In the years since I moved here in 1979, Truckee has changed markedly. Today’s Commercial Row is a bustling tourist attraction with upscale stores and quality restaurants, coffee shops, and bars. Most of the rough edge so prevalent from the 1860s until the 1990s is long gone.
In my early days here, the Truckee bars appealed to the working class. One such bar was the Capitol Saloon. Though cheap, cold beer and flat pool tables were part of the attraction, the opportunity for some late-night carousing without much threat of jail was another.
The Capitol Building has seen it all, from the gunfights and vigilantes of the 1800s to the Teslas and doodles of today. The iconic brick building in the heart of Truckee’s Commercial Row was an original in 1870, as was the man who built it.
William Hurd, a pioneer in many ways, left Ohio in the early 1800s and sailed to San Francisco in an effort to make his fortune mining gold. He earned enough to realize that riches could be better made serving the miners. After coming to Truckee, then called Coburn’s Station, in the 1860s, he opened a restaurant and saloon on Front Street, now known as Donner Pass Road or Commercial Row.
As with almost every business on Front Street, it burned to the ground several times in catastrophic fires that occurred every few years. Wooden construction and heating methods of the day meant fires were common. The close proximity of the buildings and lack of water systems contributed to entire blocks being reduced to cinders.
In 1869, Hurd had enough of starting over every few years. He constructed a two-story brick building that employed the latest building method of that time period: dirt between floors intended to act as fireproofing. Completed in 1870, it remains the oldest brick structure in Truckee.
Still, there were many more fires, two of which directly threatened or damaged Hurd’s building. Yet it and the brick Independent Order of Odd Fellows structure next door, built in 1871, survive today.
The astute restaurateur knew that with the newly completed transcontinental railroad just across the road, he wouldn’t lack for customers for his fresh food and ice-cold Boca Beer. Warm steam beer was much more common in the cities because refrigeration had not yet been invented. Taking advantage of the local ice industry, that delicious lager was not only ice-brewed, it was delivered cold to the Capitol each day to slake the thirst of miners, railroad men, and other locals.
Hurd installed an exquisite hardwood bar and mirror and offered an extensive wine, liquor, and cigar selection from San Francisco. Reasoning that couples who had enjoyed a civilized meal instead of the grub sold at the neighboring whiskey joints might also enjoy other diversions, he built a stage upstairs and brought entertainment to Truckee.
Hurd’s Capitol Billiard Saloon and Opera House was a rousing success. Minstrel groups, music, and oratory were presented and by all accounts, were very popular. The second-floor showroom was also used as a mortuary at times, as well as for meetings and, in later years, even a roller rink.
Though in earlier times live theater had been frowned upon as frivolous, and even outlawed for a time in 1774, the public attended and enjoyed plays, and Hurd did his best to provide. He also encouraged the traveling judge to use the hall for regular justice court, and eventually changed the name to the Capitol Saloon and Opera Hall.
After the 1950s, the popularity of movie theaters and plays waned, but live music was performed at the Capitol in the 1960s and ’70s with New Riders of the Purple Sage and Quicksilver Messenger Service appearing, as well as local bands like Sutro and Cedro Willie.
As today’s society further divides into rich and poor, we see a decrease in opportunity for “working people” to enjoy live plays as theater groups relocate to find affordable places to live. Though we have seen the effects of that here (much discussed in Moonshine Ink), we are fortunate to still have a lively arts community in the Truckee/Tahoe area.
As its 155th birthday approaches, there is once again a theater in William Hurd’s Opera House. Mark Buzzard, owner of Alpine Electric and Liberty Bell Smart Home, has renovated the entire second floor of the Capitol Building, which now houses a showroom for his audio/visual and smart home offerings.
The space is decorated with local paintings and art pieces and illuminated by state-of-the-art lighting by Garry Keas. It also boasts a luxury theater space using the stage and auditorium where minstrels and troupes once performed and where Charlie Chaplin is rumored to have quenched his thirst, perhaps even performed, while in Truckee filming The Gold Rush.
Buzzard graciously offers the luxurious space to local groups and business associations for meetings, harkening back to the building’s early years when court proceedings were held, Odd Fellows met, and the notorious 601 vigilantes of Truckee’s past darkly plotted their next moves.
In the old Capitol Saloon space downstairs, where Constable Jacob Teeter met his end in a tragic gunfight with Deputy James Reed in 1891, you’ll now find Overland, purveyor of handcrafted sheepskin outerwear and accessories. As customers peruse the high-end goods inside, the original brick walls and wooden floors of the Capitol Saloon can still be seen, and the western frontier history of this venerable Truckee building comes alive once more.
