Opened in 1876, the large school served a diverse mining community and now interprets Comstock education, childhood, architecture, mining, immigration, and preservation.
The house is associated with Comstock mining administration and the fortunes of John Mackay, preserving architecture, objects, and stories from the boom and later preservation eras.
Successive opera houses served the Comstock, and the surviving Piper’s became an important performance venue later restored as a museum and working arts center.
The Washoe Club occupied lavish rooms serving prominent Comstock-era men, and the surviving building reflects elite sociability, boomtown wealth, fire, rebuilding, and commercial change.