The Las Vegas Centennial 1905-2005

Las Vegas Centennial

Vegas Interactive Map

Old Las Vegas Hotel

Las Vegas Centennial

Las Vegas Centennial

'The City of Celebration' is Celebrating 100 Years of Pioneer Spirit in 2005. The Evolution of Casino Culture in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Meadows Casino - 1931: The first car oriented resort-complex in Las Vegas with a combined 'casino-restaurant-nightclub-showroom-hotel' The Meadows opened (in 1931) on Boulder Highway at Fremont & Charleston, near the old, barn-like Black Cat and Red Windmill Roadhouse casinos.

This old Las Vegas hotel stood midway between downtown and the highway to Boulder Dam.

Built by Tony Cornero the year gambling was legalized in Nevada and Boulder Dam was starting to be being built, it closed in 1936, just one year after the dam workers finished and left in 1935.

Cornero later dreamed-up the Stadust Casino (on the Strip) in 1958, but had a heart attack playing dice at the Desert Inn, just a few months before Stardust's opening.

The Thunderbird Vegas

The Thunderbird Vegas

Opening in 1948, the Thunderbird Hotel in Vegas was the fourth casino built on the Las Vegas Strip and first to have an observation tower.

There is an old Las Vegas hotel photo of the Thunderbird Hotel in Vegas at the bottom of the page.

Another of the first hotels on the Las Vegas Strip was the Flamingo.

It was created in 1945 by Billy Wilkerson, founder and editor of the Hollywood Reporter and owner of the popular Sunset Strip nightclubs; Ciro's, Trocadero and Club La Rue.

The Flamingo was re-modeled in 1953 and added its 'champagne tower'.

Desert Inn Las Vegas

Desert Inn Las Vegas

The pool at the 1950 Desert Inn was the first in Las Vegas to use the new rounded style of the fifties; unlike the square-shaped pools at the 1940's-styled El Rancho, Last Frontier, Flamingo and the Thunderbird. Desert Inn epitomized the relaxed Las Vegas beach cabana/motel experience of the 1950's, where your car was within 100 yards of your room and you played where you stayed, in a glamorously modern, self-contained desert oasis resort, with easy entertainment everywhere.

DI's large control tower observation deck was the second ever built on the Las Vegas Strip offering ever-changing views of miles of surrounding desert and mountains and the four other Strip casinos. The 1942 Frontier was within walking distance across the street, as was the newly opened 1950 Silver Slipper show-hall. The '46 Flamingo was a drive away on the south, just as the '48 Thunderbird and 1941 El Rancho were to the north. The Desert Inn was the Architectural Prototype for Southwest suburban living, providing a Sunset magazine level of design and hospitality 24/7-365. The DI influenece on backyard architecture can be seen today in neighborhoods from San Diego to Sacramento to Flagstaff. The Sands and The Sahara would open two years later, in 1952.