Mckensie Greenwalt works for Tom Quigley, owner of the Virginia City Mercantile at 85 C Street. She has had a couple of spooky encounters while working in the lower part of the building, beneath the main floor.
But first, it is necessary to discuss the history of the building that used to stand next to the mercantile to understand how her experience fits in with the history of the neighboring lot that once held the Howell & Black building.
In the early days of Virginia City, two feuding brothers, John L. and Samuel Black, owned the building at the corner. Hailing from Alabama, the Black brothers arrived in the Nevada Territory around 1859.
Their commercial building, erected in 1860 by Mathias David Howell, boasted upper stories of brick and a substantial rock-and-mortar basement, making it the first “fireproof building” west of the Mississippi. However, the brothers, John and Samuel, seemed to have contrasting views on its management and purpose.
By September 1860, the brothers had ordered an impressive 255,333 pounds of supplies, mainly groceries, from Marysville to stock their store. The building became a hub of activity, housing tenants such as “Burrall’s Pioneer Book Store” with its circulating library and noted photographer James Kimball Sutterley.
Despite being deemed “fireproof,” the building narrowly avoided disaster in September 1872 when a kerosene lamp exploded inside Sutterley’s gallery. Quick action prevented a conflagration, but the balcony suffered damage.
Tragedy struck again in 1875 when the supposedly fireproof building fell victim to the Virginia City fire, the last building destroyed on the east side of the street. After the fire, the brothers rebuilt, but tensions between the two escalated.
By 1882, John and Samuel were only communicating on business matters, and even then, it was usually in anger. Their bickering was well-known throughout the community.
The climax of their feud came on Friday, May 4, 1888, when two pistol shots echoed through the air. John, 68, surrendered himself to the sheriff, admitting to the act but claiming self-defense.
He recounted years of threats and violence from Samuel and asserted he had been cornered that fateful day by his now-dead brother. After his confession, a deputy and policeman found the lifeless body of 70-year-old Samuel in his metal-working shop in the basement.
The trials that followed left Virginia City in suspense.
The first jury could not reach a verdict, and the second trial ended in a hung jury, with opinions shifting in favor of John. With a change of venue for a third trial granted, John Black died in jail before its start on Wednesday, January 16, 1889, leaving behind a wife and son.
His death certificate cites death as “congestion of the bowels.”
The building that witnessed this tragic tale, the Black & Howell building, deteriorated over the years and was demolished in 1988. Today, a vacant lot stands where the building once thrived.
However, one early morning in October 2021, tasked with stocking and taking inventory in the basement area, McKenzie became overwhelmed with the feeling that something was watching her.
“I looked up and saw a dark figure standing behind some boxes a few feet from me,” she explained. “The thing had no face. I also felt it was angry at me — like I was trespassing or something.”
With seven years of U.S. Army service behind her, McKenzie is not easy to bluff.
“The thing had me scared, I admit,” she said. “But I’m not the type to run from it, so instead I hunched over and as I screamed I ran at it, and it disappeared.”
The area where this happened was once part of the metal-working shop that Samuel owned and was violently killed in by John, leading some to speculate that the angry shadow in the basement could be the spirit of either man.
The Old Blog in the Desert 