Good day and welcome to this weeks edition of White Pine: Then & Now!
Today we examine another vignette of life in downtown Ely looking southeasterly from in front of the old Olympia Market looking at Sprouse-Reitz Five & Dime in 1954. Out of frame to the left is the old Collins Hotel. The building immediately to the left of the Sprouse-Reitz is the old Anderson’s Dress Shop, then a vacant lot followed by OP Skaggs, then Western Stores and what appears to be a Kaiser dealership. I’m not sure what’s beyond that on the next block.
Compare this to my photo, shot January 1, 2024. Sprouse-Reitz moved from this location to a location behind what became the Jailhouse Casino before moving to the junction of Pioche Highway (now Great Basin Boulevard) and Aultman Street. This location was next door to the old Safeway before becoming V&S Variety (now but a memory like its predecessor). The dress shop eventually became a used furniture store, which now sits closed and seemingly abandoned, although it isn’t. The empty lot is still empty and the Skaggs building now houses Klaas Realty. When I moved to Ely in 1992, at least part of the spot once occupied by Western Stores was the offices of the Ely Daily Times before a tragic accident involving an ambulance forced it to be demolished. The Kaiser dealer gave way to a 76 gas station, then an assay office and finally a Culligan dealer before that building, too, was demolished to make way for Sculpture Park.
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