Nevada Lore Series: The haunting of Carson City’s famed Bliss Mansion
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Sat, 10/06/2018 - 12:01pm
The Bliss Mansion, which still stands today directly across from the Governor’s mansion, was built by millionaire Duane L. Bliss in 1879 and was the most lavish and elaborate home built in Carson City at the time. Some say its dutiful owner still walks the grounds, keeping an eye on his beloved masterpiece.
Bliss came into money from selling lumber to the Comstock mines of Virginia City and surrounding areas, and also played his hand on the railroads. He spent much of his life building fancy homes in Lake Tahoe and San Francisco.
This led to his desire to construct the grandest home in Carson City at the time, the Bliss Mansion.
The Mansion, found on the corner of West Robinson and North Mountain Street, is an 8,500 square foot three-story home with 15 rooms. It was constructed entirely of clear lumber and square nails, and was the first home in Nevada completely piped for gas lighting.
Bliss knew exactly where he wanted his elaborate mansion to be built; unfortunately, others were residing there at the time. Not quite living, mind you, as the land was actually the site of a cemetery.
During the era of the Comstock, Carson City was a hot-bed for a specific industry: burials. Many of the well-beloved businesses downtown were once morgues and mortuaries.
Oftentimes during the winter, if someone passed away, the ground was too hard to be able to bury them; and so the bodies needed to be stored somewhere until Spring came.
When the Spring did come, they’d be given proper burials, and one of these sites was the cemetery, which was to later become site of the Bliss Mansion.
The bodies were exhumed and relocated, but people say they still see the confused spirits wandering around the grounds, trying to locate their not-so-final resting places.
The major specter of the Bliss Mansion is Duane Bliss himself, who is said to have loved his home so much that he never wanted to leave, and still hasn’t.
People say they spot Bliss often around his home, looking pensively out the window from the top floors, or standing in the yard before disappearing.
If you walk past and inspect the windows, you might see curtains moving when no one is inside.
Though you’d expect a man who moved an entire graveyard to build his mansion might fall to some misfortune at the hands of irritated spirits, Bliss and his wife, Elizabeth, lived happily in their home for their entire lives. They handed it down through family members until it became a bed-and-breakfast in the 1990s and restored to its previous grandeur.
The Bed and Breakfast was sold and later closed down; but the building still stands today, and often hosts art and music shows during the summer.
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