Gould and Curry Mining Company Office/ Mackay Mansion--Three Historic Nevada Cities: Carson City, Reno and Virginia City--A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary

[graphic] Three Historic Nevada Cities Carson City, Reno, Virginia City A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary

Gould and Curry Mining Company Office/Mackay Mansion
Photo by Terri McBride, Courtesy of Nevada State Historic Preservation Office

The Gould and Curry Mining Company Office is one of several imposing buildings constructed in Virginia City by the capitalists who made their fortunes on Comstock silver and gold. Built in 1860 in a simplified brick Italianate style, it served as the office of the Gould and Curry Mining Company. In addition to company office space, the building also provided accommodations for the Company Mine Superintendent. The three-story house was surrounded by a wood veranda and deck, with a colonnade of square posts. It was also equipped with a 500-gallon, gravity-flow water tank for running water and an early water heater installed in 1874. The house was first occupied by a young mine superintendent named George Hearst, who began the Hearst fortune on the Comstock starting with just $400 in borrowed funds. As was the habit of so many miners, Hearst stayed in Virginia City for only a short time but made several million dollars.

[photo] Gould and Curry Mining Company Office in 1940
Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, Reproduction Number HABS, NEV,15-VIRG,23-1

The building survived the Great Fire of 1875, after which it became the local business headquarters, and brief residence, for one of the most powerful and wealthy characters on the Comstock, John Mackay. Mackay was one of the Comstock's "silver kings," who along with his partners Flood, Fair, and O'Brien discovered the Consolidated Virginia's "Big Bonanza" in 1873. Later in his life Mackay contributed millions of dollars to the School of Mines at the University of Nevada, which bears his name. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the transatlantic cable.

The Gould and Curry Mining Company Office/Mackay Mansion is located at 129 South D St. in Virginia City and is now a private residence not open to the public.