Effort to save Cafe at Adele’s building in Carson City gets started

The Carson City Historical Society is taking charge of an effort to save the 155-year-old building known as Cafe at Adele’s.

The society’s board is meeting Thursday to discuss it and will then announce plans to get the Carson City community involved to preserve the building now under threat of demolition.

The property has been for sale since 2018 and the restaurant was closed in March after a fire in the laundry area. The owners, Charlie and Karen Abowd, have been unable to reach an agreement with their insurance provider to cover the $1.5 million needed to rehabilitate it.

Last week, the Planning Commission approved a special use permit to let the Chevron gas station and ExtraMile convenience store next door expand into the property, which would require tearing down the historic building.

At the meeting, Frank Lepori, owner, Frank Lepori Construction Inc., the contractor on the project, agreed to make the building available at no cost to anyone who wanted to take responsibility for moving it to another location. He said it would need to be moved by March 1.

The building is also known as the Frank Murphy House for the general manager of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad who once lived there. It later became Porter’s Antiques, then the Music Box, and finally Adele’s restaurant in the late 1970s.