Lakeview House
U.S. 395 S of E. Lake Blvd., Carson City (Independent City), NVThe Lakeview House is of state historical significance because of its association with early-day recreation, transportation, lumbering, and water-supply enterprises. The Lakeview area takes its name from the view it affords of Washoe Lake. In the early 1860's, James M. Thompson, an early landowner in the area, constructed a way-station at the crest of Lakeview Hill and in 1865, it became a station on Dyer's Toll Road from Carson City to Steamboat Springs, Thompson Inn was a popular resort for outings and picnics and a headquarters for hunters and those who came from Carson City and the Comstock to fish the waters of Washoe Lake, On March 29, 1871, the Inn burned to the ground and was not rebuilt.
The area was the terminus for a nine-mile lumber flume and in August of 1872, the Virginia & Truckee Railroad set up ten sidings there to load timber and cordwood for Comstock mines and mills. In June and July of 1873, the Virginia City & Gold Hill Water Company laid a large water pipe beneath the Lakeview Hill Saddle and built a small residence for one of the Company's water superintendents on the site of the old inn. In 1875, a second pipe was laid along with a small Pelton Generating Wheel to provide electricity for the residence. A third water pipe to the Comstock was laid in 1887.
The house was the headquarters for Captain John B. Overton, the water company's superintendent, who oversaw the installation of the second and third pipes and the residence of several supervisors and watermasters who succeeded him.
The Curtis-Wright Corporation purchased the entire water system in August of 1957 in connection with plans for a missile-testing program involving the use of a large volume of water. The Marlette Lake Company, a Curtis-Wright subsidiary, took over the system in December of 1957 and started a program of improving it. The missile-testing program failed to materialize however, and company officials lost interest in the Sierra watershed and the water supply system. In June of 1963, the land and the water system were purchased by the state of Nevada and considerable improvements were made in later years. A pumping station was installed on the east shore of Marlette Lake and steel pipelines were installed to replace the old wooden flumes high in the Sierras.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.