Lincoln Highway Garage 1919-2024
Welcome to this weeks edition of White Pine: Then & Now.
In this weeks comparison, we see downtown Ely looking down Mill Street in around sometime between 1913 and 1919 (the original image came from a postcard cancelled in 1919). On the right we see the old Lincoln Highway Garage with Broadbent Park immediately behind it. Absent is City Hall, which was still some 20 or so years away from being built. On the left, you can see a tall commercial building, that was the former Graham Mercantile building which gave birth to (and eventually replaced) Wilson Bates Furniture. I can’t identify any of the businesses partially blocking the Graham building. Immediately behind the Graham building we can see the original wooden Catholic church. Looking beyond the church we can see Murry Canyon filled with many early homes.
The current photo, taken April 24, 2024, shows a much different, yet very similar scene today. Starting on the right, the old Lincoln Highway Garage still stands, ironically still functioning as a garage. Prior to the current occupant, it was the home of Ely’s Ford dealership (E-Lee Ford) for many years. Many of the residential structures in the right foreground have since been replaced by newer homes and the businesses standing between the homes and the Garage no longer exist. Moving to the left, Wilson Bates still stands, but the building has been updated with a steel exterior. I’m not entirely sure if the top of building was added onto as the building obscures much more of the roof of the Catholic church behind it than in the original photo. My research indicates that the church was remodeled and clad in brick though I am unsure when, but the original roof remained intact. The church built a new building in East Ely leaving this building vacant and for sale. Across the street from Wilson Bates, the western half of the block now sits empty. Murry Canyon is still filled with homes, with some of them from the 1919 era still standing.
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