Important Update on Saturday's Meeting about the Huntridge Theater

From one of the organizers, Josh Geidel:

 

 

Momentum continues to build.  Opinion continues to solidify. Information continues to gather.

The unique opportunity we have to voice our community opinion on the significance of the Huntridge Theatre draws closer at hand.

Due to the volume of response to our Saturday's Meeting we have decided to change venues.

NEW LOCATION:
Saturday, March 8th, 5:00pm
Downtown Cocktail Room
111 Las Vegas Boulevard

Michael Cornthwaite, the ever generous proprietor of the Downtown Cocktail Room, will be kindly opening his doors to us.  For this we are very grateful!

Pizza will still be on hand and continue to encourage folks to bring other dishes if they so choose.  Non-host beverages will be available through the bar.

Also, TONIGHT we will be gathering at LoPro, Downtown Cocktail Room's singular networking mixer to discuss agenda and topics for Saturday's meeting.  This is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with one of Downtown Las Vegas's most significant weekly get togethers.  Thursday evening 4:30pm on.

Please Help:
*  Casual head counts might help.. to those of you mailing to "lists" please let know of your expected turn-out.  Individuals receiving this message... RSVP not required.
*  Trying to gather pertinent contact information, especially emails, in a central location.  If you have contact info of interested parties, please forward to me for database compilation.
*  SPREAD THE WORD!!!!     INVITE   E V E R Y O N E  ! ! !

NEWS and NOTES:
KNPR's State of Nevada- Eli Mizrachi, current owner of the Huntridge, and I will be appearing with Dave Berns on Monday March 10th's program during the 9:00am hour... please call in with your support, questions and insight.
Las Vegas Sun- Looking in on City Hall
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/05/state-nances-may-stunt-effort-save-huntridge-theat/
Las Vegas Sun- Sun Editorial
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/02/saving-past/
Las Vegas Sun- Joe Schoenemann's Breaking Story
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/feb/28/historic-huntridge-could-face-destruction/
www.SaveTheHuntridge.com- We are in-touch with a webmaster and bandwidth provider and are in the process of developing the page.  Please check back frequently and enjoy its development.
Classic Las Vegas- Blogged info:
http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/classic-las-vegas-blog/
http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/historic-site-of-the-week/2007/9/12/endangered-site-of-the-week.html
http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/classic-las-vegas-blog/2008/2/14/las-vegas-theaters-and-movies-i-remember.html
Very Vintage Vegas- Blogged info:
http://veryvintagevegas.com/
Lotta Living- Discussion Forum
http://www.lottaliving.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=10491
Friends of the Huntridge- State Funding-- item 26
http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/DOCS/shpo/CCA/CCAProjects(2007-1993).htm
NRS Statute- Regarding Preservation
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-383.html
NRS Statute- Cultural Affairs
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-233C.html

Thanks everyone,
Looking forward to tonight and Saturday!!!The unique opportunity we have to voice our community opinion on the significance of the Huntridge Theatre draws closer at hand.

Due to the volume of response to our Saturday's Meeting we have decided to change venues.

NEW LOCATION:
Saturday, March 8th, 5:00pm
Downtown Cocktail Room
111 Las Vegas Boulevard

Michael Cornthwaite, the ever generous proprietor of the Downtown Cocktail Room, will be kindly opening his doors to us.  For this we are very grateful!

Pizza will still be on hand and continue to encourage folks to bring other dishes if they so choose.  Non-host beverages will be available through the bar.

Also, TONIGHT we will be gathering at LoPro, Downtown Cocktail Room's singular networking mixer to discuss agenda and topics for Saturday's meeting.  This is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with one of Downtown Las Vegas's most significant weekly get togethers.  Thursday evening 4:30pm on.

Please Help:
*  Casual head counts might help.. to those of you mailing to "lists" please let know of your expected turn-out.  Individuals receiving this message... RSVP not required.
*  Trying to gather pertinent contact information, especially emails, in a central location.  If you have contact info of interested parties, please forward to me for database compilation.
*  SPREAD THE WORD!!!!     INVITE   E V E R Y O N E  ! ! !

NEWS and NOTES:
KNPR's State of Nevada- Eli Mizrachi, current owner of the Huntridge, and I will be appearing with Dave Berns on Monday March 10th's program during the 9:00am hour... please call in with your support, questions and insight.
Las Vegas Sun- Looking in on City Hall
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/05/state-nances-may-stunt-effort-save-huntridge-theat/
Las Vegas Sun- Sun Editorial
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/mar/02/saving-past/
Las Vegas Sun- Joe Schoenemann's Breaking Story
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2008/feb/28/historic-huntridge-could-face-destruction/
www.SaveTheHuntridge.com- We are in-touch with a webmaster and bandwidth provider and are in the process of developing the page.  Please check back frequently and enjoy its development.
Classic Las Vegas- Blogged info:
http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/classic-las-vegas-blog/
http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/historic-site-of-the-week/2007/9/12/endangered-site-of-the-week.html
http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/classic-las-vegas-blog/2008/2/14/las-vegas-theaters-and-movies-i-remember.html
Very Vintage Vegas- Blogged info:
http://veryvintagevegas.com/
Lotta Living- Discussion Forum
http://www.lottaliving.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=10491
Friends of the Huntridge- State Funding-- item 26
http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/DOCS/shpo/CCA/CCAProjects(2007-1993).htm
NRS Statute- Regarding Preservation
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-383.html
NRS Statute- Cultural Affairs
http://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-233C.html

Thanks everyone,
Looking forward to tonight and Saturday!!!

Happy Birthday VeryVintageVegas!

We send Happy Birthday greetings to our pals at VERYVINTAGEVEGAS.COM.

It's hard to believe that they are celebrating their first birthday!  Seems like only yesterday we met their ringleader,

Jack LeVine,  for coffee at Starbucks.

Since then so much has happened.  We applaud their efforts to keep the urban core of Downtown first and foremost on everyone's mind.  We also applaud their tenacity in promoting the area as a very livable place away from the cookie-cutter suburbs that are engulfing our historic town.

We are pleased to have them as partners in preserving, honoring and keeping the flame of Classic Las Vegas alive and glowing.

If you are downtown on Thursday evening (before coming to our Untold Stories) stop in at the  Downtown Cocktail Room and wish the VVV crew a very Happy Birthday!  Buy a round for them for doing all they do in keeping Vintage and Classic Las Vegas from the wrecking ball! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS! 

MAY ALL YOUR WISHES COME TRUE! 

Huntridge Tops the List of Immediately Endangered Buildings

Well, there's been lots of talk all day in back circles about the big news:

The venerable Huntridge Theater, one of the movie theaters of not only my youth but all of us of a certain age, is in very real danger.

Emails are flying back and forth between preservation groups and everyone is waiting to see what the Las Vegas Sun reports in the morning.

Word on the street is that the owner of the Huntridge, Eli Mizrachi is going to approach the State Cultural Affairs Commission in March.  Seems that Mizrachi wants to pay back the money he got from the State for restoration of the Huntridge years ago.  In return, he is hoping to get permission TO TEAR DOWN the Huntridge.

On Friday the Cultural Affairs Commission discussed allowing current Huntridge owner Eli Mizrachi repay the state $1.5 million in grant money that was designated to renovate and restore the Huntridge into a top-notch performing venue. Mizrachi wants to cut the strings attached to the money. Right now he can't demolish the building or even alter it without prior approval from the State Historic Preservation Officer. And, its use has to be as a performing arts space. 

But if he gets permission from the Cultural Affairs Commission and Ron James, the State Historic Preservation Officer, to repay the money, then the road will be clear for Mizrachi to approach the City of Las Vegas Planning Commission  about razing the building and building something new there.

This will be a lightning rod issue for all the preservation groups.  The historic theater designed by renowned theater architect S. Charles Lee and originally owned, in part,  by Loretta Young and Irene Dunne has been a part of the Las Vegas landscape since the 1940s.

Frank Sinatra premiered his movie "Suddenly" there selling tickets from the box office to the adoring crowds.  It was the home of Disney animated features when I was younger.  It has been a theater, a night club and a performing arts venue.  There are people in town who very much want to see it returned to its former glory as a performing arts venue that provides not only for the community at large but for the near-by historic neighborhoods as well.

This one will likely create a firestorm of opinions.

So stay tuned.  We will update this story in the morning as soon as we have more information.

In the meantime, here's two previous articles on the history of the Huntridge:

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/classic-las-vegas-blog/2008/2/14/las-vegas-theaters-and-movies-i-remember.html

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/historic-site-of-the-week/2007/9/12/endangered-site-of-the-week.html 

 

 

 

Special Thanks to RoadsidePictures for allowing us to use this image. 

Also blogging about this issue is the crew from VeryVintageVegas.com 

Water, the Scotch 80s and the First Mayor of Las Vegas

 

Pete Buol watches water flow like black gold out of an artesian well. 

Las Vegas mayors seem to have always been a colorful group.  Then as now, they were frequently outspoken and seemed to attract controversy. Though Las Vegas was founded in 1905 with the famed land auction it would be six years before the citizens of that small dusty community felt the need for a mayor.  The city of Las Vegas was incorporated in 1911 and with that brought the need for a mayor.

The first mayor was also one of the biggest civic boosters.  Along with "Big Jim" Cashman, Sr and Maxwell Kelch, Las Vegas city boosters tend to have larger than life personalities.  Pete Buol was no exception.  He was the optimistic sort who looked at that dusty railroad town and could see a brighter future ahead.  Not everyone has that knack and Buol appears to have possessed it in spades.   According to his campaign literature "ability doesn't count, knowledge is useless, experience has no worth without the driving force of optimism."   He had grown up in Chicago, the son of a Swiss master chef.  He had an eighth grade education but more importantly, he had ambition.

 

Pete Buol the first mayor of Las Vegas 

He won a lottery at 19 and found himself worth over $100,000.  Unfortunately for Buol, he didn't have the acumen for finances and quickly ran through the money.  He made another small fortune with a food concession at the Chicago's Exposition.  He served over 5,000 people a day, charging $.25 cents a meal.

He came west and spent some time in Hollywood before heading to Nevada.  He had hoped to invest in a mine in Goldfield but, as he later told a reporter, his bankroll was too small in Goldfield to have much of an impact.  He decided to go to Las Vegas.  He arrived by stagecoach just ahead of the railroad and the land auction.

The town was barely a town.  There was the old Kiel Ranch, the Stewart Ranch and a couple of wildcat businessmen, Jim Ladd and John Miller, had some tent hotels.  The only physician in town, Halle Hewetson, operated out of a tent.   Buol decided that real estate might be worth investing in. 

In 1905, at the land auction, Buol had two subdivisions for sale.  Buol's Addition, which was just west of the railyard, shops and Ice Plant and Buol's Sub-division was "just far enough away to be out of the noise and smoke of the shops and engines."

Buol quickly realized that one of the most important elements of selling real estate in this climate was water.  The Railroad had secured the water rights to Big Springs, the large artesian springs,  which fed the creek that ran down to the Stewart Ranch (where the Sawyer Government Building is today).  But Buol noticed that there were other artesian springs bubbling up around the valley.  Less than six months after the land auction, Buol was the manager of the Vegas Artesian Water Syndicate and he was ready to start drilling for water.

Buol was not the only one drilling for water.  Others were drilling for irrigation and crops.  Buol was drilling to enhance housing development.  In 1910, he brought in a large well near 6th and Fremont (near where the El Cortez is today), adjacent to his Buck's Addition. 

The railroad had long resisted supplying water to those outside the original township.  But with Buol's water supply, the area east on Fremont and north (to where the freeway is today) was able to develop into a very residential area. 

Buol and a friend ran for mayor because no one, according to Buol, was interested in the job.  He won by 10 votes.  His salary was $15 a month.  One of his first orders of business was rules for business licenses.    He served for two years, being succeeded by the man who had run against him, his friend Bill Hawkins.  He was then elected to the assembly.

He and his wife built a home at Seventh and Ogden.  According to writer A.D. Hopkins, their house had "walls eight inches thick, adobe inside and brick without, porches on all four sides, and a peaked roof, it was said to be the coolest in summer and warmest in winter of any in town. Its eight rooms were heated with wood fireplaces. "  When Mrs. Buol entertained her lady friends, Buol would serve them gourmet dishes harking back to his gourmet days with his father.

Through his connections, Buol met a Scotsman, Sir John Murray.  Murray had traveled extensively around the United States.  The two men corresponded and Buol traveled overseas to pitch an idea for a new development to the wealthy Scot.  Murray agreed to invest $100,000 in the new development ot be located on the far west side of the train tracks.  Buol returned home a hero to the townsfolk who were worried about the continued growth of the town.

Unfortunately, World War I interfered with Buol's plans.  Once Britian entered the Great War there was a ban on all exported assets.  Buol had to abandon his idea of an agricultural oasis just outside of the little town he loved.  However, the name stayed attached to the development and later become one of the most sought-out addresses for those who could afford it, the Scotch 80s.

Buol continued speculating.  Some of his efforts are now long-forgotten such as the little town of Johnnie or Plantina (near where Sandy Valley is today).  However, he invested in a lime deposit that helped establish the town of Sloan.   He had a borax claim that was said to have netted him $250,000 when he sold it to Francis "Borax" Smith.

In 1925, Buol and his family left the little town that he had done so much to develop and moved to the California Coast.  He continued to pursue his mining claims and was badly injured in a mine cave-in in 1929.  He died ten years later following a stroke.

Though he made a great deal of money during his lifetime, he died relatively poor.  But Pete Buol's legacy lives on in the town that he believed in so fervently, the Scotch 80s are still one of the most sought off addresses in VeryVintageVegas. 

Special thanks to the Las Vegas Review Journal for letting us use these images.

If you are interested in a home in the Scotch 80s, we encourage you to contact the crew at VeryVintageVegas.com