Williams first came to northern Nevada in 1934 when Luella Rhodes Garvey invited him to design a home for her on California Avenue in Reno. A recent transplant from Pasadena who had moved to Nevada to take advantage of the state’s lenient divorce laws, Garvey was familiar with Williams’ work from her time in southern California.
The luxurious home Williams designed for her combined elements of the Colonial Revival style with Georgian and French Regency influences and boasted a New Orleans-style second-floor balcony with foliated wrought iron detailing. Williams favored the eclectic style, reminiscent of the architecture of America’s Deep South because it connected him to the Black heritage of that region.
The sixteen-room Garvey residence was L-shaped with an interior courtyard, patio and an elaborate stairwell at the foyer entrance. It was constructed for $40,000, with an additional $10,000 landscaping budget. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
