Las Vegas in Postcards: 1905-1965 Publication date set

January 31, 2009

Just wanted to give everyone an update on our upcoming book.

It will be available as of March 2nd.

This is a look at the history of Las Vegas through postcards. Many came from the private collection of my co-authors as well as the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. It offers a look at not only the history of Fremont Street and the Strip but of neighborhoods and other important local places of importance such as schools and churches. Las Vegas has always been much more than just a gaming mecca and this book offers a glimpse into what life was like in 20th Century Las Vegas.

So keep an eye out for it in your local bookstores.

Or you can pre-order it on Amazon here:

http://tinyurl.com/bnntom

Or from Arcadia Publishing here:

http://tinyurl.com/dzxg3z

Or if you would like an autographed copy, we will have the book for sale here on the blog in a few weeks.

If you live in Las Vegas we will be doing book signings around the Valley so keep an eye out here for more details on that as well.

Frazier Hall has been destroyed

January 5, 2009

It was the first building on the campus of Nevada Southern University. It was designed by famed Las Vegas architects Zick and Sharp. It was named for a woman who made education her cause, Maude Frazier. She is beloved by the many people who knew her, were influenced by her education first cause and who had better lives for coming under her tutelage.

For the last year and a half, preservationists have been trying to save Maude Frazier Hall from the wrecking ball. The majority of colleges around the country usually save the first building that was built on their campus. Many see it as a timeline and a yard stick for how far a college has come from its humble beginnings. Whether small or large, well-known or not, colleges usually take pride in preserving and utilizing their first campus building.

Well, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (formerly Nevada Southern University) is not in that league. They are in a league of their own. Word has just come from FCLV member Dennis McBride that UNLV is in the process of tearing down Frazier Hall. Dennis says that the majority of students and employees on campus had no idea the demolition was taking place today.

FCLV member Mary Martinez, Anthropology instructor Heidi Swank, the Atomic Age Alliance, Thalia Dondero, Jack LeVine, Donna Andress and the alumni of Las Vegas High are all to be commended for their efforts in trying to save this important building.

I 'd be willing to bet there is no joy in Las Vegas preservation circles this afternoon.

Maude Frazier Hall

1957 to 2009

R.I.P.

Special thanks to UNLV Special Collections and Joel Rosales at Leavinglv.net for letting us use this images.

Las Vegas in the 1950s

December 16, 2008

More photos from the Life Magazine/Google Archive:

This was taken by Life photographer, Loomis Dean, in 1952. Back then, $3,000,000 was a lot of money.

Today the same plot of land would sell for considerable more. I have to say, I do enjoy seeing all that

desert. Reminds me of the Las Vegas of my youth.

Comedian Phil Silver gets in on the showgirl act in another great Loomis Dean picture from the Las Vegas Strip, circa 1952.

The famous Dinner Show audience watches the opening act, possibly the Copa Girls from the famed Sands Hotel. This is another photo by Loomis Dean that captures the quaintness and the energy of the Las Vegas Strip of our collective memory.

Las Vegas World War II Bond Rally

Today's Las Vegas picture from the Life Magazine/Google Archive is the wonderful photo from 1943.

The police are guarding $500,000 in silver that is part of World War II bond rally. It could be at the El Rancho Vegas, the Hotel Last Frontier or one of the small gambling joints on Fremont Street.

The photographer was John Florea.

Walter Zick - Mid-Century Modern Las Vegas Architect

November 24, 2008

The Mint Hotel designed by Walter Zick and Harris Sharp

He was one of the most prolific architects in Las Vegas. Walter Zick, along with his partner Harris Sharp, designed some of the coolest mid-century modern buildings in Southern Nevada. His best known design is probably also the most-beloved, the fabulous Mint Hotel. It's design fulfilled the optimistic potential that was pervasive across America in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. In that canyon of neon called Glitter Gulch, the Mint sat shoulder to shoulder with fanciful facades that depicted the Barbary Coast (The Golden Nugget), the Wild West (The original California Club) and San Francisco (The Golden Gate).

Wayne McAllister's design of the Fremont Hotel may have been the first mid-century modern casino on Fremont Street but Zick and Sharpe saw that design and raised the stakes. Working with YESCO's top designers, Kermit Wayne and Hermon Boergne, the facade of the Mint was one of the first to explore the three dimensional aspects of neon. It's eye-poping pink and white neon took your breath away.

If the Mint was all that Zick and Sharp had designed in Las Vegas that would be enough. But thanks to Friends of Classic Las Vegas commercial chair Mary Martinez and our favorite downtown neighborhood blogger, Jack LeVine, I have been given a disc of images and information on the life and works of Walter Zick. His family is trying to get a school named for him and though their initial request was turned down, we are thrilled to be joining with VeryVintageVegas to help spotlight Zick's accomplishments and keep the idea of a school named in his honor alive.

Walter Zick designed more than just casinos and hotels. I grew up in Charleston Heights which sports many of the schools and commercial buildings that he designed. I am familiar with Hyde Park Junior High School which was the first air-conditioned school in the nation. My brother was born at Southern Nevada Hospital in the mid-1960s when it sported a Zick and Sharp mid-century facade. I attended junior high school at Garside, which they designed. I attended high school at Ed. W. Clark High School which was designed by Zick and Sharp. They designed both Western High School and Valley High School, both cross-town rivals of Clark. We attended football games every Friday night at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, again designed by Zick and Sharp.

After I graduated in 1975, I attended UNLV and had a Shakespeare class in the Humanities Building that Zick designed. The Maude Frazier Building, the first building on the campus when it opened in 1958 was designed by them.

We did our banking at the corner of Charleston and Decatur at the Bank of Las Vegas and the First National Bank of Nevada both designed by Zick and Sharp. The Foley Federal Building which was built next to the 5th Street Grammar School where I attended kindergarten was also designed by them. The Clark County Courthouse near the Foley Federal Building is their design.

I remember the Nevada Savings and Loan Headquarters, the Nevada State Bank near then-popular Spanish Oaks, Western Airlines terminal, the Westgate Shopping Center, the YMCA addition.

In addition to the Mint, he designed the Bird Cage Casino which sat just west of the Mint and was ultimately annexed by the hotel and he and Sharp designed the famous "eyebrow" addition. They helped complete Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn, had a hand in the remodel of the El Rancho Vegas, designed the first integrated hotel and casino, the Moulin Rouge as well as the Union Plaza and many more.

He also designed residential homes for some of the biggest movers and shakers in Las Vegas including Benny Binion, the Cashman family, Marcus Daly (whose rec room included a below ground bomb shelter, a bowling alley and a movie theater), architect Bill Moore's house, Mayme Stocker's house on Bracken Avenue, Joseph Switzer's house and Ted Weins as well.

We'll hopefully have more on Walter Zick in the days and weeks ahead so keep an eye out here!