Columnist Susan Snyder: Building momentum for preservation

Sunday, March 5, 2000 | 9:26 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@vegas.com or 259-4082.

Contrary to whatever jokes you've heard, "historic preservation" in Las Vegas does not mean re-striping the parking lot of a 7-Eleven built five years ago.

In fact, the state Cultural Affairs Commission figured historic preservation in Clark County is worth $435,441 -- the amount of money that will be divided among six projects here. Not bad, considering the commission had $2.1 million in grants but $8.5 million in requests.

Groups in charge of each of the projects walked away with less money than they requested. But something is better than nothing, and it comes not a moment too soon for some of these old places.

Ever notice how bad some of these buildings have to look before we decide to save them? Sometimes we wait entirely too long.

After all, look at what happened to the old Mapes Hotel in Reno. The state's first hotel-casino had decayed to barely more than a shell. The repairs needed were so extensive and expensive that city officials decided it was better to raze than renovate.

"It's just human nature. When was the last time you painted a house before you put a roof on it?" said Ron James, of the state office of museums, libraries and art, and the staff person working for the commission that doled out preservation money.

"After all, the first rehab project on the Sphinx took 3,000 years," James chuckled. "Maybe Las Vegas took a proactive stance by destroying structures before they were old."

Seriously, though, he says Southern Nevada has plenty of pre-casino history tucked into its towns and deserts. And he is amazed by how often the area's heritage is sold short -- especially by those of us who live here.

"What I often hear is, Las Vegas has no history. Yet, the two oldest structures in the state are in Las Vegas -- the Kiel Ranch and the Old Mormon Fort," James said. "And the Hoover Dam is the most-visited historic site in the state, which is saying a great deal because Virginia City is no slouch."

Tony Taylor, of the North Las Vegas Parks department, says he was thrilled to get $65,310 for Kiel Ranch. It will pay for restoration of a tiny adobe house that stands on the 19th century site northwest of Carey Avenue and Losee Road.

There's definitely some work ahead. Right now, the dirt lot is surrounded by a rented chain-link fence and is dotted with craggy, tangled brush. The tiny hovel built of adobe bricks around 1856 stands, barely, shored up with two-by-fours and covered by a temporary roof.

A bigger ranch house built in 1907 burned to the ground in 1992. And other buildings on the site fell down or had to be torn down.

That makes one, small adobe house more important. With all that's changing it's easy to forget Las Vegas wasn't always new, and that a vacant lot may be much more than just another place to plop a strip mall or "planned community."

"It's important for the same reason your grandmother's silver is important or your grandfather's sea chest is important," Taylor said. "It's a link back to where we came from."

James says even though plenty of Las Vegas Valley history has been neglected to death, the damage is no worse here than in other areas of the state.

Maybe Southern Nevada should adopt a new preservation slogan: "Hey, we didn't raze the Mapes."