Funds to help restore church

CARSON CITY -- A Carson City church that Mark Twain helped build as a fledgling writer in the 1860s is getting financial help from the city.

The Carson City Board of Supervisors voted last week to give $78,800 to the First Presbyterian Church to help build a new sanctuary and preserve the historic, adjacent church.

In 2005, church representatives asked to tear down the church, saying it was structurally unsound and too small for services.

City officials rejected the request, citing its location in a historic district.

But they gave the church $67,700 in 2006 to help with design costs for the new building.

Church officials said last year that the city had promised to help with additional costs.

Joe McCarthy, the city's business development director, said the latest payment says "loud and clear" that the city supports downtown redevelopment.

"The message must emphasize that the historic preservation of this beautiful sanctuary is invaluable to the neighborhood," McCarthy told the Nevada Appeal.

Bruce Kochsmeier, the church's pastor, said the old church could be used as a chapel and a tourist attraction.

At the request of two church trustees, Twain raised $200, worth about $2,200 today, to help complete construction of the church by charging admission to his January 1864 "roast" of Nevada lawmakers in Carson City.

At the time, Twain was a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise in nearby Virginia City. His brother, Orion Clemens, was a church member and secretary of the Nevada Territory.

Twain's nearly three-year stay in Nevada ended a couple of weeks after the church was dedicated in May 1864.