City of Las Vegas breaks ground for new park for Neon Museum

The Neon Museum is about to get a big boost from the City of Las Vegas.

From the La Vegas Sun:

Spread over two lots in downtown Las Vegas, gated behind chain-link fences, sit more than 150 pieces of vintage Vegas. The relics belong to the Neon Museum, which has been collecting old signs since 1996 and showcasing them throughout the city and at its Neon Boneyard.

But with no place to adequately display its vast collection, the Neon Museum for years has been forced to operate on an appointment-only basis.

That will change with construction of the Neon Boneyard Park, which gets under way on Monday.

The park will be located on the corner of McWilliams Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard and will back up to what is now part of the Neon Boneyard. The project has been nearly five years in the making, Public Works Project Manager Gina Venglass said.

The $1.9 million improvement project will include development of the half-acre park and paving part of the Neon Boneyard for a parking lot. The Bureau of Land Management funding the project.

When the park is completed, Venglass said, visitors will find landscaping, benches, picnic tables, a stage and informational kiosks.

A sign made up of replicas of old neon letters will welcome visitors to the new park.

The company building the sign, Federal Heath, chose iconic letters from the old Horseshoe, Desert Inn, Caesars Palace and Golden Nugget signs to spell out the word “neon” in LED lighting.

“It’s not going to be a park that visitors drive across town to use. It’s really supposed to work hand-in-hand with the Neon Museum for visitors to use,” Venglass said.

The park will be located along the section of Las Vegas Boulevard that was recently designated a National Scenic Byway and is at the heart of the Las Vegas cultural corridor.

The corridor includes a concentration of the city’s cultural institutions such as the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Lied Discovery Children’s Museum, the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park and the Reed Whipple Cultural Center.

“I think it’s a great example of how supportive the city is of the Neon Museum project and the cultural development of the downtown area,” Neon Museum Director of Operations Danielle Kelly said.

Because the city is resurfacing parts of the Neon Boneyard and moving signs in the process, it gave the museum the opportunity to bring its signs to the future fully-functioning museum, Kelly said.

The Neon Boneyard will move across McWilliams Avenue, behind the restored La Concha Motel lobby, which will serve as the visitor center.

The change will allow the Neon Museum to better serve visitors, expand public hours and operate under a general admission format, rather than visitors making appointments for tours, Kelly said.

In light of the construction, the Boneyard is closed to the public temporarily but will reopen in the spring for modified tours. The new facility should be up and running by the summer.

“So many great things are happening down here in the cultural corridor and downtown. We hope that the park is part of that,” Kelly said. “It’s is all a part of continuing to put energy into this area for people in the whole community to get some here and get to know their museums.”

Untold Stories this Thursday: African American Entertainers in Las Vegas

We kick off a the new year with our first "Untold Stories" on Thursday, February 4th with a look at African-American Entertainers in Las Vegas.  We will discuss the early days of segregation up through what it is like to perform in Las Vegas today.

Panelists include:

Claytee White:  Director of UNLV's Oral History Program

Skip Trenier:  cousin to Claude and Cliff Trenier and member of the band

Audrey Henry:  dancer with Debbie Reynolds and others

Sonny Turner: Lead singer  of The Platters from 1960-1970

Michael Ryan Tyler: Musician who has played with Wayne Newton and others in today's Las Vegas

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

6:30 pm

Las Vegas Springs Preserve

Desert Learning Center

Admission $9

Discounts available if you buy a class pass!



Still a City of Neon

Will the Swim-In-Sign ever be repaired and put back up?

A tribute to Betty Willis and 50+ plus years of marketing

Endangered

Pepe's Tacos great redaptive reuse of a former IHOP

Endangered

Tod Motor Hotel still going strong

Fremont Hotel Parking Garage

Thanks to Allen Sandquist for letting us use these images

Old J.C. Penney's Building gets Rehabbed!

When I was a kid, J.C. Penney's was located at Sixth and Fremont.  Fremont Street back in the early 1960s was filled not only with casinos like the Golden Nugget, the Mint and the Horseshoe but also retail businesses like Penney's, Sears, Ronzoni's and Chic Hecht's.  But that all started to change a few years later when the Boulevard Mall opened.  Sears anchored one corner of the mall and Penney's and Ronzoni's anchored the middle of the Mall with the Broadway on the south-end.  Residents responded by making the Boulevard Mall a rousing success.  Everthing from high-end clothing to Woolworth's to candle shops, head shops and restaurants could be found at the Mall.  We no longer needed to go downtown to do our shopping.  The retail businesses began pulling out of Fremont Street.

The J.C. Penney's became the Fremont Medical Building.  The handicapped entrance was where the old catalog department once was.  But over time as Fremont Street continued to change, the Fremont Medical Building went empty.

Well, it is getting a new lease on life, it seems as an Arts Collective.

From our friend Kristen Peterson now at the Las Vegas Weekly:

David Curtis stands in the doorway of the Fremont Medical Center, soliciting signatures to put him on the ballot for the gubernatorial race. His bicycle is parked outside. His satchel hangs from his shoulder, and his jacket is tagged with a Green Party button.

Artists stream in and out. They're here for the open house for Emergency Arts, a creative collective that will move into the old medical building at Sixth and Fremont, across from the El Cortez and Beauty Bar. They listen to Curtis' brief pitch and sign the paper with their free hand. In the other: a copy of the building's layout, a price list and the mission statement for Emergency Arts. The artists survey tiny exam rooms, nursing stations and X-ray areas, still showing medical residue — signs, surgical lubricant, hospital-room curtains. If everything goes according to plan, these rooms will soon be studios, boutiques and offices.

Creative types plan to take over the space in March, working amid the medical-center theme. That includes Curtis, who intends to run his campaign from the building, and artist Simone Turner, who plans to have a teaching studio.

"It's an exciting building. It has history to it," Turner says.

She knows its history firsthand, having been stitched up there after splitting her lip at a punk show at Calamity Jayne's back in the '80s. The building's condition — water stains on ceilings, busted walls, stained toilets — makes it hard to imagine getting an exam there, but there are plans to have it cleaned up by March.

Turner isn't bothered by the lack of windows in the rooms off the back corridors: "I can put in the lighting I want."

Michael Cornthwaite, owner of the Downtown Cocktail Room, and Jennifer Harrington, owner of the just-closed Henri & Odette Gallery, are leasing the center and managing the multiuse space as a way to rejuvenate the struggling arts scene and add more diversity to the Downtown entertainment district. That it's not in the neighboring arts district has generated chatter, but not enough to curb interest in the project. Its January 14 open house created a lot of traffic. Eleven of the several-dozen people who turned out signed letters of intent to lease, Harrington says. Others still are considering.

Rents range from $200 to $1,500 per month, plus common-area fees. The informational packet informs "ideal tenants" that they need to be able to "see the vision of this project, and the collective benefits from being involved. If we have to convince you, this project is not for you."

Harrington wants a café in the entry area that serves catered food, and a coffee counter. She and Cornthwaite are reaching out to filmmakers and start-up nonprofits.

"It's great," says artist and Downtown resident Justin Favela, who wants to lease a studio space this summer. "It's so funny. It's like a hospital for art — trying to keep the art alive in Las Vegas. And you can work in here and drink across the street."