136 West 2nd Street

Leon & Josephine Reno House

In the 1880s and 1890s there was a surge of Italian immigrants that settled at Five Points, on 2nd Street, and many in the old Bingham Fort. They were poor and were seeking a new life, similar to the pioneers who came thirty years earlier. It was fitting that the Italians purchased some of the old farms and houses that once belonged to the pioneers. By 1900 2nd Street west of Five Points came to be called “Little Italy”. Victor Reno Senior arrived on W 2nd Street in 1887 and became one of the leaders of the Italian farmers that congregated there.

By 1912 Victor Reno’s wife, Nellie Bune Reno, built this new bungalow at 136 W 2nd Street 400 feet east of today’s Aspen Acres subdivision which was the Reno farm and site of the first Reno home. The new house was evidence of the family’s economic progress and permanent place in the community. After Nellie’s death in 1931, her son and daughter, Leon and Josephine, continued to live here.

Leon Reno (1894-1969) grew up on W 2nd Street working on the Reno family farm but, after serving in the Air Force from 1918-19, he attended Weber Academy, training in pharmacy studies. He served as the pharmacist in the Greenspot Drugstore located in Wangsgards at Five Points and was well known in the community as “Doc Reno”. He was a social person and always had a funny joke or story to tell. After work and on weekends, he continued all his life helping his brother, Vic Reno Jr, on the family farm (Aspen Acres Subdivision). Josie (1884-1966) cared for her mother and worked as a book keeper for W. H. Wright & Sons Co.

Because of its prominent spatial location, the house is an easily identifiable visual feature along W 2nd Street in old Bingham Fort. There is a path on the east side of the home (Old Pioneer Road) that gives increased visibility to the property. When the news media wants to represent West 2nd Street, 136 W 2nd Street often appears in their pictures: