Sears-Ferris House, Georgian residential building in Carson City, Nevada
The Sears–Ferris House at 311 W Third Street is a roughly sixty-by-sixty-foot square house built about 1863, combining Colonial Revival and Georgian Revival architecture. Its front porch was restyled in a classical look by Mary Ferris Ardery after she acquired the property in 1890.
Gregory A. Sears built the house around 1863. George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. owned it from 1868 to 1890, then sold it with part of the block to his daughter Mary Ferris Ardery for $3,000; she changed the front porch to a classical style. Later owners included the Mahers family in 1922, Thurman Cross in 1956 and Ferdinand Hirzy in 1968. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The house is also known as the G. W. G. Ferris House, after George Washington Gale Ferris Sr., who owned it from 1868 to 1890. His son, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., was born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1859 and moved with the family to Carson City as a boy. In 1893 he built the Ferris Wheel for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The house stands at 311 West Third Street, a short walk from the Nevada State Capitol grounds in downtown Carson City. It is a private residence and not open to the public, so visitors can only view the exterior from the street. The square footprint, roughly sixty by sixty feet, is visible from the sidewalk.
George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. introduced Eastern plant species to Carson City, and some of his original trees still grow on the State Capitol grounds today. These trees stand as living reminders of the family's contributions to shaping the local landscape.
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