The Field Matron's Cottage, also known as the Stone Building, was built ''circa'' 1925 on the

Reno-Sparks Indian Colony The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony in Nevada was established in the early 1900s by members of related tribes who lived near Reno for work; they became a federally recognized tribe in 1934 after forming a government under the Indian Reorganization Act. ...

Sparks, Nevada Sparks is a city in Washoe County, Nevada, United States. It was founded in 1904, incorporated on March 15, 1905, and is located just east of Reno, Nevada, Reno. The 2020 U.S. Census counted 108,445 residents in the city. It is the List of citi ...

. The cottage was built to support a

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

program to instruct the colony's

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three languages do not form a single subgroup and th ...

and

Washoe Washoe or Washo may refer to: * Washoe people, an indigenous people of the Great Basin in North America Places ;United States * Washoe County, Nevada * Washoe Creek, Sonoma County, California * Washoe Lake, lake in Nevada * Washoe Valley, Nevada, ...

girls in sanitation and housekeeping skills. A "field matron" was provided by the Bureau from 1919 to as late as 1938. At first the matron lived in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

, at some distance from the colony, but in 1926 funding was made available to build a dwelling on colony lands, allowing a closer relationship between the matron and the colony's inhabitants. The cottage included a library and an infirmary, and served as a community meeting place. The cottage is built in the locally-unique Stewart Vernacular style, following the prototype established at the Stewart Indian School in

Carson City Carson City, officially the Carson City Consolidated Municipality, 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 6th most populous city in the state. The m ...

. Many of the buildings at the Stewart Indian School were built using multi-colored native stone with black mortar. The style was locally influential, but the Matron's Cottage is the only example in the Reno area. The building's detailing and massing are similar to the

Craftsman style American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its i ...

, with a

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...

-like arrangement. The one story building has a full basement and a jerkin-head gable roof. The Field Matron's Cottage was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2003.

References

External links

* at the National Park Service's NRHP database {{Nevada State Historic Places/Washoe County National Register of Historic Places in Washoe County, Nevada School buildings completed in 1926 Buildings and structures in Sparks, Nevada Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Houses in Washoe County, Nevada Houses completed in 1926 1926 establishments in Nevada