Moulin Rouge may be coming back to life!
In all the hubbub of last week, we forgot to shine the spotlight on this very important news.
According to an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal , out-of-town investors have partnered with the local Moulin Rouge Development Corp. to revitalize the once-proud hotel/casino on Bonanza Road.
The Moulin Rouge, of course, was the first segregated hotel in Las Vegas and opened on the Westside in 1955. It quickly became the 'in' spot with its dance troupe from the famed Cotton Club in New York and a nightly list of entertainment that kept the joint jumping until the early hours of the morning.
Despite its seeming success, the hotel closed abruptly months later. Despite many different efforts to re-open the fabled casino and showroom, for too many years the property sat empty and forlorn. In 2003, work began on restoring the casino and the showroom. Unfortunately, in 2004, an arson fire gutted all but the front wall and Betty Willis' iconic sign.
That serious money is being invested with a look towards rebuilding and restoring the Moulin Rouge is great news. We hope this time it comes to pass.
To read the article, click here.
The La Concha and the Las Vegas Neon Museum
As we noted a few weeks back in our Historic Site of the Week, the La Concha is being pieced back together so that it can serve as the lobby and gift shop for the Neon Museum.
Kristen Peterson, in today's Las Vegas Sun brings us up to date on the progress.:
"But after all these years of bulldozing our history, neglecting the unique architecture, something had to give. That something was this conch-inspired structure that served as the entrance to La Concha Motel, built when 5,000-room hotels weren’t even part of the discussion.
Neon was our visual commodity then. We were the first midcentury modern city. A city with no past. No 19th-century concert halls or skyscrapers to define us. No vast inventory of historic sites.
But now La Concha is our past."
Click here to read the rest of the article.
This is an important preservation project on many different levels. Thanks to the efforts of the Neon Museum and its donors, the La Concha did not go quietly into the night and the pages of history. It was saved from the wrecking ball and moved across town to find new life as the gateway to the Neon Museum.
In a town that will (hopefully) discover cultural tourism one of these days and have enough historic buildings left to make it viable, the La Concha stands as the outpost for what cultural tourism can do for Fremont Street and Downtown Las Vegas.
This is an important step in the right direction for a city that too often only thinks of the next big thing. The Friends of Classic Las Vegas encourages everyone to support the Neon Museum in this important endeavor.
Thanks to LasVegasTodayandTomorrow for letting us this photo.