A Brief History of Downtown (cont.)

Fitzgeralds - at Third and Fremont

This property was originally a mercantile store shortly after the land auction of 1905.  It was owned by a couple who spent most of their lives traveling around the Southwest.

In its heart of the community era, Sewell's Market was on this corner and was one of the most successful markets in the downtown area.  When Sewell's moved to another location, this became the site of CH Baker Shoes.  Next door was Pott's Store for Men. 

CH Baker Shoe Ad

CH Baker Shoes was a wonderful store, very popular with showgirls and women who were interested in the fashions of the day.  Kids, boys especially,  would have there faces pressed against the glass looking at the glamourous women trying on shoes.

In 1971, CH Baker and Potts Mens Store were closed and the property became an office building.  Next door were Schwartz Brothers Mens Wear (I guess guys still needed more mens stores back then), Zale's Jewelers, the Silver Dollar Trading Post, a McDonald's and a Thrifty Drugs.

Before it was a McDonalds, that property was the Hickory Wood Pit BBQue which had roasting chickens in the window.  Old timers still fondly remember that smell. 

In 1937, JC Penney's had a store and catalogue department at 319 Fremont Street.  It was an old brick building (still is) with a second floor.  Old timers remember the second floor was where the change was made.  Pneumatic tubes ran from the second floor to the check out counters and sales clerks would take your money, put it in the tube with your bill, press the button and the tube would carry your money upstairs where change was made and the tube sent back down to the counter.  Penney's later moved further east on Fremont where the Fremont Medical Building is today.

When Penney's moved, the property likely became Thrifty Drugs.  The second floor was where large items such as furniture were sold, a rather novel idea fordrug stores in todays' way of thinking. Today, it is Tiffany's Souvenir Shop.

Tiffany's Souvenirs Gifts

Next to Tiffany's on the western corner of Fourth and Fremont today sits the Western Village with a gold rush miner on the roof.  This originally was Indian Joe's Souvenirs and Western Indian Wear.  Next door was Franklin's Women's Wear in a small building but it made up in length what it lacked in width. 

In 1979, the Sundance Casino opened on the corner.  In 1987, it became Fitzgerald's and the mascot was a leprechaun known as Mr. Lucky.  When the hotel rebranded itself a few years ago, Mr. Lucky was sent to the Neon boneyard.  While in the boneyard, he met with an unfortunate fire of suspicious nature and was badly damaged.

Special thanks to Allen Sandquist! 

A Brief History of Downtown (cont.)

The Four Queens (western corner)

This was originally the location for White Cross Drugs.  It became White Cross Rexall in the early 1960s. There was a soda fountain in the Drugstore as well.  Wayne Newton, when still a teenager and performing with his brother Jerry at the Fremont Hotel, would leave the Fremont and have a soda at White Cross until his next set.  Next to White Cross was Bentley's Trading Post and Mode O'Day Womens Fashions.There was a hotel on the second floor above Mode O'Day.  Skaggs Drug Store with its neon signage, MJ Christensen Jewelers, Bain's Ladies Fashion. Smith and Chandler Western Wear moved from Second and Fremont, to next to Bain's.

In 1964, the 4 Queens bought the property and construction began on the new hotel and casino. White Cross moved south down Las Vegas Blvd to its current location at Oakey.  Ben Goffstein was the majority owner and named the Four Queens after his four daughtersWhen it opened it only had 120 rooms and 20,000 square feet of casino.

The owners of the 4 Queens bought out Bentley's and Mode O'Day and built the 4 Kings Arcade where school kids could be found after school and on the weekends playing pinball and such.

The Eastern corner of what is now the 4 Queens was City Drug which was owned by Frank Bolig.  I'm not sure why there were three drug stores on this block but Drug Stores were very popular on Fremont with the Las Vegas Pharmacy at First and Fremont for over fifty years.  Further east on Fremont, near Seventh Street was Fremont Drugs as well.

The Las Vegas Pharmacy was torn down and is today Mermaids.  Where Fremont Drugs stood is now a Cuban Restaurant. 

In 1972, the 4 Queens built a tower that sits back off Fremont Street and used the same motif as the original building.

In 1975, they annexed all the businesses and expanded down to the eastern corner. 

They also held an exhibit in 1975 of reproductions of the famed Crown Jewels of England which included a knighting sword, the Orb of England and the Imperial State Crown. 

Today, the Four Queens takes up the entire block on Fremont Street and goes back all the way to Carson Street.

Four Queens

A Brief History of Downtown (cont.)

The Pioneer Club (western corner)

This was home to the Isis Theater in the early days of Las Vegas.  There were a couple of movie theaters in those early years.  The Majestic and the Airdome were also on Fremont Street.  The Airdome was an open air theater with some canvas walls, a screen and chairs.  In the summertime, they were the one theater to show movies outside, and as there was no air conditioning, they did good business on a summer's night.

The Isis gave way in the 1920s to the Las Vegas Hotel and Cafe and then became the Smokehouse Restaurant.  The Smokehouse had a tough go of it at that time.  The Union Pacific had pulled out of Las Vegas during the strike of 1922.  While trains still came through hauling passengers and freight, the machine and welding shops were closed.  "Live was pretty tough in those days", remembers Ed Von Tobel, Jr.

As the population dwindled down to only the most heartiest who continued to believe in the town, the Smokehouse closed.  The Bank Club opened very briefly and then in 1930 reopened as the original Las Vegas Club.  The Las Vegas Club received one of the first gaming licenses offered in 1931.

The Las Vegas Club would remain at this location untlil the late 1940s.  It was then that owner Kell Houssels, Sr moved the Club across the street to its present location.

In 1947, Housels took on a partner, a colorful Texas gambler by the name of Benny Binion.  When Houssels moved the Las Vegas Club across the street, Benny Binion opened The Westerner with its moving neon sign and mural opened in its place. 

Fremont Street day mid 1940s

The Pioneer Club (eastern corner):

Jake Beckley came to Las Vegas with Ed Von Tobel, Sr.  They were both young men looking for another chance.   They found it here in Downtown Las Vegas.  Together they would start Von Tobel Lumber.  It was originally on Main Street, south of the train depot.  But in a small town just beginning to grow, Von Tobel Lumber was considered too far out of town and was one of almost ten Lumber Yards.  Times were tough.

Jake Beckley decided that perhaps what people needed more than Lumber and Hardware was clothes.  His brother Will was just the guy for the job.  The Beckley brothers bought a building on the south side of Fremont Street on the corner of 1st Street.   There they opened Beckley's Mens Wear.  The three-story building featured the store on the ground floor and offices upstairs.  One of the rooms on the second floor was used as a social gathering place by the Mesquite Club and other women's auxiliaries.   Jake, shortly afterward, amicably ended his partnership with Von Tobel.

Beckley's Mens Wear soon branched out to other fashions as well.  The business did well, surviving the Depression.  In the mid-1940s, the store was closed.  The building was leased to Tudor Scherer and his partners, Farmer Page, ChuckAddison and Bill Curland.  The Beckley's kept the land.  Scherer and his partners opened the Pioneer Club in 1942.

In a smart move in 1951, the Chamber of Commerce approached Young Electric Sign Company about designing and building a neon cowboy for the Pioneer Club.  Vegas Vic was to become the icon of Fremont Street.  Myths over the years having various designers being responsible for Vic and many others purported to be the model.  Vic was designed by one of Yesco's Salt Lake City designers, Patrick Denner.  Vic was 75 feet tall, had one moveable arm with a glowing cigarette in one hand and the other arm moved back and forth.  He had a voice box that proclaimed "Howdy Podner" every 15 minutes.  Vic stopped talking in 1966 when Lee Marvin and Woody Strode, tired after a day of working on location in the Valley of Fire for the film "The Professionals", were kept awake by Vic's friendly greeting.  Taking a couple of bows and arrows from the prop department, one night they commenced shooting at Vic from their hotel rooms across the street at the Mint Hotel.  City Fathers decided that perhaps it was best if Vic stopped talking.  Vic has an older brother of sorts, Wendover Will located fittingly enough in Wendover, Nevada.  He, too, was designed by Patrick Denner.

The Pioneer Club had various owners over the years including Circus Circus executives, one of which was the grandson of Will Beckley.  The Pioneer finally closed in 1995 and became the large souvenir shop it is today.  It is now owned by Schiff Enterprises.

The signage over the years has changed very little.  The rooftop sign that faces east towards the Golden Nugget is endangered.  Leroy's Sports Book and Mike's Liquor which used to be on First Street next to the Pioneer have recently been demolished.  Across Fremont Street, there once was a roof-top sign on the old Las Vegas Pharmacy building.  This colorful neon sign had a neon Vegas Vic face with signage proclaiming There it is! The Famous Pioneer Club and an arrow pointing across the street towards the Pioneer Club.  That sign was destroyed in the late 1950s when the Pharmacy Building was demolished to make room for the Silver Palace.

Vegas Vic still presides over Fremont Street.  He went through a few years of disrepair.  But when the Fremont Street Experience was erected, Vic's famous ten galloon hat was reduced and his waving arm became immobile so that he would fit under the Experience's canopy.  Today he is one of the few remaining iconic pieces of neon from Fremont Street's days as Glitter Gulch.

New Pioneer Club

A Brief History of Downtown (cont.)

#15 Fremont Street - La Bayou/The Northern Club

Across the alley from the Golden Gate, today sits the La Bayou, where you can get an assortment of souvenirs and large drinks.

On the side of the wall, the paint is peeling and you can see traces of the signage that use to be there.  Hopefully, the paint will continue to peel so that we can discover the business underneath it.

This is the site of the famed Northern Club.  But before it became the Northern Club, in the 1900s it was the Las Vegas Coffee House.  In 1920, Mayme Stocker opened the Northern Club on the property.  Originally it was a soft drink emporium but Northern was code, back in the day, for miners and veterans of mining camps and they knew it was a place, despite Prohibition, where they could not only get a real drink to wet their whistle but also take a chance at Lady Luck.  Mayme was the owner of record.  Her husband, Oscar, worked for the Union Pacific which seriously frowned on their employees having outside interests.

Despite the anti-gambling law, their were five games of chance that could be played in Las Vegas back then:  stud, draw and lowball poker, 500 and bridge, according to Mayme's son, Harold.Harold had quite a colorful childhood moving with his mother between Montana and Las Vegas and then to Los Angeles when the Grammer School burned down.  One summer, Harold went down to Tijuana and got a job learning to deal.  He was only 17 years old.  After WWI, Harold returned to Las Vegas and got a job, like his father and brothers, working for the Railroad.

The Northern was said to be a stand up place that didn't cater in women.  That was for Block 16, the red-light district, just off Fremont Street.  Harold, ever the entrepreneur, however invested in a few brothels on Block 16,

In 1931, with the anti-gambling law repealed, Mayme Stocker applied for and was awarded the first gaming license in Las Vegas.  Harold's older brother Lester was a professional gambler and according to Harold, was largely responsible for getting the anti-gambling law repealed.  The $10,000 that the Stocker family helped raise to fight the anti-gambling law probably didn't hurt either.

After Lester and Oscar died, Mayme retired from the Northern Club, letting others handle the daily operations of the place.  In 1945 she leased the place to Wilbur Clark who promptly renamed it the Monte Carlo Club.  Clarence Stocker continued to run the Northern Hotel on the second floor.

Harold built and operated the Chief Autel Court, the largest apartment building in the State in its day.  It was a brick building located at Fremont Street and Maryland Parkway.

Clarence died in 1952, Mayme died in 1972 at the age of 97 and Harold died in 1983 at the age of 82.

In the late 1970s, the Coin Castle with its giant King atop the building, opened on the site.  The Coin Castle closed shortly after the turn of the century.  The King's head and his body are in the Neon Museum boneyard.

Coin Castle King