Set on a large parcel of land, Friday's Station, the oldest surviving inn complex in this part of the Tahoe Basin, is now an anomaly in the glitter of Stateline. The property is surrounded by U.S. 50 and a golf course to the north, businesses to the east, and casinos to the west. To the south, undeveloped U.S. Forest Service land provides some relief from the congestion.
Martin K. “Friday” Burke and James Washington Small established a stage station on the site in March 1860 and a month later obtained a franchise to operate a Pony Express station there. The location had a natural spring and was on Kingsbury Grade, the new road leading from the lake down to Carson Valley. The station soon became a home base for a stage line and the Wells Fargo Express, which motivated the owners to build an inn. Although the Pony Express operated only eighteen months, the station had enough traffic to keep running until the opening of the Central Pacific