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: You might have driven by the house down south of Reno, as you traveled through Steamboat Valley on 395.

Even the paint was peeling and the house looked terribly sad and dejected, it was impossible to ignore the remnants of dignity and style.

Forlorn, but not defeated.

The house is the Sparks Mansion.

Home of John Sparks: cattle baron, mine owner, governor.

In 1887, he acquired a small home situated on substantial property on the outskirts of Reno.

He added on, here and there until he had a house of distinction, one that would ultimately act as the governor's mansion.

The house has taken a journey it's been architecturally modified, as well as physically transported and in the process, it's almost lost.

But recently it was renovated by a family hoping to entwine history with comfort to form a very appealing tapestry.

MUSIC The exterior of the house, including the landscaping, has been transformed by owners David and Angela Wood.

It was Angela's decorating prowess that contributed to much of the home's "look."

The style is considered Gothic Revival.

>>Mercedes De La Garza: When you first come to the house, one of the things that first catches your eye is some of the Gothic elements and so this house is somewhat of what would be considered as a Gothic Revival.

And, those elements would include the gothic arch over the entryway.

Um, sometimes it's a door, sometimes it's a window.

In this instance it's a door, I believe.

And, the, steeply-pitched roofs.

Um, that's very consistent with a Gothic Revival home, Gothic Revival may be a term that fits the house as it presently stands, but its beginnings were much less pretentious.

>>Guy Rocha: There was a core building.

And, what Sparks did is he expanded, I mean, that what's palatial, this palatial building was his creation.

For John Sparks, the purchase of the house was incidental to the purchase of the land.

The house sat at a strategic cross roads in Truckee Meadows, so that by the 1860's it had became known as Junction House.

>>Rocha: Many junction houses essentially what they meant by a 'house' was it was a place that you could stay, uh, and they were there at that strategic location, sometimes they had a toll road franchise, perhaps.

And, and fees would be charged to traverse the road.

So as far as, you know, it being other than perhaps someone running the Junction House, it wasn't a settlement, but a way station.

And, that way station would grow into a fabulous ranching empire that John Sparks had.

Over time, Sparks transformed a junction house on the emigrant trail into an impressive residence.

Since we don't know precisely what the junction house looked like other than it would probably have been extremely utilitarian it's difficult to know the changes that John Sparks made to the property.

Even now when architectural details are referred to as "original", they tend to refer to features of the house that were added by Sparks.

Certainly the porch is one striking element of the structure.

>>De La Garza: The railing on the bottom is very consistent with the pattern books that made the Gothic Revival and particularly the, the Carpenter Gothic very popular, um, between, I think, um, between 1840 and 1880 is when it was most popular in North America.

The front porch railing on this home, the downstairs is very consistent with those pattern books.

The upstairs railing, um, is not, although it appears to have been added at a very early time.

But, it, it's not consistent with the, um, pattern books of that time.

The pilasters on the front of the house and on the sides of the entryway, um, seem to be consistent with the original architecture of the home as well as the, um, columns for the front porch area.

Um, it has a, an octagon base with the rounded, um, bottom and, and then it also has this, this fluted column that comes out of it which is, um, kind of consistent for what they were building at that time.

Not consistent with any particular style of the home, but, um, of type of ornamentation.

The roof has been newly shingled.

Owner Angela Wood had hoped to use a product that was aesthetically pleasing as well as consistent to the style.

>>De La Garza: In the Gothic Revival era they used a lot of elements that were borrowed from other styles.

Um, one that attracted them a lot was almost borrowing from the, the High Empire where they used a lot of the diamond shape, um, uh, wooden shingles.

I think that there, because the house is, so much of a, of a melange of different, architectural styles I think that it, what they're going towards is more of a cottage look and I think it's, it's probably appropriate for this home.

It's hard to say what was original to the house.

We move up the stairs to the large, graceful porch.

To the right, chairs are grouped in invitation.

To the left, the space has been enclosed with a screen.

Directly in front we find a well-worn door of distinction.

>>De La Garza: The front door is amazing.

What I love about the front door is, um, the scale.

It has almost no scale.

It's enormous.

It, it appears to be about four-and-a-half feet wide.

Uh, I think it's eight feet tall.

And, if you look at the, the light in it which is, the light is the, is what you call a, a piece of glass in a window or in a door.

The light on that door is placed so high that I, um, I, it, I don't know if the original owner was a giant or, or, um, he just loved the feel of that sort of scale.

Inside we're greeted by a spacious entry way.

To the left is a small room that was originally used as a waiting room for the governor's more prominent constituents.

What was once the governor's office is now a well-appointed master bedroom.

A bath has been remodeled to accommodate the owners.

MUSIC John Sparks purchased this house as a cattle baron not a governor.

It was part of the Reno landscape at the time, and one might say his purchase was made for business as well as pleasure.

>>Michael Fischer: 1887, John Sparks bought the home and 321 acres from the Smith family.

They were not the first owners of the home.

And, there were other people that had had it.

It had been called Junction House and a number of other things previously.

He bought it with the idea of moving his family from remote Elko County into a more civilized place for education, for social life, for things along those lines.

It also offered him the opportunity as a cattleman to have a separate cattle operation from the operation that he had in Elko County.

And, this area, which would become known as the Alamo Hereford Stock Farm, was the premier Hereford cattle ranch on the West Coast and, perhaps at one time, even in the world.

Sparks was a self-made man, accumulating great wealth as he explored the west - reaching further and further into uncharted territory.

>>Rocha: John Sparks was born in, uh, Mississippi in, in 1843.

His family moved fairly shortly after his birth to Arkansas.

But, what's most important is his finding his way to Texas and, and initially, uh, Lampasas, Texas.

It's this, when he becomes the cowboy.

This is when he is immersed in the, in the cattle industry and his, his first experiences.

He learns the trade.

Then he decides, during the Civil War, and Texas is a southern state, that instead of maybe joining the Confederacy, he's gonna be a Texas Ranger.

He's gonna do some Indian fighting, etc.

This'll give him some training on the frontier.

What strikes me is that after the Civil War, John Sparks shows some business acumen that is, that is really phenomenal.

He understands the nature of the cattle business ovingxof cattle, where the money is going to be made.

He had also found Wyoming and, and really where he made some of his biggest money, initially, was in the Wyoming country.

He was there by 1868.

And, he was parlaying properties and moving cattle, spent some time up there, uh, you know, would come back and marry and take his wife, spend some time up there.

But, he had properties in Texas, properties in Wyoming that he was continuing to build in, in a very prosperous way this cattle empire.

And, that's what strikes me about John Sparks is that he was so astute at understanding what the nation's needs were, certainly in the, in the central core of the nation, in moving cattle throughout the West and, and building that empire, then finding this southern part of Idaho and, and northeastern Nevada as another opportunity.

He was always looking, always moving.

Uh, so I would say he was blessed with a tremendous business acumen and, and that carried through.

As he built his empire, he became known as "Honest John Sparks."

>>Rocha: I believe the appellation "Honest John Sparks" came down to how he conducted his business deals.

Uh, and, and, you know, he was, he was seen as a man who could be trusted, uh, you know, and this was the day with the 'handshake' and, and, uh, what, what you get from Honest John Sparks, if you will, that he was not underhanded, he was not manipulative, he was not, uh, like the robber barons by any means.

Clearly, he was insightful in knowing how to manage all these different properties and knowing when to sell and knowing when to buy and dealing with, with terrible winters and, and surviving.

But, everybody who worked with him, particularly during the heyday of his cattle career was Honest John Sparks, he could be trusted.

>>Fischer: John Sparks, to me, did everything you could do in the West.

He was a mining man, he was a cattle man, he was in politics.

But, more than anything, John Sparks was a good person.

And, toward the end of his career that got lost in the Goldfield mine struggles with the owners and the miners and the labor issues.

But, if you spoke to the men who worked for him on his cattle ranch, he was a wonderful employer.

He took huge, huge things to help the people that worked for him.

He paid an man for 8 months while he was in the hospital, paid him his wages, paid all of his hospital bills.

That's just the kinda person he was.

His family had slaves in Texas, yet he had a crew of black cowboys.

There was not one ounce of prejudice in his mind.

I, he referred to people by names that were acceptable then and aren't acceptable now, but there was no prejudice in how he handled that.

Henry Harris was one of this foremen, a black man, who came originally to northeastern Nevada to serve as a houseboy and later was such a talented cowboy that he and Tab Duncan served as the two wagon bosses for the Sparks-Harold outfit.

He, he just was that kind of person and that's the one thing that was lost with him dying.

He was, I believe, honest, sincere, hardworking, diligent, clear back to his time as a youth.

Given his reputation and his success as a business man, it's not surprising that his contemporaries tapped him for political office.

>>Fischer: John Sparks, I don't believe ever had political ambitions.

I believe that he was drafted.

I believe he was drafted after Saddler decided that he would not be able to win the nomination.

Sparks was spoken of as early as 1885 as a gubernatorial candidate, literally four years after he came to Nevada, but didn't actually enter the foray until 1901.

He was elected in the election of 1902 and started serving in office in 1903.

Spark's first term was considered successful.

During his second, he was called upon to referee the Goldfield mining dispute.

Perhaps not so much "referee" it as to break it.

Labor and management were in a bitter battle.

The town was 20,000 strong - the largest in the state.

Though Sparks enjoyed the support of the organized labor, he sided with the Goldfield mine owners.

Many felt his decision and its aftermath ultimately broke him.

He died before he completed his second term.

>>Rocha: Many people said he, he died principally because of what, a broken heart, uh, the idea that he was so saddened by the way everything went, but his health had failed because many of his longstanding allies, particularly in organized labor, felt that he was too heavy-handed, that he had become a servant of power and ultimately felt that he couldn't be trusted.

So, he, he, he went out under a cloud, uh, ultimately, although he had had a, a, a good tenure and a strong tenure, uh, the Goldfield labor troubles will always mark, uh, John Sparks' life.

MUSIC John Sparks didn't die of a broken heart, though there's speculation that the stress of the situation did his health no good.

He became ill after a round-trip open air auto ride from Carson City to Reno on a brisk December day in 1907.

Sparks was unable recuperate, and died on May 22, 1908 at the age of 66.

>>Fischer: He caught a cold and became very sick, probably became pneumonia.

He still had to get up, they had a special session of the legislature coming up which he had called, and he was not able to do that.

The constant worry of the situation in Goldfield, the constant worry of the special session, whether they would pass a state police act which Roosevelt had told him he had to have a state police deal with this because it was not a federal issue and that he would withdraw the troops, all of that weighed very heavily upon him.

He was sick.

He finished the special session and went to bed, but he didn't recover.

If the Goldfield incident didn't kill him, it at least tarnished his image.

It's hard to know whether, had survived his term, he would have ever been seen as "Honest John" again.

>>Rocha: He had trouble with that name, if you will, only after he got into the Goldfield labor troubles.

And was, was he honest?

Labor people didn't think he was honest.

They felt that he was, that he, in fact, was, uh, uh, undercutting them.

We know from the records that have survived he was.

Uh, it was very clear through the telegrams and other communications that have survived he was going to do whatever he could to break the unions.

And, he would do what was needed.

He felt, he, he felt the were no good.

He didn't want them there.

He said they were disruptive.

Uh, he wasn't concerned about negotiating a peace, he wanted to conquer a peace.

And I think that's part of his tough guy image, too.

Uh, ultimately, uh, let's say he succeeded, but he also died in the process.

MUSIC The entry way boasts an interesting staircase.

Not precisely what one would expect of the house.

>>De La Garza: The spindles are very delicate, they're very beautiful on the staircase.

What I find most curious is the newel post which is the large wooden piece at the bottom of this, the railing, um, it's very uncharacteristic of that type of staircase.

The house is very delicate in itself.

Um, and the spindles are very delicate, the, and the, the railing really beckons you to, to touch it.

And, then you get to the newel post and it's this very massive piece of wood with zero ornamentation to it and I wonder if it was always intended to, for someone to come back and, and finish it and it just was never finished.

Sometimes you see that in projects where they can't decide what they want it to look like and, um, I think that that might be the instance that happened here, perhaps it was owner-guided and the owner was undecided at the time at the time they were building the home and said, well, we'll do this later and perhaps it was never finished, so 'cause it is very uncharacteristic, although the scale of it equals that largeness of the scale of the front door.

The wood floors are striking and round the to move throughout the living room and dining room.

>>De La Garza: The wood in the house is, um, a combination of mahogany and white oak.

Um, and the white oak is quartersawn which is, um, something that was very common for the era and it was very expensive to do because it was a significant amount of waste in the construction of, of that kind of, um, flooring.

Um, and what it is is you have actually taken the tree where if it's, uh, a, a vertically, um, sawn tree, instead of cutting it in planks, it's actually turned at, at a one-quarter turn and then cut in planks.

And, so what you're seeing on the oak, you're not seeing the side of the grain, you're seeing, um, a quarter, a quarter turn of this, of the grain.

And, so you actually are looking at the ends of the ray of the oak grain.

And, so it makes a very vibrant, view of the wood.

The back portion of the house runs its length.

It seems an area that is atypical of the era.

>>De La Garza: As you round the corner and you come to the back it's one long, essentially one large room.

It's broken up with doors and windows, so you have a transparency through the entire space.

Um, but it's, it's not as broken up as the back of, the front of the house, so it's more of a, it's a very interesting, um, space because they, you tend to go from the larger spaces to the smaller more broken up spaces as you go into a private portion of the home and it's almost reversed in this house where the, the public spaces are smaller in the front of the house and the, the private space is large and spacious in the back of the house, um, with the glass doors that were previously at, um, the location on one end of the dining room as well as the other.

They, it, it gave you a true trans, transparency through the whole back of the house making it feel like one large space even though it was probably quite stuffy with the wallpaper and the extra ornamentation that existed on the original house.

A fireplace anchors one end of the room.

A set of French doors made of Austrian crystal once connected the living room and dining room.

Fortunately the set between the dining room and atrium remain.

>>De La Garza: The atrium at the end of the dining room was, um, added in 1917, I believe, by Frederick DeLongchamp, which is fairly early in his career.

Um, and having reviewed the, the original drawings, the elevations, the interior elevations of that room, it was quite ornate.

It's been somewhat stripped down over the years and, but the original fountain still exists with the original tile, um, which are amazing tiles.

You see those frequently, uh, on Frederick DeLongchamp homes that were built, um, later in his career, so this is an early example of his use of tiles, um, like this.

Um, but those rooms tended to be built for, um, you know, smoking rooms, retiring rooms, um, rooms just to enjoy and to feel part of nature.

It's very interesting, a lot of these homes, particularly, um, in Nevada, were built with very little relationship to the property that it sits on.

The kitchen is in the back of the house, as it was originally.

Angela has completely redecorated the space.

The second story can be reached by the front staircase, or the servants' staircase at the rear of the house near the kitchen.

What was once the master bedroom is in the front of the house.

>>De La Garza: The bedroom is a very interesting space in that, uh, it, again, has those high ceilings.

I think one of, for me, one of the more intriguing parts of it is this little secret storage space behind the large wall.

That's, um, what I would consider to be the bed wall where you'd put your bed against.

Um, and also the doors that lead out to the two separate decks, um, up from that bedroom which is, I'm assuming he took tea on one deck and had his afternoon smoke on the other deck.

But, um, it's, I find the storage in that room to be very curious.

There is a built-in, and if you notice there is a built-in on the, on the wall, the door side of that room.

But, I mean, back then they, you know, had their five outfits and they rotated the, their clothes.

They certainly didn't have the number of shoes that we buy these days and the amount of wardrobe that we have, so it was certainly, you could accommodate two people by that particular built-in and I think that there was some demand for more space, so that's where they captured the space behind that bed wall.

Besides additional bedrooms, the second floor also has a sleeping porch.

>>De La Garza: The, the sleeping porch, um, that you see in this home is, was very common of the era of that home, particularly out West where it would get really hot, and in these dryer climates you see a lot of those, um, where if it, the air was just not moving from the couple of windows in your bedroom you would, um, retire to a, a sleeping porch which tended to have, you know, blankets on the floors and some mattresses and the family sometimes essentially camped on these sleeping porches, um, uh, throughout the summer months when it was just, the heat was stifling.

When asked what charms her about the Sparks mansion, Mercedes responds.

>>De La Garza: I think that some of the more beautiful elements of this home would be the front porch detailing, um, the fluted columns, the, um, octagonal bases, the, the dental work that you see on the house is very intriguing, I think.

Um, the way it's different upstairs as, as it is to downstairs.

Um and, just sort of the basic essence of the home.

It has a very nice feel to it.

You can really feel the history in the walls of this home.

Um, the, the people who have cared for this home over the years have done a, a really lovely job of stewardship, um, making their every effort to retain what they felt was important to this home.

Um, and you can still feel that.

The floors are still here.

Um, some of the detailing is, um, evident, the doors with the Venetian glass are stunning and, again, the DeLongchamps addition with the tiles is so, is such a fun find in this house.

MUSIC The "Alamo" - as John Sparks dubbed his home - not only had a history prior to the Governor's purchase of the property, but also after his demise.

Though he had sold his Elko ranch for in excess of a million dollars, he reinvested a portion of the profit into the Wedekind mining district.

His salary as Governor was minimal, but nevertheless, he gave maximum effort to the running of the state.

Though his family wasn't impoverished at his death, it was probably became prudent to sell the Alamo.

>>Rocha: The wife lived for many, many years after, uh, uh, Governor John Sparks and they ended up selling the property in 19, uh, 11 to, uh, William H. Moffett.

And, the Moffett family, I remember, uh, when they sold it to Lincoln Fitzgerald, who, uh, associated with a number of casinos, finally Fitzgerald's Casino, a former mob figure who had, had, uh, uh, found himself, uh, taking a hit, surviving that hit, uh, in, uh, in, uh, the Reno area in the late 1940's, uh, and ultimately Lincoln Fitzgerald saying, you know, "I want to sell the land.

If anybody wants the house, they can move the house."

And, that's when I met Leslie Hernandez in the late 1970's when she visited the Nevada Historical Society in Reno and she moved that house to the location that we're here today, and I've seen a succession of owners, and it's only with this current owner that I have seen the dream become a reality.

>>Barber: I think most people are aware that the Nevada city of Sparks was named for "Honest John."

Prior to that it was called East Reno, West Wadsworth, and Harriman - after the president of the railroad company.

But Mr. Harriman politely declined the honor, saying he didn't want his family name "on that town."

So the Commercial Club approached Governor Sparks.

The Governor initially declined.

He saw that eventually the two cities would together fill the valley.

And he felt that one town would, in the long run, be stronger than two cities.

And would he he believe the same today?

If you'd like to know more about the Sparks 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 Arts Council.