RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — The oldest house ever built in Reno, constructed at the time of the Biggest Little City’s founding in the late 1860s, was relocated Thursday.
Jacobs Entertainment, the developer behind the Reno Neon Line, sold the Benham-Belz home to a local couple for $1 under the condition that it would be moved and preserved.
The home sat on the lot at 347 West Street from 1868 or 1869 until early Thursday morning, when two large trailers drove it to its new location near Mayberry Drive and McCarran Blvd.
Logan and Angelina Needham were selected from a list of applicants for the deal. Possible buyers were vetted to ensure they had available property and money to pay for the home to be moved.
“It feels amazing to take history with us It’s not just like a house, it’s this 150-year-old house that has been here since before any of these casinos existed and it’s like a real core of Reno and we’re both born and raised here and really love this city and so the history part of it is my favorite,” Logan Needham said.
The Needhams have documented their unique journey on the @ourdollarhouse Instagram account, chronicling the surprising finds and challenges of renovating a house more than 150 years old.
“(Now) the real big work begins which is get it back together and then put a new roof back on it, fix it, take all this ugly brick siding off and back to the original wood siding underneath and start that process of bringing it back to its former glory,” he said.
In addition to the aesthetic improvements, Needham, who is a custom steel fabricator, said they also have to bring the house up to code by installing grounded outlets and non-lead pipes. He estimated the project will take another year at least.
The Benham-Belz House lot was originally purchased in 1868 for $200 by I.T. (Isaac Theodore) and Linda Benham, according to the Historic Reno Preservation Society. When the Benhams moved to Washington in the 1880s, Reno barber John Belz purchased the home.
“We love Reno and we love preserving old things and we love the stories that come with what they were originally there and to repurpose it and so this is just yet another thing that we get to love on and bring back to life instead of just purchasing new and tearing down the old,” Angelina Needham said.
A spokesperson for Jacobs Entertainment told News 4-Fox 11 the developer had no immediate plans for the site.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source mynews4.com ’
