I apologize. Last Saturday about 7:40 pm Reno time, I was just finished preparing an email titled "Why RENO", when I did a typo.

On my phone where the buttons are small (and my fingers are fat), I hit SEND instead of SAVE.

I normally like to send these emails on a Tuesday at about 11 am Reno time.

My bad. I am sorry. Thanks RenoKelly

Lear Theater in Reno

The city of Reno announced its extensive restoration plans for the historic Lear Theater in 2024. From interior inspections to exterior landscape renovations, the new year will bring $1,000,000 in upgrades to the historic building that first opened in 1939.

The City bought the building in February 2023. Located at 501 Riverside Drive, the Lear Theater is a member of the National, State and Local Registers of Historic Places.

In collaboration with the City’s Historical Resources Commission, city officials identified several new year projects to stabilize the building and protect it from deterioration while more information is gathered about its current condition:

•    Clean and inspect the interior of the building to identify any urgent issues that threaten damage to the building (for example, broken windows, evidence of pest infestation, or water damage).
•    Restore the historic landscaping to include a new lawn and border plantings, irrigation repair, and installation of outdoor electrical power.
•    Improve building security by installing an attractive perimeter fence, repair existing exterior lighting, and install wireless security cameras.
•    Engage a consultant to perform a Historic Structure Report to evaluate the building’s current condition and recommend new uses that are compatible with the building’s historic fabric.
•    Repair deteriorated concrete walks and stairs in the building’s exterior grounds.

The Lear Theater is recognized for its distinctive Neoclassical Revival architectural style as well as for being the work of a master, the renowned architect Paul Revere Williams. Williams is a nationally recognized architect who became known for designing homes for some of Hollywood’s most recognizable celebrities including Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra.

In 1934, a wealthy widow from Pasadena named Luella Garvey hired Williams to design her new home on Reno’s fashionable California Avenue. At her urging, the members of the First Church of Christ, Scientist then hired him to design their new church on Riverside Drive, an elegant building now known as the Lear Theater.

In 2017, the American Institute of Architects posthumously awarded Williams their Gold Medal, the highest annual honor in the field.

Moya Lear was an arts patron who envisioned the church as a theater and, in 1997, Lear contributed $1.1 million and matching community funds to purchase the building.

She gave the towering yellow building, designed by the revered African American architect Paul Revere Williams, to the now-defunct Theater Coalition. While the coalition made some renovations and put on a scant few performances, it eventually closed the theater in 2002.

Moya Lear was the widow of Bill Lear (creator of the Learjet).

In 1967, Bill Lear sold Learjet and bought land and buildings adjacent to a deserted air force base in Reno, Nevada. Moya and Bill lived the remainder of their lives in Reno. Bill passed in 1978 and Moya passed in 2001.

William P. Lear was born June 26, 1902 in Hannibal, Missouri.

A self-taught American electrical engineer and industrialist whose Lear Jet Corporation was the first mass-manufacturer of business jet aircraft in the world. Lear also developed the automobile radio, the eight-track stereo tape player for automobiles, and the miniature automatic pilot for aircraft.

The child of immigrant parents and a broken home, Lear said that at the age of 12 he had worked out a blueprint of his life, based upon profiting by inventing what people wanted. He held some 150 patents at his death.

After completing eighth grade, Lear quit school to become a mechanic and at the age of 16 joined the navy, lying about his age. During World War I, Lear studied radio and after his discharge designed the first practicable auto radio. Failing to secure the financial backing to produce the radio himself, Lear sold the radio to the Motorola Company in 1924.

In 1934 he designed a universal radio amplifier. The Radio Corporation of America purchased the plans, giving Lear the capital he needed to expand his operations. He founded the Lear Avia Corporation in 1934 to make radio and navigational devices for aircraft.

In 1939 he founded Lear, Inc. By 1939 more than half the private airplanes in the United States were using Lear radio and navigational equipment. In World War II, the company manufactured cowl-flap motors and other precision devices for Allied aircraft. After World War II, Lear, Inc. introduced a new, miniaturized autopilot that could be used on small fighter aircraft.

Between 1950 and 1962 the sales of Lear, Inc., rose to $90,000,000. New plants were added in the Midwest and on both coasts, and the company embarked on the manufacture of stereophonic sound systems and miniature communications satellites.

Lear himself wanted to expand into low-priced, small jet aircraft for businessmen. When his board of directors would not approve the expenditure, Lear sold his share of the company and formed Lear Jet, Inc., which produced its first compact jet in 1963. The new company’s jets became among the world’s most popular private jet aircraft.