Common name: Rinckel Mansion
Historic name: Mathias Rinckel Home
General Location: Northwest corner of Curry and King streets, Downtown Carson City, Nevada
Address: 102 North Curry Street
Assessor's PN: 003-215-04
Current use: Office
Original use: Residence
Year of construction: 1875-1876
Architect: Charles H. Jones of San Francisco
The large two-story brick structure is a fine example of the Italianate style. The structure has a stone foundation and is essentially rectangular in form. The foof is hipped without a peak and intersected by a north-south gable. The facade contains two two-story bays that flank the double-door entryway. The porch is supported by decorated posts with carved brackets and contains balustrades of turned posts at both levels. A two-story bay projects from the the south elevation beneath a gable with a round window in the peak and brackets at the eaves. A one-story portion extends to the rear and contains a porch open to the south and supported by incised brackets and posts. Elaborate projecting cornices decorate the windows which are one-over-one lights in the bays and two-over-two lights in the house itself. Highly ornamental case and wrought iron cresting extends along the ridge lines and curved brackets in a frieze encircle the house at the eave line.
A small one-story room has been added to the northwest corner. The original roof was wood shingled. Balustrades on the curved steps to the front walk have been removed.
A small gabled one-story shed surfaced in clapboard stands at the rear of the house.
The structure is taller and larger that nearby residential examples. It is compatible in style, material and scale to the Sweeney building to the south and provides a transition between the larger state government buildings to the east and smaller residences to the west.
The structure is a significant historical as well as architectural resource. The handsome structure is one of the most sophisticated and elaborate designs in the city. the building is an exceptional and unique reseprentative of the Italianate style in Carson City and one of the city's most significant architectural resources.
The Rinckel Mansion was built by Mathias Rinckel approximately 1875-1876. Rinckel became wealthy from his mining activity and owned and rented many Carson City commercial structures. He also raised livestock, retailed and wholesaled meat, and he had lucrative contracts with miners in Virginia City and timber men at Glenbrook. Rinckel purchased many kitchen and laundry labor saving devices for the house at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and imported furniture and custom made lace curtains from France. The building has been a setting for movies, and served as a house museum and then a wedding chapel for a number of years.
Source: Carson City Historic Tour; Historic American Building Survey, 1974.
Listed in the National Historic Register: 1975 Nov 20.
City Landmark: Kit Carson Trail, Plaque No. 45.
Year of construction: 1875-1876 (factual), on the original site.
Subdivision: Proctor & Green, Block 9, Lots 9 & 10 and parts of Lots 1,2,3 & 8.
Architect: Charles H. Jones of San Francisco.
Text: Carson City Historic Resources Inventory, 1980.