A Taste for History: Discovering Untold Stories About the Region’s Food is a visual history of local food and drink and the stories that surround them. Sharon brings her love of Reno history along with local restaurant lore. Her program brings to life colorful characters, one-of-a-kind eateries and stories that touch on the Chinese, Jewish and Italian influence on our community.

Sharon Honig-Bear Sharon is a freelance writer and photographer and was the restaurant critic for the Reno Gazette Journal for more than seven years, For the past nine years she has written the Edible Traditions column for edibleRenoTahoe magazine. She has been involved with HRPS for almost 20 years, developing historic walking tours and the Harvest of Homes tour. She served for six years on Reno’s Arts and Culture Commission after retiring as Development Director of Washoe County Library.

As the business, political and social heart of Nevada in the early 20th century, Reno was at the center of the debate about allowing women to vote in this state. Both the suffragists and the anti-suffragists launched their organizations in Reno and focused their efforts here. Dana will review both sides of that hotly contested question. Dana will introduce the Reno residents who engaged on both sides of the suffrage battle, and will visit the Reno homes and buildings where suffrage was the main topic of conversation.

Dana Bennett grew up in Old Southwest Reno before it was known as the Old Southwest. After graduating from Reno High School, she left for colleges and career moves, but often returned to live in her hometown. She was an early member of HRPS and loves to reminisce about the Reno she remembers. Dana and her husband live in Midas, Nevada, where she is the President of Friends of Midas, the town's historic preservation organization.

Linda explores the imprint on Northern Nevada of renowned architect Caspar Ehmcke. Best known for his work in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s on high-end residences and luxury retail stores in the Los Angeles area, Caspar Ehmcke also designed a number of notable residences and commercial buildings in Reno and around Lake Tahoe.

Linda Smith gained a love of historic architecture when she and her husband Paul moved into the second floor of an 1815 Federalist townhouse in Washington, D.C. In Honolulu, Hawaii in the early 1980s, they bought a residence built by Hawaii architect, Valdimer Ossipoff. They moved to Incline Village in 2012. Last year they bought the Hirsh Estate in Old Southwest Reno, designed by Ehmcke. Linda worked for presidents and Congressmen in Washington, D.C., and served as Director of Finance for the City of Honolulu and Policy Advisor to the Governor of Hawaii.