Historic Whitehead House broken into three pieces, searching for a site

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999 | 11:32 a.m.

Resting in a vacant parking lot on 10th Street and Carson Avenue, the historic Whitehead House has known more grandeur.

Separated into three pieces, the 5,000-square-foot house sits on steel I-beams and wood blocks awaiting a permanent home after being saved from demolition.

Its loose wires jutting out from torn walls and the boarded windows lend a humble look to Las Vegas' first large luxurious home.

"No one would have any idea how grand it is from its current state," Louise Helton, a member of the Junior League of Las Vegas said. The nonprofit organization, which has been involved in preserving historic homes for decades, rescued this old house as well.

Designed and built for the Stephen R. Whitehead family in 1929 at a cost of $15,000, the two-story Mission Revival-style home was the first of its kind in the valley. Later, it served 43 years as a convent for the Sisters of the Holy Family and then as office space for a local insurance company. It was registered with the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as a historical site.

The time the house was built, its style and the prominence of the architect add to its significance, said historian Frank Wright, who wrote the nomination for the registry of the house.

"The town was not known for ostentatious, big houses then," he said.

Yet it may be some time before anyone sees the house in its grand state again.

Until last week, the Junior League had been planning to settle the house on a vacant lot at Sixth Street and Garces Avenue, in one of the county's three historical districts. The league had secured grants to cover relocating the building and commitments of labor to help restore it.

But the preservation of this piece of Las Vegas history won't come quickly or easily. The Junior League learned Friday that property owners no longer want to sell.

"We can only hope they'll reconsider but we're going to have to look for another lot, that's for sure," Helton said. "Obviously we'll have to look at other options"

Until Friday, events seemed to be falling into place. Earlier this month, the Junior League received a $176,720 grant from the state -- part of $2.5 million given to 24 preservation projects -- to relocate and restore the building.

Western Apprentice Coordinators, a trade group of apprenticeship directors from the construction unions, has committed the labor of apprentice carpenters, electricians, plasterers and laborers to reconstruct the house.

Now the news that the lot at Sixth and Garces is no longer available presents the Junior League with some tough choices. It was the only lot in the Las Vegas High School Neighborhood Historic District that was big enough to accommodate the house.

The district spans from Sixth Street to Ninth and from Bridger Avenue to Gass Avenue.

"Almost everybody who was important in town lived in that neighborhood in the '30s and '40s," Wright said.

Two other vacant lots in the area are not large enough to hold Whitehead House, Helton said.

"We'll start looking in the perimeter and see if there is anything else available," she said.

"We're sitting here with the money to buy the lot. The house is waiting to be moved. We're ready. We've got everything we need. We just need to find the lot. There's no other obstacle in the way."

The only other obstacle might be time. Leaving the historical house on a vacant lot in three pieces open to weather damage and pigeons is not exactly good for preservation.

"It probably can sit here for a while," Helton said. "But not for long."

The Whitehead House was designed by A. Lacy Worswick, an architect who was active in the reconstruction of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fires.

Worswick moved to Las Vegas hoping to make his mark here as well, Helton said. "He wanted to put himself on the map. He wanted to put together something fabulous."

He was probably the most prominent architect in town in the '30s and '40s, Wright said. "He designed a lot of significant structures in Las Vegas. This was his first."

His other designs include the A.S. Henderson House, the Las Vegas Hospital, which was demolished after it was badly burned in a fire, and the Apache Hotel, which is still standing within Binion's Horseshoe.

Whitehead was a prominent businessman and the first elected county assessor. When he died, ownership of the house went to a daughter and son-in-law, who owned the house for a year before selling it to the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1942. The convent used the parlor as a chapel and carved 12 tiny bedrooms in the upstairs.

In 1983, the Sisters sold the property to Mesquite Partnership, which loaned the house for use as offices to Consolidated Insurance Adjusters.

By the time Helton, who was looking for a something historic to serve as the Junior League headquarters, found the house, it was vacant. A month later she saw the house on the evening news with demolition crews out front.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, that's the house,' " she said.

The Oxford Group, a local development company, had purchased the property on Seventh Street to build a nine-suite hotel. The lot holding the Whitehead House was needed for parking.

Because there are no protections for historic houses, the company needed no permission to pull out the wrecking ball. "You can have a pile of historic rubble in no time," Helton said.

But Helton was able, with the help of City Councilmen Gary Reese and Matthew Callister, to work out an arrangement to save the house. The company donated it to the Junior League if the league would remove it from the property.

The city of Las Vegas stepped in with half of the $30,000 needed to move the house. The other half came from a private donor.

Jackie Gaughan, owner of the El Cortez and other downtown hotel-casinos, loaned the vacant lot as a temporary site. Contri Construction provided the steel beams to support the house, and Tiberti Fence Co. loaned the fence that protects the house.

By noon the following Friday, the Whitehead House was on the news again as a saved piece of Las Vegas history.

Once situated, the house will serve as a museum and preservation site, giving visitors a glimpse of early Las Vegas. The upstairs will be used as headquarters for the Junior League.

Historic preservation grants require the house be restored to the time period, Helton said. "The things not appropriate for the period are going to exit."

In addition to a museum, the downstairs will be used as a recital hall for students at the nearby Las Vegas Academy for International Studies and the Performing Arts.

Period furniture and period pieces have been given to the Junior League on permanent loan from a local couple. A donated chandelier from Bertha's will hang in the entry way.

Without such community support, reconstructing the house would be a very expensive project, Helton said, costing as much as $1 million.

The local trades are anxious to do their part, Dan Gouker, director of the apprenticeship training program for the electrical union said.

The preservation work will provide a lesson in more than history for the apprentices who will work on the house. Built pre-dam era when there was no plywood, it will give them a rare opportunity to see the old style of craftsmanship.

"The old style of this construction is brilliant art form that's not done anymore," Gouker said.

Even the wiring is unique. "The art of bending conduit around walls and studs, and meeting codes, is a real craft," he said.

The walls also reflect a different era. "You see plaster today but not in this method," he said, as he pointed out the lath -- the wooden slats providing the foundation for the plaster work -- the tar paper that waterproofed it, chicken wire and plaster. "This was an art form."

The hardwood floors with tongue-and-groove tiles add to the uniqueness.

"We will save as much as we can," Gouker said. "This house is not something that you want to see go away. It's time to stop mowing over structures like this from this period."

Helton agrees, and looks forward to the day this historical house has a home.

"I'm glad I got to see it when it was all put together and gorgeous," she said as she stood next to the pieces of house. "Looking at it now takes a leap of faith."

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