Nevada's premier architect, Frederic DeLongchamps conceived the Giraud
House in 1914. The design utilizes formal Colonial Revival style elements
such as a wide frieze below the roofline, comprehensive use of white Tuscan
columns and red brick construction. The main decorative features are the
porches projecting from three sides, each framed with columns. Brick has
long been a popular building material in Reno, as well as a favorite of
DeLongchamps, and it is employed in the full range of architectural styles
found in town. The house is located in the Newlands neighborhood, an early
example of the numerous mansions and homes built in the most fashionable
district in Reno, primarily between the 1920s and the 1940s.
Photo by Charles Miller,
Courtesy of Nevada State Historic Preservation Office
The house was built for Joseph Giraud, a sheep rancher. For a number of
years, the sheep industry was lucrative, and more than a few sheep ranchers
made fortunes on wool and meat, which was needed for the mining boomtowns
that sprang up all over Nevada. In 1934, the house was purchased by Roy
Allen Hardy, a mining engineer who worked for George Wingfield, a prominent
Nevada politician and banker. As a confederate of Wingfield, Hardy would
have been a prominent citizen in Reno, and served as mine foreman, superviser,
owner and operator of a number of mining operation in surrounding cities.
He also served as a regent of the University of Nevada
for eight years. Much of the interior remains intact and in the upstairs
men's bathroom there is a tiled mural of a nude. The model for the mural
reportedly posed for many a Reno artist.
Designed by notable architect Frederic
DeLongchamps, the Joseph Giraud House was built in the Colonial
Photo by Ronald M. James, National Register of Historic Places
The Joseph Giraud House is located at 442 Flint St., two blocks
west of Virginia St. in Reno. The building currently houses the Hardy
House. Call 775-322-4555 for restaurant information.