Centennial

Robert L. Douglass Home

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In 1904, Robert L. Douglass, one of the Fallon area's most successful and colorful characters, built a Queen Anne Victorian home on the corner of Williams Avenue and Carson Street. An early automobile aficionado, Douglass also constructed a garage just south of his impressive home. Because cars at that time did not have a reverse gear, R.L.'s garage was designed with a large turntable so that he could drive into the building and have the turntable rotated so that the car was facing the door again, ready to drive back out.

Over the century, the house was successively a residence, then a hospital and medical office, a real estate office, an antique shop and boarding house, then finally a residence again. Meanwhile, the wonderful garage was eventually turned into the Cottage Hospital, and after that, into an apartment building.

In 1996, Jerry and Suzanne Noonkester bought the properties - the house and the apartment building came as a package - and began a labor of love, spending much time, effort and money remolding and restoring the house. Jerry, a retired engineer, has a knack for restoring old building in such a way that they can be brought up to code vis-a-vis modern wiring and safety features while committing a minimal amount of trauma to the historic features of the property. Then they opened the house to guests as a bed and breakfast knows as The 1906 House.