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C Street: then and now

Old view vs 1961 · Virginia City, NV

C Street, 1961C Street, Old view
NowThen
Then, Old viewThe archive dates this stereo photo somewhere between 1867 and 1920. About 25,000 people lived here in the mid-1870s, before the Great Fire.Photo: I. W. Taber (stereo card) · Public domain · Source · cropped and resized
Today, 1961The whole historic district became a National Historic Landmark on July 4, 1961. Photo taken in 2015.Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source · resized

The story

Silver was found here in 1859, and the Comstock Lode set off the first big silver rush. Virginia City was incorporated in February 1861.

By the mid-1870s more than 25,000 people lived here. On October 26, 1875, the Great Fire burned much of the town, did about $12 million in damage, and left about 2,000 people homeless.

The town was rebuilt. Most buildings along C Street are two- and three-story brick. Today about 800 people live here, at roughly 6,100 feet above sea level.

Did you know? One year after the town was founded, it reportedly had 42 saloons, 42 stores, 6 restaurants, 3 hotels, and 868 homes.
Historians argue about this. The story goes that the town was named when "Old Virginny" Finney broke a whiskey bottle at a saloon near Gold Hill. That is local folklore. The settlement also went by earlier names, such as Pleasant Hill and Mount Pleasant Point.

Fact or tall tale?

Sources

More: Look for historic photos at the Library of Congress

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Next: Territorial Enterprise. Written from the cited sources, not yet walked on site unless noted.