Newlands Historic District Listed in the National Register

CARSON CITY, Nev. – On Friday, January 6, the National Park Service listed the Newlands Heights Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is the nation’s official list of places worthy of preservation. The designation recognizes the historical and architectural importance of the Newlands Historic District to the City of Reno. It is the City’s second National Register district, the first being the University of Nevada Reno Historic District, listed in 1987.

The Newlands Historic District is significant as a neighborhood that shaped Reno’s early suburban development as the city adopted City Beautiful ideals and its neighborhoods transitioned from streetcar and pedestrian-based neighborhoods to automobile-centered suburbs. The boundary of the district is roughly Arlington Avenue on the east, the Truckee River on the north, Monroe Street on the south and Keystone Avenue, California Avenue and Sharon Way on the west.

The neighborhood’s curving roads, community park space, forested streetscapes, and lushly landscaped private gardens and front yards exemplified the desire of the neighborhood’s developers to use urban art and publically-visible spaces to enrich Reno’s urban experience. From 1889 through 1965, the Newlands neighborhood became one of Reno’s most prominent and desirable neighborhoods by incorporating City Beautiful ideals. The district sits on the bluffs south of the Truckee River, bounded additionally by Keystone Avenue to the east, Monroe Street to the south, and California Avenue and Sharon Way to the west.

The Newlands Historic District was also recognized for its importance to Reno’s historic architecture, possessing a stylistic diversity and level of design quality rare in northwest Nevada. Many of the region’s best known architects of the early twentieth century completed some of their most significant residential commissions in Nevada in the Newlands neighborhood, creating several of Reno’s most outstanding examples of Period Revival and Craftsman homes. The Newlands neighborhood includes a broad but carefully selected mix of residential architecture planned by the community’s developers under the umbrella of the Newlands Company, who intended the buildings to blend with the neighborhood’s broader City Beautiful aesthetic. The landscape and architecture of the Newlands neighborhood defined the architectural and landscape development of future neighborhoods in the city and remains among the best preserved early-twentieth century residential areas in Reno.

Listing the Newlands Historic District in the National Register is an honorary designation. It does not change property rights, nor does it add restrictions for current or future owners who may want to make changes to property within the district. Property owners seeking advice on how to best care for their property are encouraged to consult the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Treatment of Historic Properties, the national standards for historic preservation.

Newlands Historic District was nominated by the City of Reno using federal grant funding from the National Park Service and support from the Newlands Neighborhood Association. Members of the public with questions about listing the Newlands Historic District to the National Register, the National Register in general, or how to list a property in the National Register, are encouraged to contact the state’s National Register Coordinator, Jim Bertolini, at (775) 684-3436 or jbertolini@shpo.nv.gov.  

A copy of the Newlands nomination can be downloaded here.

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The National Register of Historic Places was established in 1966 under the National Historic Preservation Act to recognize historic resources important to national, state, and local history.  For a resource to be eligible it should be 50 years of age, possess historical significance, and retain strong physical evidence of that story.