It was one of those perfect autumn days in Nevada – not too hot not too cold with just a hint of breeze.
A lot of activity was taking place this Saturday. People were heading to the candy dance in Genoa, while others were scooting off to join the bikers at Street Vibrations and still others were heading for that last day at the lake before winter hit.
As for us, we were on an adventure. We were headed to Moon Dune House at Lake Tahoe. We’ve been invited by the owner of the house, Pierre Robert, to see Moon Dune up close and personal. He’d seen our previous post about Moon house and had invited us to tour the property.
Moon Dune House is spectacular from the beach – in person, she is even better. A gorgeous house! Pierre and his sister, Clarice, were gracious hosts and they shared with us the history of the house.
Most people think that the house was named after the beach, Moon Dune Beach. However, that’s not the case. Pierre’s grandparents Will and Lily Moon built the house after the close of World War II. Grandpa Will’s nickname was Mooney.
When Mooney purchased the property, he purchased a vast expanse of beach front property for $1,000.00. Imagine what that would be in today’s dollars!
The property Will purchased was surrounded by dunes. Thus, the names Moon Dune Beach and Moon Dune House were born using Mooney’s name. When his grandparents first built the house, it was wooden frame. However, nearly 1950s, his grandparents decided that they wanted a rock house. Bear in mind that during their travels previous to this decision, they had collected rocks from all over the country. They decided to use their collected rocks in building their house and supplemented those rocks with rhyolite that we believe was quarried in Carson City at the Wungnema quarries, located along the Carson River. These same quarries supplied the majority of the rhyolite used in pink stone houses throughout the northern Nevada and California.
Pierre was curious as to how his grandparents met the Native American stonemasons who built their home. We have some thoughts on that subject. For instance, we know that Frederick Snyder (superintendent of the Stewart Indian School (School) in Carson City) spent his summers at Lake Tahoe, where he, too, had a summer house. This summer house was built made from the pink stone that the School is so famous for. So, it’s feasible that either grandpa Will and Frederick Snyder ran into one another at a social event on the lake’s shores. Or, that Grandpa Will responded to an ad for the School’s “Earn While You Learn” program.
The School’s “Earn While You Learn” program allowed the trade students at the School (the plumbing, electrical, carpentry and masonry students) to work on outside projects. The School contracted with people to build homes, churches, walls and such, for a fee. This was an important program for the School because the its generated revenue for the School and taught the students to interact with customers while earning a salary.
Sadly, much of the paperwork associated with the “Earn While You Learn” program has been sent to the federal archives. We think this paperwork was sent to a federal archive in San Leandro, California. And from what we have discovered, that paperwork is unorganized, the boxes unlabeled. So, finding this paperwork at the federal archives might be a challenge.
Pierre told us that that when his grandmother died, she left the house to his uncle. His cousins had lived in the house for approximately 30 years before he bought Moon Dune House. When he moved in, Moon Dune House was in sad shape. Pierre took the time and effort to replace the roof with a slate roof, this included removing all the asbestos. The new roof took five-years to complete.
Pierre then replaced all the lodge pole pine window frames as those were rotting. On the upstairs porches, he made sure that all the gaps were filled in.
Inside the house is gorgeous. It is filled with aged knotty pine and all the amenities from the late 40s early 50s are still intact. What treasures!
The fireplace in the front room is gorgeous and pays tribute to Will and Lily’s grandchildren. The insert reminds us of those created by Ernest Wungnema, a master Native American stonemason. When Pierre updated the kitchen, he ordered brand-new appliances that looked vintage and had them repainted to match the original farmer sink in the kitchen.
The inside of the house has a nautical theme which is appropriate considering that it sits right on the beach. In the Navy room, Pierre explained that his mother had hand touched up the paneling with blue paint – the touch up is subtle and greatly enhances the paneling. The furniture in the Turquoise Room was custom made for the room using trees harvested at the lake – these trees had been in a forest fire and the furniture is one way of preserving their legacy.
A great place to read!
Pierre loves Moon Dune House, worries about its future, worries about keeping the house well-maintained. It’s an expensive venture and Pierre is looking for resources to help him preserve Moon Dune House. Pierre worries that if measures are not taken to protect the house now, that when he dies, the house will be sold to developers. The house would probably be torn down and an important piece of both Nevada’s history and Lake Tahoe’s history would be lost forever!
During the 1950s & 1960s, Pierre’s family owned and operated the Sky Blue Water Motel at the Lake – sadly the motel has been torn down. This motel was also built by the Native American stonemasons and was created using Rhyolite and malachite. We cannot find any photographs of the motel online. If you have a photo or two of the motel and would like to share with us, please do!
We toured the outside of the house and noticed that many of the stones used in the construction were the same stones used in the construction of our pink stone house. And, we know our house was built by the stonemasons from Stewart
When we were looking at the outside of the house, Clarisse showed us her favorite stone. Which one is it? Hint: It’s the blue one just above her left shoulder!
During the construction of Moon Dune House, Will and Lily (and their children) lived in the Hansel and Gretel cottage, which is next door to Moon Dune House. The Moons originally owned the property, however, the property was divided after Will and Lily died and the Hansel and Gretel Cottage sold. Pierre and Clarisse no longer have access to the inside of the Cottage. However, they hopped the fence and took photographs of Hansel and Gretel cottage for us, which we are pleased to share with you.
Hansel & Gretel Cottage Photo Montage
Pierre has a number of photographs showing Moon cottage under construction, which, sadly we forgot to ask if we could make copies of those wonderful photographs. Hopefully, on our next visit, we can obtain copies of those photographs. If we do, we will share with you!
Too soon, it was time to head home. Before we left, we reaffirmed our pledge to locate resources to help Pierre with saving and preserving Moon Dune House. And here is our plea – if you know of any resources that would help Pierre – and the owners of other homes built by the Native American stonemasons – please feel free to share those resources. We will pass them on to Pierre.
We suggested that perhaps the house could be placed on the national historical registrar of historic places. This would protect the house and would provide peer with tax breaks and once on the register, the house exterior could not be modified. Other ideas we’ve come up with are donating Moon Dune to a nature conservancy or donating it to either the Nevada State or California State museum system. If we were able, we would purchase Moon Dune from Pierre. Purchasing the house would mean moving to California, however, she’s worth the move! We left promising Pierre that we would see if we could find resources that he could use to maintain and protect Moon Dune House.
And if you happen to be on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, please drive by Moon Dune House, admire it from the highway and then walk the beach to admire her up close and personal.
