TV series highlights historic Carson City homes

It began a couple years ago with a single-family pagoda - a house with architecture mimicking the attenuated levels of a traditional Buddhist shrine.

It fascinated KNPB Vice President of Production Jack Kelly and his wife, and they ended up spending hours talking to the owners about the history of the place.

"At the end of it, we were driving back and it struck me that this would be a fascinating idea for a television show," he says.

The result - hosted, co-written and co-produced by Marla Carr - "House With a History," is an exploration of historic homes of Northern Nevada. The eight-part series includes Carson City's Bliss Mansion, the Beck-Barber-Belknap House, the Sadler House and Lake Tahoe's Thunderbird Lodge.

A testament to the vision of different generations of Nevadans and the time periods they inhabited, Carr sees each house as "the collective spirits of the owners, architects and designers."

"It was incredibly fun to do this," she says. "The people who own these houses tend to be very special people. They care about the people who lived in the house before and are very enthusiastic about showing off their homes.

"So often when you walk into these houses a lot of the research has already been done, from old wallpaper samples to photographs of the original owners."

Joyce Harrington, co-partner of the Bliss Mansion is excited. "Duane Bliss (the builder) was so much a part of Nevada history with the lumber business and the Comstock. This was the biggest and finest house in Nevada at the time."

One of the criterion for the houses used in the series, according to Kelly, is that they had to still be in use as residences.

"Because if there's a family living there," he says "the building retains more of its original identity as a home," he says.

Both Carr and Kelly carry the sentiment that the modern owners of the homes are an important part of the history.

"I'm not sure how we landed here," said Harrington of the 8,000 square-foot Bliss Mansion. "We lived in Santa Cruz and came over from Tahoe looking for some real estate. These old houses are a ton of work, but once we saw it we knew we just needed to do this."

With five of the episodes in the can and three more to shoot, Carr says she hopes to get the funding for another season of the series.

"Hopefully people will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it," she says.

Contact reporter Peter Thompson at pthompson@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.

House with a History

Station: KNPB channel 5

When: The eight-part PBS series premiers tonight at 8 p.m. with an episode on the Bliss Mansion. Each new half-hour episode of "House With a History" will be shown on Thursdays and repeated the following Saturday at noon.

Homes showcased:

• Bliss Mansion: Tonight

• Newlands Mansion: Feb. 3

• Hart House: Feb. 10

• Beck-Barber-Belknap House: Feb. 17

• Garvey House: Feb. 24

• Sadler House: TBA (due to PBS pledge-drive)

• Greystone Castle/Bardner House: TBA (due to PBS pledge-drive)

• Thunderbird Lodge: TBA (due to PBS pledge-drive)

IF YOU GO

What: "House With a History" night with a showing of episode No. 4 of the series on Carson City's Beck-Barber-Belknap House

When: 5-7 p.m. Feb. 10

Where: Brewery Arts Center, 445 W. King St.