page_title: International Hotel (Virginia City)
section_title: New building
hierarchical_section_title: International Hotel (Virginia City) / History / New building
context_page_description: The International Hotel was a hotel located in Virginia City, Nevada. The hotel initially opened as a wooden one-story building in 1860. Two years later, a three-story brick addition was added to the hotel. The wooden portion was dismantled in 1863, and was used to construct a new International Hotel in Austin, Nevada, where it remained operational as of 2014. A four-story brick addition took the place of the wooden building.
  The International Hotel burned down in the "Great Fire of 1875". A new International Hotel began construction the following year, and opened with 160 rooms on March 31, 1877. At six stories, the hotel was the tallest building in Nevada until a fire destroyed it in December 1914. The site of the former hotel became a parking lot.
context_section_description: Construction of a new International Hotel began in May 1876, on the same site as the original buildings. The hotel project, modeled after the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, was financed by owners Albert Hanak and Ike Bateman. The six-story hotel stood 109 feet (33 m) high, and was built at a cost of $600,000. It opened as the tallest building in the state on the night of March 31, 1877. Attendees at the grand opening included businessmen James Graham Fair and John William Mackay, as well as U.S. Senator William Sharon and politician John Henry Kinkead.
  The hotel had 160 rooms and also contained the state's first hydraulic elevator upon opening. The International was considered the most luxurious hotel in the state. First-class rooms included gas lighting and could be rented for $55 per month, while overnight stays cost $2.50. Notable visitors and guests included U.S. presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison, as well as generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Edward Lawrence Logan. Other notable visitors included Adolph Sutro and New York senator Frank C. Platt. Mackay was a permanent resident in the hotel for several years.
  Technological upgrades were made to the hotel over the course of its operation, with electrical wiring being added to the hotel and the city in 1900. A large banquet was held at the hotel to mark the arrival of electricity. Hanak died in 1900, and ownership passed down to his daughter, Helena Rolfe, who lived in San Francisco. Con Ahern, a local bar owner, operated the hotel for several years.
caption: The new International Hotel
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