Historic Preservation

Friends Of Classic Las Vegas To Meet At The Morelli House

July 11th, 2008 Categories: Classic Las Vegas, Historic Preservation, Mid Century Modern

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One of my favorite organizations is “Friends Of Classic Las Vegas”. They’re all about the people who made Las Vegas. They sponsor panel discussions every month, but there’s also the business meeting side of it. Their monthly business meeting will be this Sunday July 13, 2008 2 pm  at the Morelli House. Usually they meet in members homes, but this month in preparation for their 1 year anniversary The Morelli House will be the venue.

 

There will be a tour of the property, which is in my opinion the crown jewel of historic preservation in Las Vegas.  

To find out more about the meeting or about the Morelli House, visit the friends of Classic Las Vegas Blog

From my point of view, if you want to learn about classic desert living modernism, there’s no better place to get started than at the Morelli House. I’ve covered it many times on VVV for a Variety of reasons and there’s plenty of pictures if you’ll click here to see all the VeryVintageVegas posts where I’ve mentioned it or explicitly talked about it.

If you’d like to check out FOCLV or just see the Morelli House, we hope you’ll come out on Sunday.

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Take A Trip To Boulder City Nevada If You’d Like To See What Historic Preservation Can Accomplish

June 17th, 2008 Categories: Historic Preservation, Las Vegas Real Estate News

Boulder City was the first master planned community in Clark County. They built a little town out of nothing high on the bluffs overlooking the Colorado River. They built the town while they were building the dam. I’m not going to give you all of the history, but there’s a great museum in the Boulder City Hotel that tells the story very well.

 

 

 I, of course was interested in the homes, neon signs and a lot of really fun Googie Architecture in the commercial buildings. Intelligent Urban Planning also creates lots of green space, as you’ll see when you get there. There’s lots of interesting antique shops, specialty mom and pop stores and restaurants, and a lot of services for the boating public. Most of the motels along the main drag have been saved and restored, and I’m sure an overnight might be fun as well. Of all the day trips you can make from Las Vegas, it’s definitely worth a couple of hours to explore Boulder City. Of course, to get to the actual dam, you have to either go around Boulder City, or go right thru it. I highly recommend the latter!

 

The whole concept of historic preservation has been alive and well in Boulder City for many years. Several of the native Las Vegans who were at the “summit” on Saturday remember that Boulder City is what ALL of Las Vegas looked like and felt like in the 50’s and 60’s. Oh, how I wish we could be as proud of Vintage Vegas as they are of Boulder City. I think it’s worth the effort to try. There’s lots of pictures below the fold: Just click on “READ THE REST OF THE STORY”. FAIR WARNING! There’s 3 BUZZ KILL photos at the end of the article!

Read the rest of this entry »

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The Historic Preservation Summit Meeting Helps Chart A New Course For Las Vegas

June 16th, 2008 Categories: Historic Preservation

This last Saturday, a wide variety of people from many of the non-profits, government agencies and business that are devoted to preservation gathered at the first “Historic Preservation Summit” for Clark County.

We met in beautiful Boulder City, at the historic landmark called the “Boulder Dam Hotel”. I spent an hour before the meeting to do some driving and take some pictures which I’ll share with you tomorrow. Boulder City is definitely a part of Vintage Vegas, though it’s 25 miles and over the hill from downtown Las Vegas.

Lunch was casual, with lots of conversation about what different groups were doing. We clued everyone into the new plan to save the Huntridge, heard about Paco’s upcoming exhibition “Beneath The Neon” at the CAC which depicts the hidden life in the storm drains under the strip, as well as a lot of personal gossip.

The meeting itself was called because our new best friend, Heather MacIntosh, who’s a lobbyist from Preservation Action. They’re a national non profit who not only lobbies politicians, they train and help grassroots preservationists to network with each other. Heather is particularly interested in the western states, because the entire preservation movement in the west is still in its infancy.

Mostly the meeting was a “group think” of how the various groups who were present can work together to create a bigger overall impact as well as to further the goals of each particular group. We decided that for Summit 2, we’ll want to include all the vintage neighborhood associations, the dozen museums in Clark County that weren’t in attendance, and as many elected officials as we can muster.  

It was decided that an alliance should be formed so that all the various governments, clubs, organizations, associations and businesses can have a way to help each other and learn from each other.

In Attendance were Ellen Leigh from the  Atomic Testing Museum and Dennis McBride from the  Nevada State Museum. MaryMargaret and Carey Stratton represented the  Atomic Age Alliance , who along with Pam Hartley, MaryJoy Alderman and myself from Very Vintage Vegas were there expressing our concerns for the neighborhoods and mid century modern Architecture. Bob Stoddal, Courtney Mooney, and Jim Veltman represented the City of Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission. Lynn Zook from Classic Las Vegas  spoke about preserving the oral history. Brian Paco Alvarez represented the Arts as well as Save The Huntridge. Joel Rosales from LeavingLV photograghs and records the loss and demolition of the buildings we can’t save. Trish Geran writes and documents the historic west side of Las Vegas

Missing from the meeting was anyone from Clark County, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder City as well as all the neighborhood associations. We’ll announce Summit 2 in about a month once the location and date are picked.

IF YOU’D LIKE TO BECOME A PART OF ALL OF THIS…..

It’s real easy to get involved. Join a group. Become a museum docent. Start up or become a volunteer with an organization or a neighborhood association. Volunteer for SOMETHING that matters to you. We can use all the help we can get, and there’s an enormous opportunity for you to meet a lot of truly great people.

The other thing you can stop doing is telling anyone that there’s no history or culture in Las Vegas.  

 

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Has The Huntridge Theatre Been Saved?

June 12th, 2008 Categories: Historic Preservation

Many of us in the “historic preservation movement” have been working for months now, to keep the political pressure on the owner of the Huntridge. Our goal was to get him to find an adaptive use that saves the character and “art moderne” architectural design.

Short of one of the gazillionaires stepping up and funding an endowment, the property still has to be able to return a profit on the investment. We’d all have loved for the city our county governments to have stepped in to create a cultural arts or performing arts center. Even a community center would have been nice. But those uses actually cost money to operate.

Yesterday, Eli Mizrachi, the owner of the Huntridge asked a few of us to come and see the plans that he’s had drawn up for the conversion to an urban hub of offices, restaurants, and boutique storefronts. The design is stunning, and maintains the Art Modern style of the building, and incorporates the adjacent furniture store.

The plans have been submitted to the planning department, and are on a fast track program under the auspices of the Las Vegas Department of Redevelopment. There will be hearings before the Planning Commission as well as the Council in the next few months, and I’ll be inviting all of you to come to them to show your support. It will be nice to go before them in favor of something instead of having to rally the troops against some unwanted development that encroaches on the historic neighborhoods.

Of course time will tell, but this looks like the best use for the property that will maintain the structure for the preservationists, and provide a cash flow to the owner. We believe that the biggest boon will be to spur other redevopment along the Charleston Corridor and to ENCOURAGE THE CITY TO OPEN CIRCLE PARK!

We want to thank Eli for not letting us down.

There will be a public unveiling of the drawings soon. We’re trying to get it organized for the July First Friday. I’ll put out the invitation the minute we know the exact date, time and place.

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Historic Preservation Day In Las Vegas

May 19th, 2008 Categories: Downtown Las Vegas, Historic Preservation

“RE-INVENTION” Photographic Display At Las Vegas City Hall

First up on Historic Preservation Day For Las Vegas was “Re-Invention”. Our very own cultural historian, and occasional guest blogger Brian Paco Alvarez curated a photographic exhibit of Downtown Las Vegas then and now. You can see it till May 30 at Las Vegas City Hall, 400 East Stewart Ave.

 

The News Bureau is a collection of over a million photographs taken since 1947 to promote tourism in Las Vegas.

Pictures of pictures never do justice, so you should make it a point to head downtown during business hours to see the exhibit.

The old train station at the foot of Fremont Street is a good example. I’ve always been told it was there, but this is the first picture I’ve ever seen of it. It was a streamline moderne building that was replaced by the Union Plaza hotel.

The Endangered Huntridge Theatre In Downtown Las Vegas

We got word that the owner of the Huntridge Theatre was not going to unlock the building for us shortly before the  hourly tours of the tours were to begin on Saturday. The volunteers decided to keep with our plans, by passing out literature, promoting the various organizations and  collected names of the people who came to see it. 

 

Since we had nothing better to do, we performed a little community service, and pulled the weeds, cleaned the parking lot, and hauled away about 10 big trash bags full of litter. Thanks to the volunteers and a really big thanks to the 40 or so people who came over to see the building and left disappointed.

 

 

 

 

Hundreds view the NEON MUSEUM BONE YARD In Downtown Las Vegas

Hourly tours gave hundreds of Las Vegans the opportunity to see some of the rescued signage of Las Vegas History. The Conch Shell is finally put back together. It’s windows and interior will be finished shortly, and the museum will finally have it’s much needed visitors center.

VegasJudy, one of the regular volunteers for all things preservationist, sent us this YouTube video that will give you a great idea of the treasures that have been saved, and that await restoration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cultural Fair At The Springs Preserve

I personally was committed to other events and missed the fun at the Springs Preserve. I’ll defer the description to our favorite Las Vegas Historian Lynn Zook at Classic Las Vegas.

She wrote it up on her amazing blog about Las Vegas History:

At the Springs Preserve, the Paiute Indians were performing their Pow-Wow Dance and it was great.  Indoors (thank the Lord) were all the museums and historic preservation groups.  We had a great time passing out information, spreading the word about how important it is to become involved in helping to save our history and answering questions.

The Film Festival’s afternoon screenings included a History of Helldorado (a collaborative film by the Nevada State Museum and FCLV) that included some great shots of Helldorado parades from the 1950s (including the Sambo’s that used to be on the corner of Bonanza and Las Vegas Blvd. North).

Dennis McBride showed home movies from the Abe Weinstein collection.  Weinstein owned a 16mm movie camera back in the 1950s and in addition to shooting the usual home movies of his family, he shot some great color footage of the iconic neon signs of the Las Vegas Strip at night, wonderful shots of the original Flamingo and Tropicana Hotels and more Helldorado Parades.

Historian Bob Stoldal showed two short films. “Is Anybody Listening” was a series that KLAS did 25 years ago on the preservation issues of the day back then.  A young George Knapp was the reporter on some of them.  Great footage of the old Ice House, the old Las Vegas Hospital and Kiel Ranch before all were lost to fires of a suspicious nature.

His second film was a series of ads and commercials from the way Las Vegas was advertised in the 1950s from his private collection.

Helldorado Parade In Downtown Las Vegas

The annual Helldorado parade thru downtown Las Vegas will get coverage after I get some sleep.

 

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Saturday’s The REALLY Big Day For Historic Preservation Month In Las Vegas

May 15th, 2008 Categories: Historic Preservation

Sometimes I feel like Kristen Peterson of the Las Vegas Sun is the best friend that the Historic Preservation Movement has. Even if she spelled my name wrong once , I absolutely love not only how she writes, but what she writes about.

Today, she published all of Saturday’s events that we published on Monday, and gave them each her own special commentary.

Don’t be telling yourself on Sunday that you should have!

Morelli House

Neon Museum and Boneyard

Huntridge Theatre

Springs Preserve Cultural History Fair

Mormon Fort

Helldorado Parade

ALL THAT ALL ON THE SAME DAY! WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?

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Media Coverage Of Vintage Vegas, Mid Century Modern, And The New Urban Lifestyle

May 15th, 2008 Categories: Historic Preservation, Mid Century Modern

No, this isn’t a passing fad. It’s actually a movement that as far as Las Vegas is concerned is still in its infancy. Nationwide, the restoration and preservation and revival of Mid Century Modern is in full swing.

An example is the publicity surrounding the sale this week of the Palm Springs “KAUFMANN HOUSE” at the Christies Auction. One of the key points that I’m always making is that most of the people who already “get it” around the nation have no clue that most of what I call Very Vintage Vegas is actually undiscovered Mid Century Modern.

My readers know it, the Atomic Age Alliance gets it. Many of our current homeowners don’t understand, which is our biggest challenge. But the word is getting out to the Mid Mod fans around the world and we’re reaching our current owners one at a time. In the next million people to show up here as Las Vegas continues to grow, there will be a continually growing buyer pool for our mid mods. Anyone in LA who ever owned or wanted an EICHLER, probably won’t be buying their Las Vegas Vacation Home in Summerlin.

For example, I was recently interviewed by the Wall Street Journal for a piece on the subject that’s currently being researched. I’m being told that the National Trust For Historic Preservation is aware of the Las Vegas Mid Century Modern Heritage.

The Trust’s magazine “Preservation” has a recent article called “THE MODERNIST MANIFESTO”. It’s a must read if you want to know what the buzz is really about.

Preservation Action, a Washington DC based lobby for historic preservation has it’s eye on Las Vegas.

Jack LeVine Featured In Nevada Public Radio Piece On Mid Century Modern Homes In Las Vegas

Yesterday, KNPR’s “State of Nevada” spent a whole hour on the subject. I was featured in the piece by free lance reporter Adam Burke, which opened the program.  

His piece was followed by a panel discussion with Adam, as well as local preservationist Josh Geidel, noted Architectural historian and critic Alan Hess, Tom McCormick of Astoria Homes, Dr. Robert Fielden the famed urban planner.

If You missed it, you can listen to the entire program with the “listen” link in the middle of the page once you’re on the KNPR State Of Nevada Page. I highly recommend listening to the whole program. You’ll learn a lot. I did.

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The Phillip Johnson “Glass House” - A Handcrafted Work Of Modernist Art And Why It’s Important To Historic Preservation In Las Vegas

May 13th, 2008 Categories: Historic Preservation, Las Vegas History, Mid Century Modern

I’ve been emailing regularly with Martin Skrelunas. He’s the Preservation Manager of the Philip Johnson “Glass House”. The Glass House was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation upon the death of Philip Johnson in 2005.

I won’t even pretend to explain this phenomenal work of Mid Century Modernism as well as it’s explained in the video link above. Turn the sound up loud, and watch it full screen.

Martin started the dialog a few months ago when he paid me one of the finest compliments that I’ve ever received as a result of this blog. He said:

I browse dozens of realestate websites a week to find modern home communities, and this is by far the best. I appreciate your understanding of the homes and descriptions.  Very few people would know how to market an untouched house as you just did!

In another email he said:

I am in New Canaan CT, and am working quite closely with our modern homeowners, and am working with others on a larger initiative to bring modern home communities together.  I see your updates daily through Google Alerts.  Google continuously searches for new items that have “mid century modern” in the text.  Your updates are the most constant.  Strong seconds are for a group that discusses and promotes moderns in the Washington D.C. area and for Palm Springs. Also, I would say that you are the only person that really has a variety of relevant material in addition to listings.

Those are exceedingly kind words, but they mean nothing without the resolve and the dedication that goes into fulfilling them. I’ve been asked many times why I mention mid century modern so often. There’s one good reason.

Most Of The Homes In Vintage, Historic Or Retro Las Vegas Fall Under The Category Of Mid Century Modern

The vast majority of the pre-1970 homes in Las Vegas are Mid Century Modern. I can’t help but to be fighting to preserve the historic and classic neighborhoods of Las Vegas without a total dedication to preserving modernist architecture, and the lifestyle it was designed to promote. .

Modernist architecture required big lots. One of the hallmarks of modernist architecture  is exemplified in the Glass House. Bring the outdoors in, and let the indoors get out. That’s why we find the walls of glass, the clerestory windows, and the use of natural materials. That’s why we cherish our big trees and big yards.

Education about modernism is the most important part of my efforts. I meet a lot of people who are shopping for a home. Whether they buy a home or not, they can’t help but to leave me with at least a new found, or a heightened appreciation  for all the amazing elements of modernism that just can’t be found out in the suburbs. I’m hoping that that appreciation is also realized among my many readers. 

Some of our homes are absolutely terrific, and some of them have been absolutely butchered.  The biggest tragedy, and the one that I want to help to correct is the lack of knowledge among the very owners of the mid century modern homes of Las Vegas. The new breed of mid century modern home buyer is aware of the architectural significance, the advantages of modernism, and appreciate its characteristics. But most of our effort has to be given to educating the current owners.

Just as the National Trust, The Glass House, Atomic Age Alliance, Modernism Magazine, Atomic Ranch Magazine are trying to get the word out, VeryVintageVegas is equally dedicated in our own small way. Won’t you please tell a friend or neighbor or co-worker or relative about us? Will you help to spread the word?

The classic homes of Las Vegas deserve to be preserved, and they deserve to have the recognition that similar homes in Palm Springs, or the Eichlers of California receive.

It’s Historic Preservation Month in Nevada. Dinosaur bones, Indian petroglyph, cowboy lore, neon signs, and Mid Century Modernism all have played a role in Las Vegas and Nevada History. 

At VeryVintageVegas, we celebrate them all.  But especially, we celebrate modernism.