Peter Dalton Ranch, Dairy-Pump House, 9005 South Virginia Street, Reno, Washoe County, NV

Significance: The Dalton-Ferretto Ranch is eligible to the National Register as a district; the four major buildings and the ten outbuildings located on approximately six acres with fencing, an orchard, and other landscape features form an intact late nineteenth century and early twentieth century ranch complex. This ranch is one of the few extant Truckee Meadows ranches. The ranch is eligible under criterion A. Ranching was the major industry in the Truckee Meadows from shortly after gold was discovered on the Comstock until the middle of the twentieth century. At the turn-of-the-century, agriculture was the largest industry in Washoe County and Reno was the largest city in Nevada. The ranch was owned by Peter Dalton from 1870 to 1910 and Joseph Ferretto and family from 1912 to the present. Dalton cultivated hay and grain, raised cattle, and conducted a dairy. The Ferretto family, an important Italian family in the area, purchased the property in 1912 and Joseph Ferretto ran the ranch. The ranch produced mostly alfalfa and wheat and fed beef cattle during the winter. The stone portion of this building, called the dairy, is the oldest building on the ranch having been constructed in the 1860s. It was used to store the milk and to make and store cheese. The pump house portion of the building is wood framed and was constructed in 1912 when the Ferretto family purchased the property.
Survey number: HABS NV-22-D
Building/structure dates: after. 1860- before. 1870 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: 1912 Subsequent Work