Virginia City Historic District, Historic mining district in Virginia City, Nevada, United States.

Virginia City Historic District covers the former mining towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill in Storey County and Dayton and Silver City in Lyon County. Most buildings are two- to three-story brick structures with saloons and shops on the ground floor, laid out on a grid 1,500 feet below the top of Mount Davidson. The photograph shows a row of connected two-story commercial buildings, one with four tall arched windows and faded "HARDWARE" lettering, the next with five arched windows above a covered wooden balcony with white turned posts.

The 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode silver deposit turned this area into a booming mining center. Silver extraction shaped the region's prosperity and growth for decades afterward.

Virginia City's name comes from a miner who shouted "Old Virginny" after striking silver in 1859. The Territorial Enterprise building on C Street is where Mark Twain reported in the 1870s. St. Mary's in the Mountains Catholic Church, rebuilt in 1876–77 as a basilica, still holds services, as does St. Paul's Episcopal Church, rebuilt in 1876.

Visitors can explore on foot or join guided tours to see the buildings up close. Plan time for museums and note that the area is hilly with walking paths, so comfortable shoes are recommended.

The district covers not just Virginia City but also Gold Hill, Dayton and Silver City, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961, one of only six in Nevada. Among its 65 contributing properties is the Fourth Ward School of 1876, a school until 1936 and now a museum.