It's official!  Berkley Square, designed by mid-century modern architect, Paul Revere Williams, was the first subdivision to be built in Nevada by and for African-American residents of Las Vegas.  It is now on the National Registry of Historic Places!

The historic Berkley Square Neighborhood, located in West Las Vegas, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  The Register, a National Park Service Program, is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of recognition and preservation. The city of Las Vegas Planning & Development Department nominated the neighborhood on behalf of the Berkley Square residents after a consultant’s report found that the neighborhood met the National Register criteria for historic district designation.

  “I am thrilled that the National Park Service has recognized this important and historic neighborhood. This is truly an incredible honor for our community,” Ward 5 Councilman Ricki Y. Barlow said.  

 The Berkley Square Historic District is located about one and one-half miles from downtown Las Vegas near Owens Avenue and D Street, and is bound by Byrnes and Leonard avenues on the north and south, respectively, and G and D Streets on the west and east, respectively.

The district includes 148 homes constructed in 1954-55 in the Contemporary Ranch style with two models that varied by roof type, porch overhang and façade finishes and fenestration. The neighborhood was designed according to Federal Housing Administration standards of the day, showing concern for traffic and pedestrian safety with limited access points and sidewalks separated from the streets by a grass strip.

Berkley Square is the first subdivision to be built in Nevada by and for African-American residents of Las Vegas. It was designed in 1949 by Paul R. Williams, an internationally-known African-American architect from Los Angeles who made great strides for his race in the profession.

The developers and builders comprise an A-list of prominent African-American community activists and civic leaders, including financier Thomas L. Berkley, an attorney, media owner, developer and civil rights advocate from Oakland, Calif. It was also financed by Edward A. Freeman and J. J. Byrnes of Los Angeles. The developer was Leonard A. Wilson of Las Vegas. Construction was supervised by Harry L. Wyatt of the Las Vegas firm Burke and Wyatt.  Massie L. Kennard, a Las Vegas civil rights leader, was the real estate agent.

Berkley Square contributed to improving living conditions for the city’s African-American community, and represented the advances that were being made as a result of local activism in the community in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It is additionally representative of the massive building boom that took place in Las Vegas and across the country in the post-war era, and retains good integrity as a residential suburb of that time.

After several years of anticipation the "18b" sign arrived in Las Vegas' Arts District this morning. 18b is the official name of the arts district.

The name represents the original 18 blocks that make up the district. The sign is part of a series of new and historic signs that are being placed along the Casino Center Rue in Downtown. Casino Center is being transformed into a major transportation hub and corridor that will connect the Las Vegas Strip with Fremont Street, Symphony Park and 18b.

In addition several local artists were commissioned to design bus shelters using historic signs from the Neon Museum such as the 5th Street Liquor Sign and the Landmark. The entire project is being anchored by a new transportation hub currently under construction on Casino Center and Bonneville. The new transportation center will replace the one directly behind the Historic Post Office and Court House on Stewart Avenue.

Thanks to Brian "Paco" Alvarez for letting us use the images!

The Candlelight Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas Strip

From the Las Vegas Sun:

It survived a tricky journey across town, required more than $250,000 in renovation, including a new steeple, scavenged furnishings and electrical rewiring.

But when you’re a 1966 wedding chapel — old by Las Vegas standards — and you have a few stories to tell, somebody’s bound to love you.

That’s pretty much how it unfolded for the Candlelight Wedding Chapel, a quaint, free-standing churchlike structure with steep roof lines that sat four decades on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Originally Little Church of the West Algiers and then All Religions Wedding Chapel, it was the first chapel with an 800 number and limo service. It married so many couples daily that a side door was installed to usher out fresh newlyweds so they wouldn’t bump into wedding parties making their formal procession down the aisle.

When its land was sold to the Fontainebleau project, the chapel sat empty until its former operator, Gordon Gust, scooped it up and gave it to the Clark County Museum.

On Saturday the chapel officially becomes a new exhibit on the museum’s Heritage Street and opens to the public with a party, complete with live music, wedding cake and photo ops for couples who were married at the chapel.

“It’s one of those things you don’t think of as history, but it’s important here,” says Mark Hall-Patton, administrator of the Clark County Museum. “Five percent of all marriages in the United States are held in Clark County. That’s one out of 20 marriages.”

Grants from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors’ Authority and the Nevada Cultural Affairs Commission paid for the renovation, a project of the county’s 2009 Centennial celebration.

It arrived at the museum in 2007. Renovation began in May.

The Candlelight Wedding Chapel when it arrived at the Clark County Museum

The chapel is decorated to its latest incarnation (white), rather than its previous red exterior, paneled walls and red carpet. Its original pews and organ are gone and replaced with a piano and benches rescued from the county courthouse, resized and refinished.

Its large neon sign, which was added later, is across town at the Neon Museum.

Hall-Patton says museum staff had its eyes on the chapel for 10 years, identifying it as a building the museum would like to own if it ever became available. The museum is home to Heritage Street, a tree-lined gravel road hidden from Boulder Highway and flanked with rescued historic homes, a railroad depot and a print shop.

Visitors can sit on the wooden rocking chairs on the porch of the Beckley House and tour homes, each decked out to its era, each with its own nooks and crannies. They’re adorned at Christmastime and welcome trick-or-treaters on Halloween. (For Saturday’s party, the Clark County Museum Guild will serve cookies, with recipes specific to each home’s era.)

The railroad depot, taken to the site in 1976, was the first building to arrive. The oldest home is a railroad cottage (circa 1911-1914) awaiting renovation.

The chapel, inspired in design by the Little Church of the West, is its youngest structure. Celebrities married there include Bette Midler, Michael Caine, Whoopi Goldberg and Barry White.

“When we look at a building, we look at it from a standpoint that we could use it to best teach that part of our history,” he says. “In 1931 Nevada liberated both divorces and weddings. Reno got divorces. We became the wedding capital.”

Candlelight Wedding Chapel being restored

Special thanks to Joel Rosales at leavinglv.net and Allen Sandquist for letting us these images.

YouTube is a treasure trove of Classic Las Vegas home movie footage.  Take a walk down memory lane with some of these great YouTube videos:

From Ray Lindstrom, 1956 Las Vegas Strip

From Elmer Gerlock, 1957 Las Vegas Strip and Fremont Street.  Love the shot of the Golden Nugget neon billboard.

From yooreds, Las Vegas Strip circa 1976

Here's a piece from Youtube.  A look at the signs in the Neon Boneyard.