The Overbury building is a general office building built by John Overbury, in Rhyolite, Nye County Nevada in 1906. The building was one of two three story buildings, and the largest stone building located within Rhyolite. The location of the building in about one block from the better known and more photographic Cook Bank Building.
John Overbury, a native of Orange, New Jersey, came to Nevada in 1902 and made his fortune in the early days of the Tonopah Mining boom. Like many of this peers, he came to Rhyolite hopping to be a part of the new. big boom. Local newspapers chronicled Overbury’s arrival in “a small Oldsmobile.” The next spring, he ordered a second Oldsmobile, and per the Rhyolite Herald, drove author Jack London down from Goldfield and our to Death Valley.
Construction of the Overbury building began in 1906; it was complete in June 1907. The structure was 45 feet wide by 80 feet long and cost somewhere between $45,000 – $60,000 to build.
The building was meant to be two stories tall; however, after John Cook began constructing a three-story building, Overbury quickly changed his mind and his building became three stories tall.
The Overbury Building was one the the first general purpose buildings in Rhyolite and the largest stone building. As one of the more prominent commercial hubs in town, it was fully equipped with fireproof shutters, an automatic sire suppression system, and private bathrooms.
At its height, the building housed a stock brokerage firm, the First National Bank of Rhyolite, a dentist, and attorney’s offices.
Like many of the other grand buildings in town, the Overbury Building was abandoned in 1910, and much of it was dismantled by 1924.
BLM Plaque, Rhyolite, Nevada
