Est. 1910 · National Register of Historic Places (1986) · Reno's Divorce Capital Era · First Solo Commission of Nevada Architect Frederic DeLongchamps · Site of Reno's Only Public Execution (1878)
Washoe County's Classical Revival courthouse was completed in 1910–11, designed by Frederic J. DeLongchamps in what became his first independent commission in Nevada. The $250,000 building replaced an older courthouse on the same site (the National Register address, 117 S Virginia Street). DeLongchamps went on to become the defining institutional architect of early twentieth-century Nevada, and this building launched that career.
The courthouse's most economically significant era came during the 1920s through 1940s, when Nevada's combination of liberal divorce laws and a short residency requirement made Reno the go-to destination for Americans seeking an end to their marriages. Celebrities, socialites, and ordinary citizens arrived by train to establish the six-week Nevada residency required to file. In 1931, 4,800 divorce decrees were granted in northern Nevada, most of them processed through this courthouse — a volume that generated an estimated $5 million annually for the local economy and filled Reno's hotels, ranches, and entertainment venues with waiting petitioners.
The site's dark history predates the building. On February 19, 1878, a man named J.W. Rover was hanged before the earlier courthouse — the only public execution in Reno's history. Rover had been convicted of murdering a mining associate named Isaac Sharp in the Black Rock Desert. He maintained his innocence through three separate trials. An 1899 newspaper report claimed a man named Frank McWorthy had confessed on his deathbed to the murder, though McWorthy was later found to be alive in California at the time, casting doubt on the confession. The wrongful conviction questions have never been definitively resolved.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 6, 1986 (reference no. 86002254).
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_County_Courthouse
- https://vegasghosts.com/old-washoe-county-courthouse/
- http://www.executedtoday.com/2014/02/19/1878-j-w-rover-sulfur/
Full-body apparition on courthouse groundsCold spotsDisembodied footstepsUnease in hallways
The courthouse's most documented dark history involves J.W. Rover, hanged on February 19, 1878, in what remains the only public execution in Reno's recorded history. Rover had been accused of murdering Isaac Sharp, a mining associate, in the Black Rock Desert roughly 140 miles from Reno. He was convicted three separate times — the first two verdicts were overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court on procedural grounds before a third jury found him guilty in June 1877.
Rover spoke for over fifty minutes on the morning of his hanging, maintaining his innocence throughout. He named Frank McWorthy as the actual killer, accusing him of framing Rover to protect himself. The hanging proceeded after a 'sanity jury' of twelve, empaneled per Nevada law, voted 7-5 to declare Rover sane — short of the unanimity required to halt the execution.
In 1899, a newspaper reported that McWorthy had confessed on his deathbed to murdering Sharp. The story circulated and reinforced the narrative of a wrongful execution. However, subsequent investigation found McWorthy to be alive in Oakland, California at the time, making the deathbed confession account false. Whether Rover was guilty or innocent remains unresolved.
Visitors to the courthouse grounds have reported the apparition of a forlorn figure near where the old gallows stood, sometimes seen pacing outside the building's shadow at night. The reports are consistent in character — a figure associated with unresolved injustice rather than rage, present in the place where the law failed him or condemned him, depending on the interpretation.
Notable Entities
J.W. Rover (executed 1878)
Where this legend is told
