The history of Ely
Ely, Nevada grew up around copper and the railroad, its downtown grid laid out in 1907 after floods drove the town uphill. Aultman Street anchored that new townsite, first called Ely City before being renamed East Ely in 1908, amid a boom that built courthouses, tabernacles and theaters nearby.
Aultman Street sits at the heart of Ely, Nevada's downtown grid, laid out in 1907 during the copper boom that built the White Pine County Courthouse, the Ely L. D. S. Stake Tabernacle, and the Capital Theater nearby. Its own corner building, at Aultman Street, carries a 1999 ghost-sign mural layering decades of painted storefront advertising.
Copper money built this street grid fast
On Aultman Street in Ely, Nevada, copper money built the town fast. About 650 feet from here stands the Ely L. D. S. Stake Tabernacle, a two-story Colonial Revival hall built by the Mormon Church between 1927 and 1928. Its contractor was Joseph Don Carlos Young, a grandson of Brigham Young. White Pine County owns it now and uses it as a public meeting hall.
The White Pine County Courthouse stands about 750 feet from here, built in 1908. The street grid around you, including Aultman Street itself, dates to 1907.
A theater gave miners a picture show
About 900 feet from here, the Capital Theater opened in 1916, built by C. O. Ely's miners and railroad workers had a place to watch a picture show downtown. Nearby, the United States Post Office went up to serve the growing town, another sign of the copper boom reaching Aultman Street.
A mural restored decades of painted shop signs
Right at the corner of 7th and Aultman, the wall of Aultman Street carries something worth looking at closely. Layers of old painted business signs had built up there over decades, one over another. In 1999, the artist Paul Ygartua restored those ghost signs into a single mural, a visible collage of the building's commercial life.
Faded lettering from past shops and storefronts reappeared together on the same wall, a stacked record of who had done business there before.
The 1907 grid still shapes the town today
Ely's downtown grid, laid out in 1907 to serve a copper and railroad economy, still shapes Elysium Terrace in East Ely. The Capital Theater, about 900 feet from here, and the tabernacle, about 650 feet from here, are each a piece of the town's early 20th-century building boom.
The restored mural at Aultman Street still shows layers of Ely's old business signs at the corner of 7th and Aultman.
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