Friends of Classic Las Vegas Holiday Meeting

Join us for our annual FCLV General Meeting and Holiday party.

Our special guest will be historian Mark Hall-Patton who will give a talk on the history of street names around the Las Vegas Valley. So if you're wondering who streets like Bracken, Campbell and others were named for, join us on Sunday Dec. 14th.

FCLV General Meeting and Holiday Party

December 14th

2:00 pm

The meeting is being hosted by FCLV member Marge Rea at her home which will be decorated for the holidays.

Please contact me to get the address and directions.

We hope to see you there!

Walter Zick - Mid-Century Modern Las Vegas Architect

The Mint Hotel designed by Walter Zick and Harris Sharp

He was one of the most prolific architects in Las Vegas.  Walter Zick, along with his partner Harris Sharp, designed some of the coolest mid-century modern buildings in Southern Nevada.  His best known design is probably also the most-beloved, the fabulous Mint Hotel.   It's design fulfilled the optimistic potential that was pervasive across America in the late 1950s and the early 1960s.  In that canyon of neon called Glitter Gulch, the Mint sat shoulder to shoulder with fanciful facades that depicted the Barbary Coast (The Golden Nugget), the Wild West (The original California Club) and San Francisco (The Golden Gate).

Wayne McAllister's design of the Fremont Hotel may have been the first mid-century modern casino on Fremont Street but Zick and Sharpe saw that design and raised the stakes.  Working with YESCO's top designers, Kermit Wayne and Hermon Boergne, the facade of the Mint was one of the first to explore the three dimensional aspects of neon.  It's eye-poping pink and white neon took your breath away.

If the Mint was all that Zick and Sharp had designed in Las Vegas that would be enough.  But thanks to Friends of Classic Las Vegas commercial chair Mary Martinez and our favorite downtown neighborhood blogger, Jack LeVine, I have been given a disc of images and information on the life and works of Walter Zick.  His family is trying to get a school named for him and though their initial request was turned down, we are thrilled to be joining with VeryVintageVegas to help spotlight Zick's accomplishments and keep the idea of a school named in his honor alive.

Walter Zick designed more than just casinos and hotels.  I grew up in Charleston Heights which sports many of the schools and commercial buildings that he designed.  I am familiar with Hyde Park Junior High School which was the first air-conditioned school in the nation.  My brother was born at Southern Nevada Hospital in the mid-1960s when it sported a Zick and Sharp mid-century facade.  I attended junior high school at Garside, which they designed.  I attended high school at Ed. W. Clark High School which was designed by Zick and Sharp.  They designed both Western High School and Valley High School, both cross-town rivals of Clark.  We attended football games every Friday night at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, again designed by Zick and Sharp.

After I graduated in 1975, I attended UNLV and had a Shakespeare class in the Humanities Building that Zick designed.  The Maude Frazier Building, the first building on the campus when it opened in 1958 was designed by them.

We did our banking at the corner of Charleston and Decatur at the Bank of Las Vegas and the First National Bank of Nevada both designed by Zick and Sharp.  The Foley Federal Building which was built next to the 5th Street Grammar School where I attended kindergarten was also designed by them.  The Clark County Courthouse near the Foley Federal Building is their design.

I remember the Nevada Savings and Loan Headquarters, the Nevada State Bank near then-popular Spanish Oaks, Western Airlines terminal, the Westgate Shopping Center, the YMCA addition.

In addition to the Mint, he designed the Bird Cage Casino which sat just west of the Mint and was ultimately annexed by the hotel and he and Sharp designed the famous "eyebrow" addition.  They helped complete Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn, had a hand in the remodel of the El Rancho Vegas, designed the first integrated hotel and casino, the Moulin Rouge as well as the Union Plaza and many more.

He also designed residential homes for some of the biggest movers and shakers in Las Vegas including Benny Binion, the Cashman family, Marcus Daly (whose rec room included a below ground bomb shelter, a bowling alley and a movie theater), architect Bill Moore's house, Mayme Stocker's house on Bracken Avenue, Joseph Switzer's house and Ted Weins as well.

We'll hopefully have more on Walter Zick in the days and weeks ahead so keep an eye out here!

Destroyed for a Walgreens.

The Moulin Rouge (with signage by Betty Willis) before the fire of 2003.

Special thanks to RoadsidePictures for letting use this image.

Special thanks to the family of Walter Zick for letting us highlight his life.

Special thanks to Mary Martinez and Jack LeVine for the disc!

Thank you for saving Pop Squires House

Just back from the awesome panel on the MGM Grand Fire and wanted to say "THANK YOU!" to all who turned out for the Las Vegas City Council meeting yesterday.  Friends of Classic Las Vegas members Mary Martinez and Mary Gafford spoke up as did former County Commissioner and UNLV Regent Thalia Dondero.

Pam Hartley of Very Vintage Vegas and FCLV spoke as did Steve Evans who spearheaded this entire effort.

Our good friend Jack LeVine of Very Vintage Vegas reports:

The Las Vegas City Council stepped up and told the developers of the property that includes the “Pop Squires” home that their requests for variances and zoning changes wouldn’t be heard until they dealt with the issue of saving the home!

The current owners not only agreed to donate the home, but to also pay for moving it to another location. This is a great win for the historic preservation movement of Las Vegas. Of course, there’s a big “But” in that now we’re confronted with finding a new home for it.

Pam Hartley and planning commissionerSteve Evans, who first brought the issue to our attention are already on it and are contacting the Clark County Museum and other non profit organizations. We’d love to see a group step up and adaptively re-use the home in the same way that the Morelli House has become the headquarters of the Junior League, however, a museum setting is perfectly fine with us.

We had a few unexpected speakers at the City Council hearing. Former County Commissioner Thalia Dondero spoke eloquently about sitting on the porch of the home as a child talking to Mom Squires, and the importance of having the squires remembered as the Father of Las Vegas. Others spoke about the inappropriateness of a 5 story McOffice being built across the street from the original Las Vegas High School, which is a the cornerstone of the Las Vegas High School Historic District. Thank you, also, to those of you who took action and called and wrote to Mayor Goodman and Councilman Reese.

Help Save Las Vegas History

 Photo courtesy of Jack LeVine and VeryVintageVegas.com

You get involved in historical preservation because you believe that you can help make a difference, because you believe that our history is more than Bugsy Siegel and the Mob, because you believe that our history matters, because you know that cultural tourism matters and without historic homes there is no cultural tourism.

But most of all you get involved because you know that the continued destruction of our early 20th Century history means that we as Las Vegans hold the real history of our town in such little regard that the continued destruction of it for more McOffices is not only wrong but offensive.

If you believe that our history matters, if you believe that our pioneer families should be celebrated (because without them this metropolis of the 21st Century that we have become would not exist), if you believe that cultural tourism is important  to the fabric of our community then now is the time to stand up.  Think of every town and city you have ever visited and what do they have common?  An old town, a historic district, tours and an understanding of the pioneering roots that made that town matter.

History is what binds us to our community.  The majority of people who now live in Las Vegas have come from out-town, from someplace else.  Home is always going to be where they are from until we give them a reason to invest in our community.  History is what helps them invest in our community.  It shows that while we may be a young town we value the contributions and the sacrifices of the families who carved a community out of a unforgiving desert.

If we, as natives and long-time residents, don't value our history how can we expect new arrivals to do so.

We have a chance as a community to come together and tell the City of Las Vegas that our history matters.

On Nov. 5th, the City of Las Vegas will decide the fate of the Charles "Pop" and Delphine "Mom" Squires home.  Who were the Squires?

Charles "Pop" Squires arrived before the land auction and set about starting a bank and a hotel in anticipation of both being needed by the time the land auction would happen.

After the success of the land auction, he sent for his wife and family to join him.  He started the first newspaper, "The Las Vegas Age".  His wife, Delphine, was a founder of the womens civic organization, The Mesquite Club.  For over 50 years the Squires were an important family in the fabric of Las Vegas.

Their house still stands in the historic district near the original Las Vegas High School.  But developers want to bulldoze it and build what else, a McOffice, on the site and adjoining property.

Now is the time to stand up and say "ENOUGH!' to the continued destruction of our history, our neighborhoods and our community.

Write or call Mayor Oscar Goodman and the members of the Las Vegas City Council:  Gary Reese, Lois Tarkanian, Steve Wolfson, Ricky Barlow, Larry Brown and Steve Ross and tell them that you don't want the Squires home to be torn down.

The City Council meets on November 5th to vote on the matter.

Las Vegas City Council
City Hall, Tenth Floor
400 Stewart Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: (702) 229-6405
Fax: (702) 382-8558

Business Hours: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The developers are open to the idea of moving the house but only if someone else will pay for it.  The bottom line is that the house should not be moved nor should it be destroyed.  It should remain in the historic Las Vegas High School neighborhood where it can be appreciated for years to come by residents and tourists alike as part of the history of Las Vegas.