Moulin Rouge may be coming back to life!
In all the hubbub of last week, we forgot to shine the spotlight on this very important news.
According to an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal , out-of-town investors have partnered with the local Moulin Rouge Development Corp. to revitalize the once-proud hotel/casino on Bonanza Road.
The Moulin Rouge, of course, was the first segregated hotel in Las Vegas and opened on the Westside in 1955. It quickly became the 'in' spot with its dance troupe from the famed Cotton Club in New York and a nightly list of entertainment that kept the joint jumping until the early hours of the morning.
Despite its seeming success, the hotel closed abruptly months later. Despite many different efforts to re-open the fabled casino and showroom, for too many years the property sat empty and forlorn. In 2003, work began on restoring the casino and the showroom. Unfortunately, in 2004, an arson fire gutted all but the front wall and Betty Willis' iconic sign.
That serious money is being invested with a look towards rebuilding and restoring the Moulin Rouge is great news. We hope this time it comes to pass.
To read the article, click here.
The La Concha and the Las Vegas Neon Museum
As we noted a few weeks back in our Historic Site of the Week, the La Concha is being pieced back together so that it can serve as the lobby and gift shop for the Neon Museum.
Kristen Peterson, in today's Las Vegas Sun brings us up to date on the progress.:
"But after all these years of bulldozing our history, neglecting the unique architecture, something had to give. That something was this conch-inspired structure that served as the entrance to La Concha Motel, built when 5,000-room hotels weren’t even part of the discussion.
Neon was our visual commodity then. We were the first midcentury modern city. A city with no past. No 19th-century concert halls or skyscrapers to define us. No vast inventory of historic sites.
But now La Concha is our past."
Click here to read the rest of the article.
This is an important preservation project on many different levels. Thanks to the efforts of the Neon Museum and its donors, the La Concha did not go quietly into the night and the pages of history. It was saved from the wrecking ball and moved across town to find new life as the gateway to the Neon Museum.
In a town that will (hopefully) discover cultural tourism one of these days and have enough historic buildings left to make it viable, the La Concha stands as the outpost for what cultural tourism can do for Fremont Street and Downtown Las Vegas.
This is an important step in the right direction for a city that too often only thinks of the next big thing. The Friends of Classic Las Vegas encourages everyone to support the Neon Museum in this important endeavor.
Thanks to LasVegasTodayandTomorrow for letting us this photo.
The Las Vegas I Remember
"It was a city of neon" Sen. Richard Bryan, interview 2005
I am haunted by places that I remember. As I drive around Las Vegas in the 21st Century, I am constantly reminded of the Las Vegas of the 20th Century and the places that were once there and now only live in my (and maybe yours) memory.
It's not easy driving by a new box store or a new faux-Tuscan shopping mall and remembering the businesses that were once there.
There seems to be a trend in this new century to make every city look the same.
When I was growing up, one of the joys of going on a road trip was to see some place different. From roadside architecture to signage to mom and pop businesses, the highways and byways of America were filled with unique businesses and only a smattering of chain restaurants such as Sambo's, Howard Johnson's or IHOP.
Today, the uniqueness is almost all but gone and the roadways of America are filled with places such as Home Depot, Loewe's, Target, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Office Depot, Staples, Ramada Inn and many more all done in the lastest faux-Mediterran/Tuscan architecture.
I remember the little motor motels that used to dot the Strip. This, of course, was back in the day when you drove the Strip. The then resort hotels were surrounded by expanses of desert and you could not walk from one to the other the way you can today. That Strip was built for the automobile. With wonderful neon signs that glowed in the night, that Strip welcomed the weary traveler to come in off the road, it didn't matter if it was the Sands Hotel or the Desert Rose Motel. Those little motels with their dancing neon signs were just as much a part of the Las Vegas Strip of yore as the gas stations, restaurants and wedding chapels.
I remember Fremont Street when it was still open to traffic and cruising on Friday and Saturday nights. Kids began cruising Fremont Street in the late 1930s. As Fremont Street grew beyond 6th Street and all the way down to Boulder Highway, there was the Blue Onion Drive-In (down near where the Blue Angel Motel stands today) and kids would start there and head west on Fremont trying to hit the green lights. As they neared the train depot the idea was to hit the green light at Main, go around the circular drive in front of the depot, hit the green light again and head back to the Blue Onion. Then, grab a coke and start the ritual all over again.
Long before the canopy was put over Fremont Street and traffic cordoned off, the neon used to shoot into the sky and the street was known as Glitter Gulch. Small gambling halls competed along side the better known places such as the Horseshoe Club and the Golden Nugget. There were retail stores like Coronet and Woolworths, Sears and JC Penney's and our own homegrown, Ronzone's.
Restaurants, motor hotels and gas stations lined the fabled street where once houses had stood. Today, some of the facades still stand but more and more are falling to the wrecking ball as developers with high-rise/mixed use fever move in.
Here are some of my favorite memories:
This wonderful restaurant had been at three different locations before its final location across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center Rotunda.
When architecture and signage wasn't homogenized.
Today, I wonder why Americans ever leave home any more if every where they travel to looks like where they live.
Special Thanks to RoadsidePictures for letting us these images.