An ordained minister, George Flint grew up in southern California and moved to Reno after completing divinity school. In 1961, he founded the Chapel of the Bells at 540 West 4th Street, and four years later, moved the business into a converted home at 700 West 4th Street. He discusses Reno’s wedding chapel industry and the changes he has witnessed through more than fifty years in the business. Photo by Patrick Cummings
Full Oral History TranscriptChapel of the Bells owner George Flint recalls what inspired him to open the popular wedding chapel in Reno. Interviewed in 2013 by Will von Tagen.
Chapel of the Bells owner George Flint explains how his ministerial training sets him apart from most wedding chapel operators in Nevada. Interviewed in 2013 by Will von Tagen.
Dick Belaustegui grew up in a diverse neighborhood on Eureka Street, just north of East 4th Street, in the 1940s and 1950s. His father, Bonifacio “Bunny” Belaustegui, an ironworker, worked for Martin Iron Works, Macauley Iron Works, and Reno Iron Works. Dick worked at Pinky’s Market on East 4th Street as a young man. An electrical engineer, he worked for IBM and later, the University of Nevada, Reno.
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John Mayer’s great-grandparents on his mother’s side arrived in Sparks in the 1890s, while his father’s parents moved there with the relocation of the Southern Pacific railroad shops from Wadsworth. Mayer vividly describes growing up in Sparks in the 1940s and 1950s. He taught for the Washoe County School District, and served for seventeen years on the Sparks City Council and the Board of the Regional Transportation Commission, which named the new RTC Centennial Plaza after him in 2009.
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Norman Avansino was born in Reno in 1917 and raised in Virginia City. He worked at the power company and the Farm Bureau in Reno in the 1930s, and for Senator Pat McCarran in his Washington, D.C. office. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he worked briefly for the Veterans Administration and in 1948 began working in the front office at Eveleth Lumber, on East 4th Street. He left the company in 1980.
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