| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 1 — Las Vegas Springs 8000 B.P. |
| | Bubbling artesian springs flowed here until they were exhausted in the middle of the 20th century, over-pumped to serve the city's growing population.
These springs and the creek they created gave life to the center of the valley. They erupted about 8000 years B.P. (before present). People came to the valley because of the reliable water and the plants and animals it supported. The springs allowed the Anasazi Indians and later the Paiute Indians to irrigate small gardens. Between 1829 and . . . — Map (db m51043) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 2 — Lorenzi Park 1926 |
| | Lorenzi Lake, the dream of pioneer David G. Lorenzi, opened as a private resort in 1926, became the Twin Lakes Lodge in the 1940s, and a public park in 1966.
Arriving in southern Nevada in 1911, Lorenzi began building his park on 80 acres of raw land two miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas in the early 1920s. The "park" was mostly a grassy area with a swimming hole until the commercial opening in 1926. Lorenzi built two lakes and two islands, one with a band shell and the other a . . . — Map (db m51044) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 3 — Binion House 1942 |
| | Colorful Horseshoe Club owner Benny Binion and his family lived here from 1947 to 1989.
Originally built in 1942 by service station owner C.A. Morehouse, the home was one of the largest in Las Vegas with three bedrooms, several baths, a large basement, guesthouse and swimming pool. In 1946 the home was sold and converted into a "dude ranch" where those seeking a quickie divorce could establish their six-week residency requirements. Benny Binion, a boisterous Texas gambler with a great . . . — Map (db m51045) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 4 — Kim Produce Farm 1932 |
| | Here in the 1930s and 1940s, Korean immigrant Frank Kim raised melons, tomatoes, and onions. His devoted son, Frank Kim, Jr. became a pillar of the community.
From the early days of Las Vegas, Asian [...] considerable skill to make poor desert soil produce crops. Frank Kim, Sr [...] advertising melons, tomatoes and onions by the crate. Customers could pick them up at his home, the last house on Clark Street (now Bonanza), south of the road near present day Martin Luther King Boulevard. At . . . — Map (db m51046) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 5 — Moulin Rouge 1955 |
| | The first integrated hotel and casino in Las Vegas, the Moulin Rouge opened in May 1955. It is celebrated as a landmark of racial integration in Las Vegas and the United States.
Entertainers from the Las Vegas Strip and Hollywood flocked to its showroom and casino, where celebrities and patrons, black and white, mingled freely – an electrifying experience in segregated Las Vegas. Boxing champ Joe Louis, part owner of the hotel and official greeter, welcomed crowds of gamblers, . . . — Map (db m51047) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 6 — McWilliams' Townsite 1905 |
| | Created by J.T. McWilliams in 1905, the Original Las Vegas Townsite was Las Vegas' first business and residential development.
J.T. McWilliams (photo top right) was hired to do survey work in and around the Las Vegas Valley for the San Pedro, Loas Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad in 1904, and later platted a townsite west of the railroad tracks. Located along the wagon road between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, the townsite became home to roughly 1,500 people who worked at nearby mines and . . . — Map (db m51048) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 7 — St. James the Apostle Catholic Church 1940 |
| | St James has been a vital force in meeting the needs of this underserved, segregated but expanding community.
The second Catholic Church in Las Vegas, St. James opened in 1940 in a small concrete building at H and Morgan streets (pictured left). Originally most parishioners were Latino, but by the mid- 1960's, the parish became largely black. Through the 1960's and 1970's, this church was served by a social activist clergy who helped the community grapple with the social problems of the . . . — Map (db m51049) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 8 — Harrison Boarding House 1933 |
| | Black entertainers were not allowed to stay at the Strip hotels where they performed in the 1940s and 1950s. Mrs. Harrison's boarding house offered fine accomodations for many of the era's most famous stars.
During one memorable week in September 1949, Mrs. Harrison hosted singer and actor Pearl Bailey (pictured bottom left), Jack Benny's sidekick Eddie (Rochester) Anderson (pictured top left), who had just completed a week at the Thunderbird, singer Bob Parrish en route to Europe from a . . . — Map (db m51050) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 9 — Jackson Street Commercial District 1942 |
| | Commerce on the Westside was short lived, collapsing in 1905 when rival Las Vegas Townsite opened on the east side of the railroad tracks. In 1942, the Westside defined a new commercial district to serve the ethnic population of the area.
The new zone, locally known as "Jackson Street," covered two blocks, from D to F Streets along Jackson and Van Buren. In July 1942, permit requests on file included a grocery store, barbershop, beauty shop, recreation center, restaurant, drug store and . . . — Map (db m51051) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 10 — Christensen House "The Castle" 1935 |
| | This fairy-tale residence reflects the unique family that built it, whose roots stretch back to a pioneering Utah Mormon blacksmith, ranchers in Idaho and Nevada, and railroad workers in Las Vegas.
The life of Las Vegas pioneer Lucretia Tanner Christensen Stevens, mother of LeRoy Christensen, builder of "The Castle," embodies much of western history. Lucretia's parents were Susannah Hathaway, a young white girl who came to Utah with her family in the early 1850s, and Tom Tanner, an . . . — Map (db m51052) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 11 — Moody House 1939 |
| | Herman Moody, Las Vegas' first black career police officer, was raised in this house at 321 Van Buren Avenue, built by his parents (father Henry Moody pictured lower left) who came here in 1939.
As first African-American in Las Vegas to make a career of police work, he helped improve the performance of the Las Vegas Police Department. Moody joined the force in 1946 as a decorated U. S. Navy war veteran. There was no police academy, so he taught himself how to file reports that would stand . . . — Map (db m51053) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 12 — Westside School 1923 |
| | The first school in West Las Vegas opened with two rooms and two teachers for four grades.
From 1904 until 1923, children from McWilliams' Townsite crossed the railroad tracks to get to school in Clark's Townsite. This dangerous situation lasted until the Las Vegas School District built this two-room school on land in the new Valley View addition, adjoining McWillams' Townsite on the east.
The school quickly expanded with two more rooms in 1928 when news of the construction of Hoover . . . — Map (db m51054) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 13 — Las Vegas Paiute Colony 1911 |
| | The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) bought this ten-acre site in 1911 from Helen J. Stewart, former owner of the Las Vegas Ranch, to provide a home for the Southern Paiute Indians living in and near Las Vegas. With this purchase, the government officially recognized the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe.
Paiutes displaced from traditional lands needed a place to live in Las Vegas where they could find work and services. The BIA created this small reservation to improve government supervision of these . . . — Map (db m51055) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 14 — Woodlawn Cemetery 1914 |
| | Until 1914, when the railroad donated land for a city cemetery, people buried the dead in small family plots or on public land just north of the railroad-owened Las Vegas Ranch, east of Las Vegas Boulevard.
In pre-railroad times, the Paiute Indians and the few local ranchers set aside graveyards for family use. Other deceased were placed in an informal burial ground just north of Las Vegas Ranch. The markers for these graces eventually disappeared, and the burials were forgotten. In 1914, . . . — Map (db m51056) HM |
| Nevada (Clark County), Las Vegas — 16 — Biltmore Village 1942 |
| | This WWII neighborhood was named for the Nevada Biltmore Hotel which opened nearby in 1942. A WWII housing shortage called for the construction of several hundred homes for military personnel and their families. The federal government approved the Biltmore Village for construction. Typical wartime housing, the homes were small and one story, built in the modest Cottage and Ranch styles. Much of the original neighborhood remains today, boasting curved, tree-lined streets and welcoming front porches. — Map (db m51057) HM |
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