HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
A 1906 Classical Revival home on the National Register, called one of Reno's most haunted houses
111 California Avenue, Reno, NV 89509
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Private property viewable from the public sidewalk on California Avenue. Not open for paranormal tours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat city sidewalks along California Avenue near downtown Reno.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1906 · National Register of Historic Places · Classical Revival Architecture · Reno Pioneer-Merchant History
The Levy House was built in 1906 for William Levy, a Reno merchant and mining businessman, on California Avenue near the developing south side of downtown. The two-story Classical Revival design made it one of the more substantial private homes in the city at the time, and it has remained a recognizable landmark on the avenue for more than a century.
Around 1940 the building was physically moved, turned 90 degrees and repositioned on its lot — an unusual intervention that is part of the documented record of the structure. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, recognized both as a high-quality example of Classical Revival architecture and for its association with William Levy and its place in local history.
In its later life the building shifted to commercial and cultural use. From 2011 to 2024 it housed Sundance Books and Music, an independent bookstore that occupied the historic rooms and kept the building in regular public use. The home's age, its prominent ownership history, and its survival as a downtown-adjacent landmark form the backdrop for the haunted reputation it has carried in Reno ghost-history coverage.
Sources
The Levy House appears repeatedly in Reno's haunted-history coverage, where it is often described as one of the most haunted houses in the city. The accounts collected on local ghost-walk routes center on a family group: the apparitions of two adults and three children said to be seen or sensed in and around the building.
The most specific story attaches to one of the children, a boy who, in local lore, died of illness in the home. As with the rest of the building's reported phenomena, the detail comes from ghost-walk narration and Reno haunted-roundup coverage rather than from documented investigation, and no individual is named in the available sources.
Reported experiences are the quiet kind associated with old residences rather than dramatic activity — a sense of presence, the impression of figures, and the feeling of being watched from the windows. Because the building is private property, the stories are passed along through tour narration and local writing rather than gathered from formal access, and they should be read as the city's accumulated lore about a landmark house rather than verified events.
Notable Entities
The Levy House is a private historic building viewable from the public sidewalk on California Avenue near downtown Reno. It is one of the city's best-preserved Classical Revival houses and a frequent stop on Reno haunted-history coverage, though it is not open for paranormal tours. Walk the block to see the 1906 home that local lore calls one of Reno's most haunted houses.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Carson City, NV
Duane L. Bliss built the mansion in 1879, the year it became the largest and most modern private home in Nevada. Bliss had amassed a fortune supplying Comstock Lode mines with timber from Lake Tahoe sawmills he controlled, and later built railroads to move that lumber. The 8,500-square-foot, 15-room Italianate structure was the first home in Nevada entirely piped for gas lighting and was constructed entirely of clear lumber and square nails. It sits across the street from the current Nevada Governor's Mansion.
Atchison, KS
The Waggener House at 819 N 4th Street was built in 1884 for Bailie P. Waggener, general counsel to the Missouri Pacific Railroad and a prominent figure in Atchison's legal community. The three-story Late Victorian residence remained in the Waggener family until the 1950s and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Its most recognizable feature — a pair of gargoyle sculptures on the roofline — generated local legend about a subsequent owner who attempted to remove them and died in the attempt.
Tucson, AZ
Tucson Mayor Levi Howell Manning had the house designed by architect Henry Trost and built between 1907 and 1908 on ten acres along what is now Paseo Redondo. The eclectic building fused Spanish Colonial, Territorial, Italian Renaissance, and Prairie styles into one of the city's most ambitious private residences of its era. Manning, who served as mayor in 1905, died in 1935; his family sold the property, which passed through the Elks Club, the City of Tucson, private developers, and ultimately the Concannon family before El Rio Community Health Center acquired it in 2013.