George A. Ferris, Architect [1859-1948]
George A. Ferris [†] served Nevada as an architect for over thirty years. He was born in Philadelphia in 1859 and educated at Swarthmore College. He came west in 1879 and settled in Reno in 1906 where he opened his architectural office. Among the noteworthy buildings he designed are: a school in Benecia, California; four schools in Reno; Mount Rose, McKinley Park, Orvis Ring, and Mary S. Doten; the Governor's Mansion in Carson City, and the Rialto Theater in Reno.
In 1928 George Ferris and his son, Lehman A. Ferris, formed a partnership. Lehman, born in 1893, studied electrical engineering at the University of Nevada at Reno and graduated in 1915. After graduation he held jobs as a mine engineer, draftsman, specifications writer, and superintendent of construction. Lehman worked for prominent Nevada architect, Frederic J. DeLongchamps in 1919 as a specifications writer before going to work for his father. George Ferris and Son designed a number of buildings throughout Nevada including: the Oddfellows Building, Reno (1928) the Cladianos Building, Reno; the Nevada State Building, Reno (designed in collaboration with DeLongchamps in 1926); and schools in Las Vegas, Austin and Elko, Nevada. This partnership dissolved in 1932.
† Ana Koyal and Patricia Lawrence-Dietz, Rainshadow Associates, El Cortez Hotel, Washoe County, NV, nomination document, 1983, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.