house advertised that he also used the best aftershave lotion.

Everything he did, everything he chose to do was the best because he deserved it and he knew the difference.

His taste was better than anyone else and he was better than anyone else.

Um, his, had a checkered career in college ah, because he didn't, I don't imagine take very well to the idea of being saddled by the overview and ah, instruction of teachers and because again he knew more than everybody else so why would he need that.

Um, he was a difficult person, but he was, also had a charming side and was humorous and, uh, and could be well-liked and a well, a party.

>>Carr: Beebe and his long-time colleague and partner, Charles Clegg, met at a Washington D.C. party on the eve of World War II.

Clegg had been born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1926.

His father owned a wholesale produce business, and the warehouse sat next to a railroad siding.

So Beebe and Clegg initially found a common ground in their love of railroads.

>>Ron James: Charles Clegg was a dozen years younger than Lucius Beebe and no doubt had a great deal of energy.

Uh, he had, he was the business mind, he was a pragmatist.

Lucius Beebe was the artist.

He was the literati, he was, uh, carried himself with a certain amount of arrogance that I don't think you'd find in Charles Clegg, who was much more down to earth.

And, and, so, and rugged and, and, uh, less refined.

So, the two of them were the yin and the yang.

And, ah, you could find, if you didn't want to deal with one, you could deal with the other and get what you needed out of the, out of the business partnership.

>>Carr: Virginia City was a perfect spot for Beebe and Clegg.

The townsfolk accepted Beebe's caustic and somewhat pompous demeanor.

Beebe's penchant for the past coupled with his fascination for the newspaper business and railroads could be well-nourished in this town caught in time.

Shortly after Beebe and Clegg settled in, they purchased the Virginia City News.

This paper was the descendent of the Territorial Enterprise In the late 1800s, the Enterprise was a flamboyant, vital publication issuing strong opinions.

It was at the enterprise that fledgeling journalist Samuel Clemens started using his pen name Mark Twain.

>>Ron James: Beebe and Clegg resuscitated the Territorial Enterprise as an institution and really created in it one of the most popular weeklies of the nation.

It became chichi for writers to be associated with it, to write an article or a column.

Not all of them lived here.

Not all of them even came here.

But, they wanted to appear in Beebe's publication because it was so prestigious.

And, of course, some of them came here and settled.

It became its own bohemian set here, its own café society, ah, focusing to a certain extent around Beebe.

He loved Virginia City when he came here first.

He celebrated it.

He promoted it.

And, it became something that became repugnant to him after Bonanza started in 1959 in celebration of the centennial of the first strike, he found the tourists who came here, and the Virginia City that resulted, less attractive.

And, he, he left.

He didn't like the monster he had created in some ways.

MUSIC >>Carr: Upon his death at age 64, Beebe left the bulk of his estate, including this house, to long time companion, Charles Clegg.

There was a codicil it stipulated that a portion of his fortune was to go to the care of Mr. T-Bone Towser, Beebe's beloved St. Bernand.

and perhaps his best friend.

>>Carr: Beebe and Clegg's connection with Hollywood is frequently attributed as the inspiration for the long-running television series, Bonanza.

That series put Virginia City back on the map and encouraged tourists to flock to the town, much to the men's chagrin.

What is perhaps a lesser known tale is that the original train trip taken by Beebe and Clegg - traveling acr, across country in their 19th century western duds in their 19th century rail car - was suggested to be the inspiration for a television show called The Wild, Wild West.

James T. West and Artemis Gordon?

Who's to say?

Forlklore, myth, legend.

What part is truth?

If you'd like to know more about the Piper-Beebe House or any of the houses in our series, go to our webside knpb.org.

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

House with a History is available on DVD in a three volume set.

Each volume contains three episodes.

To order a copy call 1-775-784-4555 or order online at knpb.org 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 Arts Council.