The Sears–Ferris House, at 311 W. Third St. in

Carson City, Nevada Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the sixth largest city in Nevada. The majority of the city's population lives in Eagle Valley, on the ...

, is a historic house built in 1863. It was owned from 1868 to 1890 by George Washington Gale Ferris Sr., father of

George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (February 14, 1859 – November 22, 1896) was an American civil engineer. He is mostly known for creating the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. Early life Ferris was bor ...

, future inventor of the

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...

. It has also been known as the G. W. G. Ferris House. Originally built in about 1863 by Gregory A. Sears, a pioneer Carson City businessman, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places for Carson City in 1979. It includes

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...

and

Georgian Revival Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Georg ...

architecture. and This house is square in size and its measure is roughly sixty by sixty feet. It is currently under private ownership and not open to the public.

History

Along with his family, Mr. Ferris arrived in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

as a

gentleman farmer In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, a gentleman farmer is a landowner who has a farm (gentleman's farm) as part of his estate and who farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit or sustenance. The Collins English Diction ...

in 1864. Besides cultivating normal crops, he planted quite a few diversified trees. Mr. Ferris brought in many Eastern

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

s like

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...

black walnut ''Juglans nigra'', the eastern American black walnut, is a species of deciduous tree in the walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south t ...

and

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelat ...

Carson City Carson City is an Independent city (United States), independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the List of cities in Nevada, sixth largest ...

. Several of those trees are at the

Nevada State Capitol The Nevada State Capitol is the capitol building of the U.S. state of Nevada located in the state capital of Carson City at 101 North Carson Street. The building was constructed in the Neoclassical Italianate style between 1869 and 1871. It is li ...

grounds till date. George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., born in Galesburg, Illinois in 1859, was the most notable person related to this house, he was a little boy when his family shifted from their homestead in Carson Valley to the residence in Carson City. He went to military school for graduation in 1875. Later in 1881, Ferris, Jr. completed his graduation in engineering from

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

. He became famous in 1893 for inventing the Ferris Wheel situated at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. George Washington Gale Ferris, Sr. along with his wife Martha shifted to

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

in 1881. Ferris Sr. sold the residence including a part of the block to Mary Ferris Ardery, his daughter in 1890 at $3,000. Mary changed the style of the front

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

to a classical look. In the

twentieth century The 20th (twentieth) century began on January 1, 1901 (1901, MCMI), and ended on December 31, 2000 (2000, MM). The 20th century was dominated by significant events that defined the modern era: Spanish flu, Spanish flu pandemic, World War I and ...

, the residence was owned by different owners: in 1922 the house was owned by the Mahers, Thurman Cross bought the house in 1956, in 1968 Ferdinand Hirzy took the ownership and Mr and Mrs Charles Herron moved in the house in July 1968.

References

External links

Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Colonial Revival architecture in Nevada Georgian Revival architecture in Nevada Houses completed in 1863 National Register of Historic Places in Carson City, Nevada Houses in Carson City, Nevada {{Nevada-struct-stub