Open house coming to restored historic Adams House

Life has returned to the historic Adams House on Minnesota Street two years after the Carson-Tahoe Hospital bought the three-bedroom 1920s home.

The Hospital Foundation and the new Cancer Resource Center moved into the house about a month ago with a dedication ceremony and open house reception set for Wednesday.

The dedication is by invitation, but anybody can drop by the Adams House, 990 N. Minnesota St., for the open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Visitors will see a restored home with refinished floorboards, all the walls in place and with the original but refurbished crushed walnut plaster still on the walls.

DeWitt Adams built the Craftsman-style bungalow in 1922-23 and his daughter, Margaret Adams, lived in the house until she died in 1997.

The three surviving sons sold the house to the hospital and are expected to attend the dedication.

The Adams House was destined to become a hospital parking lot until historical groups urged Carson-Tahoe Hospital officials to preserve the building.

"The board said, 'We will not tear it down but we will not spend a dollar on it,'" said Pam Graber, executive director of the Carson Tahoe-Hospital Foundation.

The hospital gave the Adams House to the foundation, which used funds raised at the hospital's 50th anniversary gala celebration in May and a $10,000 National Park Service grant to carry out the $53,000 restoration, Graber said.

As restoration work started in June, the Adams House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the only Carson City bungalow on the list. Bungalows were small houses with encircling verandas and thatched roofs built from the late 19th to middle 20th centuries.

"It's amazing what the hospital did with it," said Dorothy Nolan, president of the Nevada Landmarks Society. "It's beautiful."

The house needed a new roof, new wiring, plumbing and carpeting. The bungalow had no interior heating or cooling until the restoration.

"They tried to keep things as close to original as they could," hospital spokeswoman Laurie Burt said. "They didn't tear anything down. They just fixed it up."

The Adams House gives a home to two hospital organizations that have never had one. The foundation was formed two years ago but existed until now in a living room.

The Cancer Resource Center brings together all the hospital's cancer literature as well as computer-based information. Much of it previously was in the car of Ann Proffitt, a hospital laboratory employee who now is the cancer center's coordinator.

"We had all these things to offer but never put together in one place," Burt said.