Courtesy of Matt Liverani
Welcome to another installment of White Pine: Then & Now!
In this week’s edition, we are back in McGill, Nevada looking at the main business district along 4th Street. Starting on the left of the original photo, taken around 1925, the first building we see is the Cyprus Hall/McGill Club building. Visible just beyond that is the McGill Post Office, formerly the Copper Club followed by the McGill Commissary. On the next block is an unidentified building and beyond that is not visible. In the back ground on the other side of the street is the McGill Clubhouse. The next building visible is not identified, but in 1911 were Ford’s Drug Store and Nye Brothers Outfitters. Then comes the Campton Commercial Company followed by the McGill Drug Store. I believe the next business is the McGill Candy Store with the McGill Café visible next to it. There is an empty lot between the Café and Cononelos General Merchandise store, which has a gravity feed gas pump out front. There is a large empty lot then finally we see the J. C. Penney store, formerly Golden Rule.
Fast forward 100 years and the scene is quite different. Again working left to right, the McGill Club is still there and still in operation, there is a building sharing two businesses now in the gap between the club and the post office. The commissary is gone and a gas station has replaced the building on the corner past the commissary. Across the street, the clubhouse still stands, though the exterior porches and columns have long been removed and the building sits vacant. There was an effort at one point to restore the building, which may still be ongoing. Partially hiding the clubhouse is the McGill fire department, which sits on the site of a former gas station that may or may not have been present in 1925. On the other side of Avenue K from the fire department is the former McGill National Bank and then the McGill Antique Store, occupying what was formerly two store fronts. Bradley’s Bestway grocery store sits on the site of Campton Commercial, and according to the current owner, it may be the same building after having been turned 90 degrees. Next to Bradley’s is the McGill Drug Store, which is now an excellent museum depicting the store as it was in 1979 when it closed its doors. The empty lot next to the drug store was the McGill Candy Store many decades ago. The McGill Café still stands, though it has been closed for many years and currently stands vacant. It appears that a second floor was added after the original photo was taken. Cononelos General Merchandise is long gone, replaced by the small building next to the café which is the former White Pine County Sheriff substation. A shipping cube-turned-coffee shop, now closed, sits on part of the empty lot that was next to Cononelos. Not present in 1925 is the Odd Fellows lodge, which I believe is currently vacant, but I think there were plans to turn the building into a dance hall. I don’t know what the current status of that project is. Lastly is the former J. C. Penney building, which is also currently vacant.
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