Former laundry may soon meet its fate

It has been five years since a van drove into the side of the former Gardnerville Laundry, prompting a process to take down one of the town’s oldest structures.

Owned by the Nishikida brothers, the laundry began its existence as the former East Fork School built in 1876 near the east entrance to the Gardnerville Ranchos. It was closed as a school in 1915 and moved north to its present location two years later by Henry Elges, who turned it into a store, according to The Record-Courier.

For the vast majority of its life it was a laundry, starting in 1918. It was purchased by the Nishikidas in 1940 and operated as a laundry until 1989.

After the March 27, 2019, collision the building was determined to be unsound and both the town and the Nishikidas sought resources to tear it down.

However, the building’s provenance has proved to be a sticking point in finding funding for that purpose.

Because it was a laundry, where chemicals were used as part of the cleaning process, and 148 years old, requiring substantial asbestos mitigation, tearing the structure down was beyond the means of either the Nishikidas or the town.

It has been a four-year process involving the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection and the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, to get to this point.

In an Aug. 20 update, state Environmental Scientist David Freidman said an agreement was submitted on Aug. 8 to the historic preservation office detailing the mitigation proposed for its demolition.

That proposal includes providing copies of a cultural resources inventory to the Douglas County Public Library, the Nevada Historical Society and the Reno Special Collections Library, and a plaque to be sent up at Gardnerville Station next door.

The earliest the project could be approved to move forward would be in early September if the historic preservation office signs the agreement. Otherwise, it could be mid October.

The state would pay for the plaque and the town is being asked to install the marker.

Downtown Gardnerville has undergone significant changes over the past decade, including the demolition of the East Fork and Pyrenees hotels, Jane’s Salon, the former Midland Garage and the two empty buildings along Eddy Street.