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In 1931, with the anti-gambling law repealed, Mayme Stocker applied for and was awarded the first gaming license in Las Vegas.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Lester was a professional gambler and according to Harold, was largely responsible for getting the anti-gambling law repealed.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

A Brief History of Downtown (cont.)

#1 Fremont Street- The Golden Gate

Across the street from The Plaza on the south side of the street, at #1 Fremont Street, is The Golden Gate Hotel.  Considered to be one of the oldest hotels in Las Vegas, the Golden Gate was originally the Hotel Nevada.  During the land auction of 1905, this corner was a tent hotel.  Men who had brought parcels of land and had no place to stay, stayed here bunking in shifts with other men.  In 1906, the tent was replaced with the brick facade of the Hotel Nevada.  The publisher of the Las Vegas Age newspaper, Charles "Pop" Squires had his office in the Hotel Nevada.  When telephone service finally came to Southern Nevada in 1907.  Hard to imagine that people once had houses on Fremont Street.  The Hotel Nevada benefited from being across the road  from the train depot.

Downtown 1920s

Gambling was against the law until in 1931, when desperate to stir up some tourism trade the voters repealed the anti-gambling law. 

Perhaps to celebrate, in 1931, the Hotel Nevada underwent a name change and became the Sal Sagev (Las Vegas spelled backwards).

Downtown 1930s

The property, with its neon script Entrance sign in the back and its neon script blue Restaurant sign next to the Alley,    remained the Sal Sagev until 1955.  In 1955, a casino opened on the ground floor and became the Golden Gate Casino.

Golden Gate Restaurant

In 1964, while making Viva Las Vegas!, Elvis Presley drove down Fremont Street passing the Golden Gate Hotel.  In 1974, the owners of the Golden Gate bought the hotel and it the entire property becomes the Golden Gate Casino and Hotel.   In the late 1990s, the owners stripped off the faux-1960s metal awning on the building and restored it back to its original brick facade.  The Golden Gate is famous for its 99 cent shrimp cocktail.

A Brief History of Fremont Street

A Brief History of Fremont Street

It's hard to belief, when I look at Downtown today, how much it has changed over the years.  Harvey Diederich told me "Downtown use to be much more important than it is today" and Carey Burke says "there were more changes there than anywhere else for a long time".

Today the main reason to go downtown is for the Fremont Experience, the fried twinkies, big drinks and loose slots.  But it wasn't alway like that. 

Downtown use to be the center of the universe in Las Vegas.  The train depot, movie theaters, restaurants, shopping, cruising Fremont, gambling halls, lumber stores, homes, it was all centered around Downtown. 

When I was a kid, back to school meant mom was taking me to Ronzone's to get my feet x-rayed and buy new clothes.  If Ronzone's was too expensive, there was Sears and JC Penneys.  Coronet and Woolworth kept us supplied in school supplies.  Lil Pardners kept us dressed in Helldorado finery.

Wanted groceries, go downtown.  Wanted a good meal, go downtown.  The first Pizzeria was opened on Fremont Street shortly after WWII ended.  The owners?  Former Lt. Governor Lorraine Hunt's parents. The Beanery in the Depot, the Silver Cafe serving fine American and Chinese Food.

Needed a prescription filled, we had White Cross Drugs (before they moved to Las Vegas Blvd South and Oakey), the Las Vegas Pharmacy and a Skaggs.  Needed shoes?Gallenkamp and Florsheim Shoes were on Fremont Street.  Need a suit or a good pair of pants?  Alan and Hanson's Mens Wear.  Diamond Ring?  No problem, MJ Christensen's Jewelers.  Ice Cream? The Sweet Shoppe.   Hardware? Von Tobel's Lumber was the first and only stop for most folks.

There were Indian Trading Posts, Smith and Chandler Western Wear, Ullom Photography Studios, a Pottery Shop and enough neon on the store fronts to keep your eyes entranced for days.  And that's not even including the neon facades of the gambling halls.

It truly was Glitter Gulch. 

A little history on Fremont Street and the places (many of which are no longer there) that made it the hub of commerce, socializing and tourism.

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#1 Main Street:  Before the Union Plaza was built, this is where the Train Depot stood.  In 1905, the  Railroad offered a bargain to men and women who wanted to travel to Las Vegas for the land auction.  If they bought land at the auction, they could get their train ticket reimbursed.  Ed Von Tobel's father and Will Beckley took the train.  By 1906, the little town of Las Vegas had a train depot.

The original train depot was done in Spanish architecture and sat at the end of Fremont Street.  It was surrounded by 63 acres of prime real estate that was owned by the Union Pacific Railroad.  There were various metal and welding shops for repairing the engines and a Roundhouse.  

Train Depot circa 1924

Railroad Crew

Gambling was outlawed in Las Vegas in 1909.  However, this being Las Vegas, it wasn't that difficult to find a game of chance if you looked hard enough.  In 1913, a new street lamp system was tested for the first time.  The Las Vegas Age reported "The installation of the street lights will mark a long forward step in the life and business activity of the town and is the subject of much self-congratulation for our people".  In 1919, a Fourth of July celebration includes a parade down Fremont Street welcoming home WWI servicemen, a street dance with a full orchestra and a baseball game with Ernie Cragen as the catcher.  A brand new field was constructed on railroad property west of downtown.  Ninety years later Mayor Goodman still believes in that concept.  In 1925, Fremont Street is paved between Main Street and Fifth Street (now Las Vegas Blvd. South).  "Beyond that", says George Foley, Sr "if you wanted to see pavement, you had to go to Barstow".  In 1926, the highway connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas was opened.  Though officially called Highway 91, locals always referred to as the "road to Los Angeles".  By 1931, the first street light was operating on Fremont Street.

Downtown

Over the years, as the little town grew up around Fremont Street, stately oak trees were planted and a circular drive was put in.  During the construction of Hoover Dam, men slept on the lawn of the Depot waiting for the Dam Employment Office to open.

The Beanery was one of the best places in town for a meal. The first long distance telephone call was received  here.  In 1940, the depot got a make-over and an Art Deco/Streamline Moderne building took its place.  Wit the circular drive, it became a popular cruising spot for teenagers from Las Vegas High.  They would start down on East Fremont Street at the Blue Onion Drive-In, head west on Fremont and the trick was to go all the way to the end of Fremont, go around the circular drive at the Depot, and then back down Fremont without hitting a red light.  This was called "Doin' the Donut".

The City of Las Vegas train brought passengers from around the country to Las Vegas.  But Las Vegas was growing.  In the mid-1960s, Irwin Molasky built the Boulevard Mall and suddenly, we didn't need to go downtown to do our shopping.  Over the years, the Indian Trading Posts, Western Wear stores and Pottery stores gave way to T-Shirt stores and souvenirs.  As the town grew with small suburbs, we no longer had to go downtown to eat.  Now, there were good restaurants in our own neighborhoods.  People began to fly into McCarran International Airport or arrive via car from the new Interstate Highway.  Train travel began to decline.

In 1969, they tore the Train Depot down.  There was only a small outcry from long time citizens.  In its place, would be the Union Plaza Hotel.  As part of this Hotel/Casino, it would have a small bus and train depot for those passengers.  This was also be the main switching area for the local RTD buses.

If you watch the movie "Diamonds are Forever" you can see the site under construction. 

The Union Plaza opened in 1971.  It's original owners were: Sam Boyd, Jackie Gaughan, Kell Houssels, Jr and other businessmen.  In 1986, Jackie Gaughan bought out his partners and it became Jackie Gaughan's Union Plaza.  In 2003, Jackie Gaughan sold the Union Plaza to Barrick Gaming.  Today it is just called The Plaza.

Rumors continue to swirl that the Plaza has a date with the wrecking ball.  The city owns the original 63 acres having bought that property from the Union Pacific Railroad.  Rumors have it that Mayor Goodman wants the Plaza razed so that the whole area, including the 63 acres, can become mixed use residential and retail.

The Union Pacific Railroad still goes through Las Vegas but it is as freight only.  Amtrack stopped train service to Las Vegas about 10 years ago.  Rumors persist that Amtrack is considering bringing back the Desert Wind for service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

This being Las Vegas, stay tuned. 

 Special thanks to UNLV Special Collections, Nevada State Museum and Historical Society, Allen Sandquist and Carey Burke for permission in using all the photos.

Downtown

Update

on 2007-09-23 20:52 by LasVegasLynn

Word comes from our pals at CheapoVegas.com that Tamares has closed the Center Stage restuarant overlooking Fremont Street and turned it into a Sports Bar.  This was where the swimming pool was originally located when the Union Plaza first opened.

The swimming pool gave way to the Center Stage (which has a guest appearance in the opening credits of Michael Mann's mid-1980 television show, Crime Story) .