It was a majestic mid-century modern piece of architecture sitting right there on Fremont Street amid the western motif of the Golden Nugget and the western flavor of Benny Binion's Horseshoe Club.
The Mint, all pink and adorned in a necklace of chaser lights and neon, is the one hotel on Fremont Street that to this day, when Hollywood set designers want to reference that era and Las Vegas, the Mint is the go-to choice. With its pylon sign and the chaser lights rising into the night sky to light the neon star at the top of the pylon, the Mint gloried in its mid-century modern finery.
Read MoreWith the debut of SlotZilla and the zip line over Fremont Street, we thought it was the perfect time to spotlight Fremont Street in our "Lost Vegas" series.
Fremont Street hasn't always looked like this. Before that damn canopy and "light show" that was meant to attract tourists looking for something different that they couldn't find on the Strip, Fremont Street was one of the most photographed streets in the world thanks to all the neon and its moniker, "Glitter Gulch".
Read MoreLike all good "Lost" Vegas stories, this one begins with a myth:
For decades, the story has been that hotelier Tommy Hull's car broke down on the old LA Highway (Highway 91) near San Francisco Avenue (now Sahara Avenue). It was a hot day with the sun beating down. While waiting for a tow truck, Hull counted the cars that drove by and envisioned a swimming pool that fronted on the highway and would invite weary, sweaty travelers to stop at his hotel.
It's a good story but it's a myth.
Tommy Hull was friends with civic booster extraordinare, Big Jim Cashman. Hull had a chain of El Rancho hotels in California and he operated the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. Cashman worked hard to convince Hull that he should build one of his El Rancho Hotels in Las Vegas. One night over drinks at the Hotel Apache, Hull finally agreed with Cashman. It was 1939 and Las Vegas was a small town. Downtown on Fremont Street (click here for our Brief History of Fremont Street) were a few gambling halls and hotels but nothing on the scale of the El Rancho. Hull priced property in Las Vegas and then turned his eye to the County property on the other side of San Francisco Avenue. The property was owned by Mrs. Jessie Hunt and she thought it was worthless. She had 33 acres that she was all but ready to give away Wanting to get the most for his investment, Hull bought the property (and an additional 33 acres) at a cost of $150 per acre- oh those were the days- on the southwest corner of San Francisco Avenue and Highway 91.
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