Common name: Saint Charles Hotel
Historic names: Muller's Hotel; Pony Express Hotel; Saint Charles Hotel
General Location: Southwest corner of Carson and Third Streets, Downtown Carson City, Nevada
Address: 302 and 304 South Carson Street
Assessor's PN: 003-113-09
Current use: Vacant
Original use: Commercial / hotel
Other previous uses: Bar / residential
Year of construction: 1862
Pictures above: 1980 and 1988
The brick commercial building is three stories in height with a concrete foundation and an apparently flat roof. The ground floor contains four rectangular openings on Carson Street and several on west Third Street. Those on the Carson Street front contain transomed areas above them. Two of these openings are recessed doorways and two are currently windows with the lower portion of the openings filled in. There are granite facings at the base. Second floor windows have slightly angled and projecting headers, suggestive of pediments, while those below are flat. A brick belt course encircles the building below the cornice.
Ground floor windows and doors, on both east and north elevations, appear variously altered. Windows of the second and third floors have also been altered here and there but are essentially double hung with six lights over six. Front facade openings have been altered and the front porch cornice has been angled. Two different brick surfaces are visible on the north elevation, suggesting two different building periods of different surfacing techniques. A frieze banding at the first floor height appears to have been removed. The structure has been sand-blasted to remove its former covering, resulting in a pitted surface and crumbling mortar. A two-story, flat-roofed addition occurs at the rear. A one-story concrete block garage building has been added to the rear of the two-story addition. A fire escape has been added to the rear of the building.
Restoration of certain facade items has occurred since 1988, most prominently the porch / balcony work.
This structure is important with respect to the adjacent structures, both of which are important elements of this 19th century street-block.
The structure was built in the early 1860's and, as such, is one of the oldest remaining commercial buildings in Carson City. The building occupies the corner lot site and dominates the intersection, but regulates importantly 306 and 310 South Carson Street in terms of general character, age, style and material. The two appear to have been linked historically.
The infill structure that may occur in the center of this very significant block is crucial visually. The design should be most sensitive to the buildings that will surround it in terms of scale, material, color, height, fenestration patterns and overall character, in order not to detract from one of the very few early full-block resources in the city.
This structure served as the Hotel St. Charles, and probably numbered early legislatures and mining personnel among its clientele. Its restoration would provide a visual focus for the area and could serve as a catalytic force.
The Saint Charles Hotel and Pony Express Hotel were remodeled, probably in the 1930s to suit that era. The buildings were stucco'ed and the cornices removed. New signs were attached and the first floor openings somewhat modified.
More recently, a wooden porch and balcony were added to restore a 19th century visage (see other photos).
Sources: Noreen Humphrhys; Carson City Guide, 1953.
Listed in the National Historic Register: 1982 May 27.
City Landmark: Kit Carson Trail, Plaque No. 57.
Year of construction: 1862 (factual: Noreen Hiumphreys), on the original site
Architect: Unknown.
Text: Carson City Historic Resources Inventory, 1980 & 1988.