B Street House Bed and Breakfast - History

The 1870s Virginia City Directories show Henry as the proprietor of the saloon on B and Union. The Great Fire of 1875 swept through Virginia City destroying all of the downtown commercial area including the Piper’s Opera House and saloon businesses. After the Great Fire, the brothers rebuilt their Opera House and saloon at the corner of B and Union streets, just a short walk south of the “B” Street House.

The "B" Street House was built in 1876 by Henry Piper as a gift to his new wife Fredericka. A native of Prussia, Henry and his two brothers, John and Joseph, settled in California soon after the Gold Rush years. Hearing of the wealth in Nevada, John and Henry relocated to Virginia City in 1860. They soon invested in a saloon at the corner of B and Union Streets. In January of 1867, John and Henry acquired Maguire’s Opera house on D Street which they ran as partners.

During most of the 20th century the “B” Street House was used as a rental. A V & T Railroad station master, L. Gallagher owned the house in the 1930s and the Lazarri family owned the home from the late 1930s to the 1950s. During the 1960s, the house was briefly owned by Charles Myron Clegg, the partner of Lucius Bebee, although we believe he also used it as a rental property.

Today the house stands as one of the last of the “row” style houses that were once common in Virginia City. You will notice the house has no windows on the south side. Originally, it bordered a similar, mirror-image “row” house to the south, as seen in the photo.

By 1900, the “B” Street House had changed hands and pharmacist A. Lernhart and family lived here. Sold to Robert Rauhut around 1901, the "B" Street House became a rental and boarding house. Irene Cooper leased the house from Mr. Rauhut from 1908 to 1912, and rented rooms to miners. A 1908 photo shows Mr. Rauhut, Irene and her mother, sister and brother with the miner/boarders in front of the house.

The 1880 census shows Henry, his wife and two small children, nephew J. H. Piper, a bartender, and an Irish maid, Margaret Leddy, as residents of the “B” Street House.

1908: Mr. Rauhut, Irene and her mother, sister and brother with the miner/boarders in front of the "B" Street House. The "mirror-image" house is on the left.