ADVERTISING HISTORY — The above appeared
in Comstock's Business Magazine/Northern Nevada, Winter 2002 edition.
The 1926 photo of the original Reno Arch, as constructed for the 1927
Transcontinental Highways Exposition, was scanned from a postcard in
the collection of KOLO TV-8 weathercaster Dick Stoddard and provided
courtesy of historian Neal Cobb. Only two originals are known to exist.
The photo had not seen publication for about three-quarters of a century
and was subsequently used on the City of Reno's annual PR calendar.
The photo was taken facing
south on Virginia Street at the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. Today,
Harrah's plaza (formerly the site of Harolds Club) stands to the left
and Fitzgerald's Hotel-Casino stands to the right. The Riverside Hotel
looms in the background. About half of it still stands today.
Built in 1926, the arch
reads "Reno Nevada's Transcontinental Highways Exposition June
29-Aug 1, 1927." The now-famous slogan "Biggest Little City
in the World" was added in 1929. The torches were removed in 1935
and have been lost to antiquity. The arch, with its original union-fabricated
and installed steel still completely intact (we inspected it), stands
today on Lake Street between the Siena Hotel-Casino and the William
F. Harrah Automobile Foundation on the banks of the Truckee River.
Fabricated by Reno Iron
Works which, like the arch and Ironworkers Union Local 118, is still
going strong, the landmark was dedicated by the governors of Nevada
and California on October 23, 1926. The venerable California Building
in Reno's Idlewild Park was the California pavilion at the expo and
is still in use for public events at the riverfront oasis.
City
of Sparks Centennial
Building
the Future
