Here's hoping Jack's Bar walls stay standing

The commotion caused by a request for an application for demolition work at Jack's Bar shows Carson City historians haven't lost any of their fervor for preservation.

In fact, as they showed Tuesday evening, they're willing to do whatever they can to help keep an icon intact.

Don Lehr and Al Fiegehen, owners of the bar and the Ormsby House across the street, are demonstrating their commitment to Carson heritage by spending the time, money and effort to renovate the Ormsby House.

No, the hotel and casino, built in the 1970s, don't qualify as historical landmarks in the usual sense. Yet the Ormsby House is a landmark in the sense that thousands of people have fond memories of the good times had there over the years.

While the finished project may be barely recognizable from the old Ormsby House, it will have touches such as the stone facing outside and the grand staircase inside to connect it with its past. Instead of bulldozing the place, Lehr and Fiegehen are bent on restoring its glory.

Jack's Bar, an 1899 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, presents its own problems. Few would deny the building is about to fall down, which would be a tragedy historically and, chances are, personally to some unlucky passer-by.

Lehr went to the Historic Resources Commission on Tuesday evening for some consultation and, as we expected, received strong support and a variety of ideas for making it a workable building.

Although we'll wait for the preservation experts to evaluate the building and recommend a feasible course, it seems to us the best plan will be to preserve the historic sandstone walls -- reportedly quarried at the state prison in the 1890s -- that have stood on the corner of Carson and Fifth streets for more than a century.

What a joy for future generations to raise a toast to the old Jack's Bar in a building capturing its character and spirit -- a place, might we humbly suggest, named Save the Day Cafe.