City ornament showcases Krebs-Peterson House, John Wayne

Sue Jones of the Purple Avocado, the gift shop at 904 N. Curry St., expected the 2024 Carson City Christmas ornament to sell out by the end of the week. That was on Monday, and the ornament was going quickly.

This year, the ornament depicts the Krebs-Peterson House at 500 Mountain St., including John Wayne and his horse in miniature. The 1914 house was featured in the 1976 John Wayne film “The Shootist.”

Sue has run the Curry Street gift shop since 2001 and has been involved with the city’s ornament program since it began in 2002. Sue’s late husband Stan Jones, a former Carson City supervisor, helped spearhead the program designed to educate the public on historic buildings, preserve their legacy, as well as boost business for downtown merchants.

The city sells the ornaments to participating shops including at the Nevada Legislature, generating enough revenue to break even. Historic buildings featured in past years include the Stewart Indian School, Laxalt Building, Governor’s Mansion and St. Charles Hotel.

“It’s just a good community project,” Jones said Monday, adding more people have been getting interested in the ornaments and Carson’s history.

“It seems more and more people are collecting the ornaments… our buildings are just beautiful,” she said.

The Purple Avocado is open every day through Christmas Eve, Jones said, adding she likes helping customers find the perfect gifts.

“Some people I see once a year for the ornament, and that’s great. Some people I see monthly, which is also great,” she said.

According to the Appeal’s archives, the Krebs-Peterson House is a classic Victorian built in 1914 by Ernest Krebs Sr., a prominent surgeon, and later owned by State Controller Edward Peterson.

The house became part of the setting for John Wayne’s last film.

“The Krebs-Peterson home was chosen to be the boardinghouse for John Wayne in his last days as a dying gunfighter in ‘The Shootist,’” reads a history from Visit Carson City. “The filming began in January 1976 and lasted a little less than a month. The front parlor was the only room used during the filming. In the final moments of the film, Lauren Bacall stood at the window and watched Wayne walk down the steps to catch the trolley on his way to the shoot-out. The exterior of the house was used extensively during the filming.”

“The Shootist” is a critically acclaimed Western and received an Oscar nomination for art direction in 1977.

“Simple in story while sophisticated in texture, ‘The Shootist’ is a fittingly elegiac swan song for one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars,” reads the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes.