We hear alot of talk in Las Vegas about a renaissance of downtown with the coming Union Park, the Post Modern Museum, the Smith Center for Performing Arts, the East Fremont Entertainment District and we love the talk we are hearing.  It all sounds very wonderful, very urban, very 21st Century.

However, as we drive around the historic core of Las Vegas (Garces to Stewart, Main to Eighth) we are less excited.  This is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Las Vegas.  Many of the homes in this area date back to the late teens and the 1920s.  Years ago, lawyers bought many of the homes under the guise of saving them and turned them into law offices.

Today though, house after house, street after street is riddled with for sale signs and houses imprisoned behind chain-link fences waiting for their date with the wrecking ball.  To see so many in such a concentrated area is to fear for the longevity of this historical district.

We all agree that downtown is changing and evolving.  But many in the upper echelons of city government keep touting the idea of Las Vegas as mixed use condos and retail and many of these homes are endangered because the condo fever that has swept large cities like Las Vegas the last few years.  However, the condo market has cooled even in Las Vegas.  Our big fear is that these wonderful homes will be destroyed for nothing.  

The sad fact remains is that when they are gone, we can't rebuild them.  People talk about a historical district around the old Las Vegas High School (today the Performing Arts Academy) and it could be a wonderful reality in the years ahead.  Like all other large cities that promote their downtown, one of the things tourists in any town like to do is visit the old homes and see how the pioneer families lived.   

We have that district here in Las Vegas but we are in danger of losing it forever.  The continued destruction of these homes for large law offices and condo towers that may never get built is not only a sad testament to life in Las Vegas but the little regard that too many of us have for the stories of our past and our history.

Our history was made on these streets and in these homes.  Many of us of a certain age still mourn the loss of the Tudor homes that used to line the corner of Charleston Blvd and Las Vegas Blvd South.  Those were torn down almost forty years ago because we needed a parking lot.

I suspect that we will be mourning the loss of the majority of houses in the Las Vegas High School district and its adjacent neighborhoods very soon.

Why is it so hard to get people to care about not only their history but the preservation of that history as well? 

Built in 1915, may be the oldest house in Las Vegas today.

Built in 1927

Built in 1935

Built in 1938, being torn down tomorrow morning

One of the endangered ones

Slated for destruction

One of the last remaining railroad cottages.  Two were moved to the Clark County Museum in Henderson and two were moved to the Springs Preserve.

Thanks to RoadsidePictures (Allen Sandquist) for allowing us to post these images.

Enclosure

Well, last night was one for the cultural history of Las Vegas.  The Las Vegas Springs Preserve (the site where the water ran that made Las Vegas possible) had their gala grand opening last night.

I was escorted by Classic Las Vegas pals Dennis McBride, Brian "Paco" Alvarez and Allen Sandquist.  We were surrounded at every turn by many of the movers and shakers of Las Vegas, including Mayor Oscar Goodman, the Convention Authority's Rossi Rollankotter,  Jerry and Lois Tarkanian, Don Snyder, Bob Stoldal and his wife, Paula Francis, the Junior League's Dedee Nave, Helen Mortenson and the folks behind the various cultural museums in town:  Barbara Slivac, acting director for the State Museum David Millman, Tom Dwyer, the Cannon Aviation Museum director Mark Hall-Patton and representing City Cultural Affairs Richard Hooker.

You come down a ramp into the Preserve and are surrounded by rock formations.  We were told that the reason the rock formations seemed so familiar was because they had gone out to the Valley of Fire and done castings of the rock formations out there and recreated some of them here on the Preserve.  Atop those rock formations for this evening only, were members of the Cirque de Soliel.  Once inside there is a beautiful Amphitheater area with the stage butting up against a large rock formation.

The Springs is all about green buildings and they certainly kick this environmentally great idea up a major notch with straw bale construction, recycled paper and on site recycling bins.

The evening was catered by Wolfgang Puck Catering who also has the on-site restaurant concession.  There were a dozen food stations and bars and the food was excellent.  The dessert table was loaded with everything from cupcakes to truffles.  It was heavenly.

After all the speeches, folks were encouraged to visit the Visitors Center and other buildings to check out the exhibits.  The most popular one seems to be the recreation of a flash flood.

At twilight with a full mooning rising, the Las Vegas Philharmonic took their seats beside the stage and provided the music for the show put on by the Cirque.  There was the usual female singer except she was located atop the rock formation and surrounded by colored, swirling fog.  The drummers were up there too!  There were acrobats, fire dancers and a story about water performed by four young woman.  The highlight of the evening was the young female contortionist.

The three hours passed much too quickly but we all agreed on one thing:  Las Vegas now has a cultural heart and is located at the Springs Preserve.

The Springs Preserve is opening to the Public on Saturday, June 9th that includes a concert by Jewel.

For more information on the opening, the exhibits, the history and the mission of the Springs Preserve please visit their website:  www.lvspringspreserve.org.

For more news stories on the Springs Preserve read the Las Vegas Review Journal's In Depth section this weekend at www.lvrj.com

Also check out this webstory at www.lasvegasnow.com 

But most importantly, get over to the Springs Preserve on June 9th and check out where our history began! 

Stay tuned for updates over the weekend as we will be adding pictures (thanks Roadsidepictures), more info and more links! 

More moving and shaking going on over at the Las Vegas Strip: 

Long-time Las Vegan and visionary Kirk Kerkorian has made an offer to buy the still-being-built MGM Center City and the Bellagio.

Read more about it here:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/may/22/566616712.html

http://www.lvrj.com/business/7625406.html 

http://tinyurl.com/2mxy36

It's official, the Frontier has been sold.  Owner Phil Ruffin announced this morning that he had received a $100 million dollar deposit from El Ad Properties.  The hotel will sell for $1.3 billion dollars by the time the deal is done.

Ruffin, a Wichita businessman, bought the Frontier back in 1998 for $167 million.  He had been seeking equity financing the last few years to help redevelop the property into a 2,750 room resort with a Swiss theme.  Ruffin has been in negoitations with El Ad since March.

El Ad owns a number of prestigious properties in New York City.  The Frontier will be closing in 90 days.  It will be demolished and a resort patterned after The Plaza (an El Ad property) will be built in its place. 

The Frontier deal does not cover the seven acres behind the hotel where Donald Trump's International Hotel and Tower is going up.  The builders are expected to cap the building before Memorial Day and the non-gaming venue will open some time next year. 

The 36 acres that the Frontier sits on sold for $33 million an acre making it the most expensive transaction for Strip property to date.

The Last Frontier hotel opened in 1942 during World War II on the site of the old Pair-A-Dice Club.  It was known for its ad line "The Old West in Modern Splendor".  The Last Frontier Village, a Disney-esque old western town before Disney built Frontierland, was next to the property.

In 1955, the property was renamed the New Frontier and the western motif was replaced with a more space-age, modern motif.  It was one of Howard Hughes favorite haunts back in the late 1940s and 1950s.  

Performers to grace the stage of the New Frontier included Ronald Reagan (in a short lived nightclub act) and Elvis Presley made his debut there in Las Vegas in 1956.  Also on the bill with Elvis Presley was opening act Shecky Greene and Orchestra leader Pete Martin.  Elvis was not a hit but enjoyed the bumper car ride at the Frontier Village.  It was while performing at the Frontier that Elvis met Freddie Bell and heard Bell's recording of "Hound Dog".  Bell insisted Presley perform it.

Other performers at the New Frontier included Sam Melchionne, Pete Barbutti, Zsa Zsa Gabor and many others.

In 1967, Howard Hughes bought the New Frontier and renamed it the Frontier.  He also bought the Silver Slipper which was next door to the Frontier.  Lore has it that he bought the Silver Slipper because the light from the revolving Slipper sign kept him awake at night.

On Jan. 14th, 1970 Diana Ross and the Supremes gave their final concert in the showroom. 

The Elardi Family bought the Frontier from the Summa Corporation and added the New back in the title.  Under the ownership of the Elardi family, the Frontier became famous for its 2,325 day strike by Culinary workers.  The workers walked off the job in 1991 and remained on the picket line until Ruffin took control of the property on Feb. 1st, 1998.

Magicians Siegfried and Roy became headliners when they played the Frontier 1982 with their show "Beyond Belief" .  They performed for seven years at the Frontier and  3,500  customers saw the show.  The duo ended their relationship with the Frontier when they were approached by Steve Wynn to be the headliners at his new hotel, The Mirage.

Stay tuned! 

KLAS-HD, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, is reporting tonight that the Frontier Hotel has been sold to an Israeli businessman for 1.3 billion dollars.  The businessman is reportedly prepared to spend twice that amount to build a resort modeled on his NYC property, the Plaza.

A hotel employee was quoted off camera as saying the Frontier will close in 60 days.

If the sale goes through, it is another blow to the remaining original ladies of the Las Vegas Strip.

Stay tuned! 

A little bit of a departure from the norm around here but I wanted to highlight a couple of great bands that I have been following around Las Vegas.

The Pickadillos:

Mutant Blue Grass that Rocks!

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, Bluegrass wtf?  Well guess what?  You're wrong.  These guys kick butt with both traditional and rock and roll bluegrass.  

Steve Harder-Kucera, founder of the group,  is the banjo player, Richard Wells brings the down-home music vibe on the dobro,  Brett Barnes is in charge of the percussion and on drums, Rob Edwards is on bass, Raj Rathor is the guitarist and vocalist and Robert Bell rounds out the group on vocals and the mandolin.

Check out their website, go see them in person and buy one of their CDs and support this band.  You won't be sorry! 

http://www.thepickadillos.com/

Killians Angels 

All female band that covers both traditional Celtic tunes as well as rock and roll favorites.  They do great covers of Bad Moon and Fever.

They can usually be found on Friday nights at Brendan's Pub in the Orleans Hotel on Tropicana from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am.  Use the west entrance of the Hotel off of Arville for easiest access to the Pub.  The group has been based in Las Vegas since 2001.  These gals are great.

Ginger Bruner, a Las Vegas native, plays the bass, tuba, percussion, vocals and more.  Lisa Viscuglia is the very talented violinist,  Dolly Coulter is the lead vocalist as well as guitar.  Nan Fortier is the percussion mistress extraordinaire as well as the tin whistle.  Beth Mullaney also handles vocals as well as the guitar and mandolin

Some sharp promoter should put them on a double bill with The Pickadillos in a good venue and watch the money flow in. 

http://www.killiansangels.com/index.htm 

Events on 3rd

This is a historical church that has been saved and is now used on Friday nights for live music.  Some of the best session players in town can be found here on Friday nights.  Bobby Morris, who was Elvis Presley's drummer, was there last Friday night, along with Mary Oliver, Rich Jones and others.  

The site is the former Methodist Church at 3rd and Bridger.  This  was the first church built in Las Vegas a hundred years ago.  Today, worshippers of good, live music pay a $5.00 cover fee to enjoy a night's worth of entertainment, Old-Vegas style.  You never know who will drop in to play with Bobby Morris and the band. Two months back, Keely Smith was there singing songs that she and Louis Prima and Sam Butera helped make famous.

After you see the Pickadillos at First Friday, head on over here to continue your evening of great entertainment and then head on up to the Orleans to catch the last couple of sets by Killians Angels.   You won't be sorry.

 http://eventson3rd.com/index.html