Fourth Ward School, South C Street at Highway 17, Virginia City, Storey County, NV

Significance: The school. along with the church, were important institutions to the pioneers of western towns. Located on the divide between Gold Hill and Virginia City, the prominent Fourth Ward School grandly housed the Comstock's students for sixty years. Local architect C.M. Bennett designed and supervised construction of the wood, mansard structure; Knight and McKay were general contractors. The building cost approximately $100,000-, obtained partly through subscriptions from individuals, mining, and business firms, and by holding benefits, balls, and raffles supervised by school trustees. Dedication was November 28, 1876. The October 15, 1876 "Sunday Territorial Enterprise" states the Fourth Ward's sixteen classrooms accommodate 1025 grammar and high school students. To "preserve the physical health even as it promotes the mental growth of the scholars," it notes that in addition to the building's two chimney stacks, each room has a separate ventilation stack, an individual heat register controlling one of the corner basement furnaces, and individual window vents. Rooms stoves were later added. The Fourth Ward School ceased functioning as a school in the mid-1930's, and it has since remained vacant. With state funds and volunteer labor, the Virginia City Restoration Commission restored the building in 1966-67.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-1
Survey number: HABS NV-15-21
Building/structure dates: 1876 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1966-1967 Subsequent Work