Group seeks to save state's historic sites

Ex-senator leads effort to save prominent sites

The old post office at 208 Stewart Ave. was the first federal building erected in Las Vegas in 1931. Later this year, the city of Las Vegas will take ownership and begin renovations to house a Las Vegas mob museum.

The building is a success story for Preserve Nevada, a nonprofit group led by former Sen. Richard Bryan, to preserve Nevada's historic sites, manuscripts and paintings. There are other successes, too. Las Vegas High School, now the Las Vegas Academy magnet high school, Boulder Dam Hotel in Boulder City and the Las Vegas Mormon Fort have all been protected against the elements and the iron fist of progress.

Others haven't been so lucky. Nevada Rock Art sites, the Moulin Rouge and Las Vegas Railroad Cottages all made return trips to the 11 most endangered sites list released May 12. They made the list out of the need to remind residents not to forget them, said Greg Seymour, archeologist with the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.

The Las Vegas Railroad Cottages, built at the turn of the century, dangle on the dilapidated fence between danger and safety. The cottages remain on the list despite the successful moving of one doomed cottage to the Clark County Museum where it will be restored. A handful of the original 64 cottages remain in the downtown area, said Andrew Kirk, public history program coordinator in the history department of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"I don't know if we're going to be able to preserve them. The goal is to preserve one on site," Bryan said. "I think that could be the most we could hope for."

The Moulin Rouge has gained plenty of interest but little funding has come through to make the establishment the hot bed of night activity that it once was. During the six months it was open, it played host to many celebrities, including Sammy Davis Jr. and Dorothy Dandridge.

"That's been a real source of frustration for us all. We haven't been able to put together a financial package," Bryan said. "A lot of people have tried, but we're not there yet. But it's a highly historical site."

Sites away from the city eye are the Nevada Rock Art Sites, located at various places in the state, including hundreds of thousands of panels throughout Southern Nevada, Seymour said.

"We don't even know how many there are," Seymour said. The quintessential native Nevadan carved petroglyphs into rocks and cave walls. "Just think, thousands of years of carving in rocks."

Rocks, buildings and neighborhoods aren't the only elements Preserve Nevada wants to keep intact, said Mary Wammack, Preserve Nevada assistant director and a Boulder City resident since 1965.

"There are tens of thousands of people who have had moments of their lives in these buildings," Wammack said. "To go and walk in the same steps you walked in 20 years ago is great."

Although commerce moves ahead, the young history of the state needs to be preserved, Mayor Oscar Goodman said at a news conference to announce the 11 most endangered sites. He said he hopes to make headway on preserving the city's first 100 years before Las Vegas' 100th birthday in 2005.

"We all know that if we're going to move forward, we have to remember from where we came," Goodman said. "We're not going to implode our history."

Aside from the endangered list, there were a few Las Vegas sites placed on the radar for possible historic restoration in the future if present activities don't improve the sites. That list includes the Huntridge Theatre, the Green Shack restaurant and the Binion Family House on West Bonanza Road. Where private ownership makes the fate of the latter two uncertain, the Huntridge Theatre is in restoration mode by its owner, Kirk said.

"It's important and the community is really interested," Kirk said. "Right now, it's making progress."

Wammack believes educating new Nevadans about sites of historical significance is crucial to the program's goals.

"We have such a large population of non-natives," Wammack said. "Once they know ... they become more engaged in saving this building, saving the railroad cottages. It's encouraging second thoughts on what you destroy when you build."

Those interested in Preserve Nevada can contact Kirk or Wammack at 895-2908 or send an e-mail to preserve.nevada@ccmail.nevada.edu.


<<--[back]