Consolidated Telephone-Telegraph Building, Goldfield
Esmeralda County, Esmeralda County, Nevada
Marker Inscription
Southern Nevada Consolidated Telephone Telegraph Company Building. This building was the communications center of Goldfield from 1908 until 1963. The Consolidated Telephone-Telegraph Company Building was one of the few spared by a fire that destroyed 53 blocks of the downtown area in 1923. Today, this building survives as an unspoiled expression of the work of turn-of-the-century craftsman, and serves as an example of the business life in the Tonopah-Goldfield area from the years when the mines were producing millions and bringing new prosperity to Nevada. From 1904 to 1910, the gold mines of the region boomed. With more than 15,000 people, Goldfield was the largest city in Nevada during that period, having four railroads and other modern conveniences. The town was damaged by a flash flood in 1913 and mining was in decline, so many people left the area. The fire of 1923 caused the remaining residents to leave. Today the largest employer in Goldfield is Esmeralda County.
Erected by Central Nevada Historical Society
The Story
This building was the nerve center of Goldfield's communications from 1908 to 1963, during and after the great gold rush that briefly made Goldfield the largest city in Nevada. Between 1904 and 1910 the district boomed with more than 15,000 residents, four railroads, and mines producing millions. Flood in 1913 and a fire that leveled 53 downtown blocks in 1923—which this structure survived—hastened the town's long decline.
Why it matters
It is a rare survivor of one of the West's last great mining boomtowns, embodying both the dazzling prosperity of Nevada's gold era and the swift collapse that turned a metropolis into a near-ghost town.
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