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.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Hello.

I'm Marla Carr.

Welcome to House with a History.

In 1889 Francis Newlands commissioned the building of his home in Reno, Nevada.

But not just any location would do.

It was to be perched on a bluff above the Truckee River overlooking the city of Reno.

Nor would just any design suffice.

The Queen Anne style, a favorite on the East Coast, was chosen.

Today we'll visit the century-old Francis Newlands Mansion.

The first house on the hill.

Owners Dan and Melinda Gustin will talk with us about their journey into its restoration.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Melinda, Dan, it's really good to see you.

Hi Marla.

Thanks for coming today.

Your house is just beautiful, I can't wait to see the inside.

Thank you, well, come on in.

Okay.

Entering the home, we turn to the right and enter a spacious high-ceiling library.

In 1920, Reno and George Thatcher purchased the home from the Newlands Estate.

And, at that time, in 1923 they added on the library wing, and also a garage area and maid's quarters off to the West Side of the house.

♪♪ The library is finished with oak flooring and walnut paneling and bookcases.

The ceiling has boxed wooden beams.

It's a large space, comfortable in the summer but a bit drafty in the winter.

The imposing but shallow "Rumsford" style fireplace was designed to force heat into the room.

Let's go see what the original house looked like then.

We come into a lovely entry parlor.

Isn't this beautiful?

When the library was added, it changed the original entrance to the house.

Now that space has become an entry parlor that sits outside of the living room.

And here we have the plaque that um commemorates this as a registered national historic landmark.

Yes.

There are 5 actual national landmarks in the state of Nevada and this is the only single family residence that has that designation and it was conferred on the property by the Department of the Interior in 1965.The National Trust for Historic Preservation maintains what is called a 'conservation easement'.

And, it has to do with the exterior of the building.

And, so any time that we choose to change the building, do something different with the landscape, we have to get their approval prior to commencing any work.

And, we've found that they've been a wonderful organization to work with.

We certainly have tried to mimic and maintain the grounds, as they would have appeared at the time the home was built.

The National Trust designates buildings that are of historic interest due not only to the architecture, but also to their place in history.

Thus, to understand the full significance of the Newlands Mansion, we must understand the significance of Senator Francis Newlands and of his contribution to the nation's laws concerning water rights.

♪♪ The Newlands Mansion.

In 1889 it was a 7,000 square foot dwelling sitting in solitary splendor on a bluff overlooking the Truckee River.

♪♪ The Queen Anne home reposed in a brown landscape devoid of trees, of grass -- barren land but for the house.

The view was magnificent, even then.

You could see the river snaking through the textured hills of the Sierra Nevada to the fledgling city of Reno.

At that time, every bit of the immediate area was high desert.

It was in this stark arena that Francis Newlands was to make his home.

♪♪ A graduate of George Washington University, Newlands migrated from the east in 1870 to become a well-known lawyer in San Francisco.

In 1874 he married the daughter of William Sharon, the wealthiest man on the Pacific Coast.

The marriage made him part of the vast Sharon empire with interests in California, Nevada and Washington, D.C. Over the next decade, Newlands' corporate and political career matured while weathering the death of his wife in 1882 and his father-in-law in 1885.

In 1888, he married for a second time to Edith McAllister.

Then with urging from Senator William Stewart, Newlands and his family moved to Nevada, settling in Reno in early 1889.

♪♪ In the Nevada of 1892, Newlands began his political career as a Silver Party candidate for the House of Representatives.

In 1903 he was elected to the Senate, and served as a senator until his death in 1917.

♪♪ Senator Francis Newlands carved out a place in Nevada history by authoring the Water Reclamation Act of 1902.

It changed the face of the state, allowing farming to flourish in a commerce that previously had been defined by mining.

The ramifications of the bill are still felt throughout the United States.

♪♪ Francis Newlands saw an opportunity in this economic limbo, basically, to come in with a new idea.

And, that idea was basically, I think, his brainstorm of irrigating Nevada deserts and creating fertile farmlands out of virtual wastelands.

And, it's ironic when you think of his last name being "New Lands", you know.

He was actually creating, trying to create new lands out in the desert.

Newlands was forty years of age when he built his home.

The Queen Anne mansion has 87 windows large, wide windows, much like the picture windows that became the rage in the 1950's.

But Senator Newlands wanted a clear view in every direction of the land, he would shape so profoundly.

It was a view he loved a vista that stirred his imagination and forged his politics.

Today the Newlands mansion is in a setting much changed.

Now the bluff is lined with distinctive houses, properties that are lush with plantings and green with expansive yards.

The river that was deep and placid is now rock strewn with a high-spirited flow of water that gives the river voice.

It was in 1984 that Melinda Gustin happened upon an advertisement for the sale of a home.

The house sounded intriguing, but she couldn't place it in her mind's eye.

Curious, she called a realtor.

When we first came into the home, we came with some realtors, and it was terribly overgrown.

And, it was really somewhat difficult to really evaluate the house on the exterior because it was in such disrepair, and we didn't anticipate what we would find on the interior.

But, when we opened the door and looked at the home, the thing that immediately impressed me were the size of the rooms.

They were large and plenty of windows.

The house actually has 87 windows.

And, it just had, was filled with light and even though it was in such bad disrepair the house had so much potential.

Dan's reaction to the house was a bit more reserved.

The house was in dire need of repair when Melinda and I first viewed it.

She had seen it prior to me coming over to take a look at it.

But, when I looked at it with her I said, "You can't be serious about buying this house, could you?"

So, it was in a pretty sad state of affairs when we looked at it, but that was way back in 1984.

Buying it was just the beginning of a twenty-year challenge.

The Gustin's purchased an enormous house whose interior had been completely stripped.

Everything that could be carried away, had been.

The rest was left to rot.

In the interior, every room was painted a different color.

It had been in the hands of The Trust for some time and they had rented it to people.

And, the people who were here were, I guess the kindest words you could say were 'caretakers'.

But, the care they took of the home was just living here, they didn't do much to restore it.

So, everything needed to be painted.

The floors were in terrible shape.

They needed to be redone.

When we first moved in the house seemed like a warehouse to us because, obviously, it's 7,000 square feet.

And, shortly after we got here we realized that we would have to spend most of our time up in the master bedroom area.

But, it was fine because we felt that we were making progress and because the house was in such bad shape every little thing that we did made an immediate improvement.

Actually we got a very pleasant surprise because shortly after we bought the home we went on a trip to Australia.

And, while we were gone we thought that we'd have all the floors done.

And, that was a great idea except for the 10 or 12 days we were on the trip was only half the time it took to do the floors because the fellow who was doing them found out they were mahogany.

Everything needed to be repaired.

The structure itself was sound, but the lighting, a new panel had to be put because they were all fuses at the time.

The heating system had to be restored and repaired.

And, the general look of the house had to be updated because it had gotten very old and very stodgy, and very dark.

♪♪ The house has been transformed from stodgy and dark to vibrant.

Melinda has chosen to use a palate of colors from original wallpaper that remains in the study off the entry parlor.

Though the paper shows a bit of wear, it's a testament to the fashion of the period.

The results are rooms of vivid colors that compliment the rich floors and great expanses of white molding that edge the walls.

♪♪ The living room is separated from the entry parlor by large pocket doors.

One of the two remaining fireplaces is in this room.

Brass wall sconces, circa 1870, originally came from Virginia City.

They were converted from gas to electricity.

An impressive Sarouk Persian rug from the same period as the house covers the mahogany floor.

Homes of this era and of the early 1900's, quite a few of them, larger homes, especially with tall ceilings, have pocket doors.

And, there are pocket doors to, that separate the dining room from the front room.

And, in the days back then, when servants mostly in the home did all the work and they would close off doors when going from the dining room to the front room, or the living room as they called it then, the men used to smoke cigars or have their brandy, so they closed off the doors.

And, one of the unique features is the pocket doors in from the dining room to the living room and from the foyer to the living room or the front room all work.

And, they're kind of a nice feature.

You don't see those that often.

♪♪ The dining room is situated off the living room.

The Gustin's have an elegant collection of antiques to grace the room.

A beautifully adorned doll was a gift to Melinda from her mother's collection.

The burled walnut sideboard capped with rare rose marble is from the 1850's and is known to have come from Virginia City.

Melinda's collection of antique china lids makes an unusual, and very personal wall decoration surrounding the sideboard.

♪♪ The solarium was originally a covered, open porc.

It's thought to have been enclosed in the 1920's when the Thatcher's added the library.

♪♪ Typically the porches in Victorian times leading up to the turn of the century were very social gathering places.

The front and side porches.

The side porch on this house offered an excellent view of the river, the developing community right down below known as the Powning Addition around that same time period.

And, it must've been a wonderful place to, I would imagine, sip lemonade in the evening and enjoy the evening summer sunset.

Later that porch was enclosed.

Probably they felt it was too windy or drafty.

And, in many cases with houses, mansions built up on the bluff, they would enclose these summer porches to cut down on the wind and create more of a seating area outside of the wind element.

♪♪ The oak door leading to the terrace originally served as the front door prior to the library wing being added.

There are 35 windowpanes in the door.

Hot water radiators were added to the room consistent with the heating of the rest of the house.

Dan and Melinda are sold on the warm, moist heat although that was not always the case.

Because the heating is all supplied by radiators, most of the radiators weren't working.

So, that was a real problem.

We found out one of the, at the University, one of the fraternity houses was being renovated.

The SAE House.

And, they had water heaters that worked.

Or heaters that worked.

And, so I went up one night with George Basta who was very involved in restoring the fraternity house, and we looked at some of the radiators.

And, he said, "If you make a donation we'll be more than happy to get rid of these radiators. "

So, we took some of the radiators from the University, brought 'em down here and installed them.

And, once we did that it was a complete different situation because we actually could heat all the rooms we wanted to live it.

Oh what a surprise.

This room, it's beautiful.

Oh, thank you, we really enjoy it.

We originally had a very small unserviceable kitchen and we were able to transform it into this.

♪♪ ♪♪ My favorite place in the house is somewhat difficult to define.

Each room has its own personality and, certainly, we've enjoyed some wonderful times in our dining room with family and friends.

But, I enjoy cooking.

And, it took us a while to really update our kitchen.

We went through an initial remodel shortly after we moved in, to the kitchen, just to update the space.

And, to make it useable.

Two years ago, in the year 2000, we did a major kitchen remodel and updating and we restored a lot of the woodwork, a lot of the wainscoting, and built some additional cabinetry that would mimic the original cabinetry.

And, I just love the kitchen.

♪♪ The flooring is French Limestone, the countertops slab granite.

Elements like these as well as the gas burner cook top and the Victorian glass and brass hardware on the cabinets insure that the transition from the house proper into the "modern" kitchen is not a time-travel shock.

The wainscoting is beautiful too.

Thank you, we had that specifically made to match what's out in the butler's pantry.

And I think that lends itself to giving it that Old World charm when you come in.

It certainly does.

Very functional, very in keeping with the house.

Why don't we go upstairs to the second floor?

All right.

Very ornate stove.

Yes that's known as a baseburner stove and they were popular in the 1800's.

My husband Dan found it in an antique store here in town and had it re-nickled and installed and we use it as back-up heating.

There are two stairways to the second floor and one stairway up to the third floor.

The stairs went all the way up, but met the floor of the second floor and didn't go all the way into the second floor.

So, it kind of reminded Melinda and me of the Winchester Mystery House down in San Jose.

You've probably heard that she kept building rooms because she thought the longer she built rooms and more rooms she built, the longer her life would go.

Well, I'm sure that was not the situation here, but why the stairs were blocked we never have been able to find out.

At the top of the landing, we enter the bedroom furnished with the prized Natchez bedroom set.

And this is our Natchez furniture that came out of one of the plantation mansions.

It's really gorgeous.

And in such great condition.

Yes, it had been used only as a home that was opened for tours from the 1930's.

So it hadn't been used as actual bedroom furniture until we purchased it in the 90's.

♪♪ ♪♪ Senator Newlands was born in Natchez, Mississippi in 1848.

And, he lived there for three years.

His mother, to whom he was very close, decided that there were better educational opportunities for the children and they subsequently moved to Quincy, Illinois.

While he didn't spend a lot of time in Natchez, Mississippi, he developed a love for the area and the gentile lifestyle.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Dan has said that, when pressed to come up with a favorite space in the house, the master bedroom would probably be it.

He sees it as a retreat.

A place for quiet and seclusion in a mansion.

But his choice may also be due in part to the couple's beginnings in the house.

We moved in just before winter started.

And, the only room we could heat was the master bedroom.

So, we basically for the first, oh, nine months or so, lived in the master bedroom because we cooked our meals, but then we took them up there pretty quickly because they would get too cold if we waited too long.

We ate, and we watched television, and we slept, obviously, in the master bedroom.

♪♪ Newlands must have treasured the master bedroom.

Located on the northwest side of the house, it has striking views of the mountains and river.

Dan talks about the Senator's love of the Truckee not only as a vehicle for commerce, but as an element that he, as a participant in the outdoors, enjoyed on a personal level.

Even way back then in the late 1800's, he was very health conscious.

In fact, he swam in the Truckee River.

That was one of the things he did.

He hiked and he swam in the Truckee River.

So he wanted to live above it so he built his home here.

♪♪ But the river below the bluff was a bit different then.

As a kid I remember this backwater, the dams were still in use.

And, they would back it up and in the wintertime they would have ice skating down below the house.

It created the surface of a lake almost.

And, it would freeze.

So, in the wintertime they would skate below the house and I'm sure from this location they had a trail from where maybe they would enjoy skating in the wintertime.

And, late summertime, it was not uncommon for people in the Powning Addition, kids especially, to swim in the river, too.

It was like a natural lake.

It wasn't sort of the rough kind of lower riverbed full of rocks, which you see today.

It made a perfect reflection pond.

♪♪ ♪♪ Senator Francis Newlands was a man of vision.

From his politics to his home, he changed the way Nevada would be perceived by a growing country.

With his water reclamation act, he helped tame vast areas of the high desert.

With the construction of his home, he brought elegance to a fledgling western town.

♪♪ The Gustins renovation of the Newlands Mansion has been a labor of love.

Not an easy task, but one worth the effort.

On a personal note Dan and Melinda were married in the house two weeks after they purchased it.

Their relationship grew amidst the clutter, the dirt, and in the absence of heat and furniture.

But they appear to have survived and thrived on the experience.

I think Senator Newlands would approve of his house in the Gustin's hands.

And of the retooling of his river for kayaking and swimming.

The Truckee River is still a place valued by the community, still a place for commerce of a different sort.

If you would like to learn more about the Newlands Mansion, or any of the houses in the series, go to our website knpb.org.

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.