Looking north on B Street in Virginia City. On the right is the White House boarding house. On the left, behind the tree, is the Storey County Courthouse. Beyond that Piper's Opera House can just be seen.
The current hotel claims to be the location of the hotel visited by Twain in 1873. This runs counter to the history of the A History of the White Hart, compiled by Richard Waldram in 2013.
As late as 1890, Welcker's Hotel and Restaurant existed under that name and at the same adress. Located only two blocks from the White House and one block from the Treasury Department, it was known as one of Washington's finest restaurants of the time, attracting, in the words of one observer, "the rich and the famous."
In the early 19th century Watervliet became a major manufacturing community much like its neighbors Cohoes and Troy, thanks to bell foundries. The first was located on Water Street (Broadway), between 14th and 15th Streets, by Julius Hanks, and the first bell foundry in Gibbonsville was established in 1826 by Andrew Menelly, Sr. This would be the genesis of the Meneely Bell Foundry, which made thousands of bells that are still in use today from Iowa to the Czech Republic.
In the spring of 1864 Maguire built another fine new theatre in San Francisco, on Pine Street just below Montgomery. In selecting this location, Maguire was following the already evident trend of theatrical interest southward toward Market Street. The older Opera House and Metropolitan, with entrances on right-angling streets, were semi-adjacent at a distance of a city block from old Portsmouth Square; but the newer Eureka was several blocks to the south, and now Maguire's Academy of Music was, again, semi-adjacent to this little theatre which Maguire had appropriated for a period.