Cottage industry

Rebecca Malone

Friday, Aug. 10, 2001 | 11 a.m.

Moving fund

The Union Pacific Railroad has donated $2,000 to help move one of the historic cottages to a preservation site. Anyone wishing to add to that fund may contact Mark Ryzdynski at 455-7955.

ACalifornia company is negotiating to purchase the land underneath some of Las Vegas' oldest buildings -- cottages for Union Pacific Railroad workers that were built a few years after the city's 1905 founding.

It's the future of the land that the company is interested in, not the historic significance of the buildings.

A local attorney, Jerry Kaufman, owns five of the remaining 12 cottages built from 1909 to 1911 that a group in California wants to buy. Kaufman's property is now zoned residential but according to the city Planning and Development Department, the owners have the option of applying for a change to general commercial.

It's the potential for commercial development on the land that makes it attractive to the California group, which Kaufman declined to identify.

"My take on them is they are only interested in the commercial use of the land," Kaufman said. "From a financial standpoint, they will not be able to afford to keep the houses on property."

Although he is not out searching for buyers, Kaufman said he does want to sell the property eventually. He has come up with one stipulation -- whoever buys the land must agree to give one of the cottages to a preservation society or a museum before any construction can begin.

Kaufman is interested in preserving Las Vegas' history, especially with its 100-year anniversary around the corner.

In 1905, with the railroad presence and the auctioning off of property lots, the city of Las Vegas was established. A few years later 64 "bungalow-style" cottages were built to house railroad employees, according to "A Guide to Historical Las Vegas," published by the Preservation Association of Clark County.

The cottages began disappearing as the city matured and yielded to modern development. At least two were demolished last year to allow for the construction of a new Regional Justice Center, according to Frank Wright, curator of manuscripts for the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society.

Joe Thomson, primary author of the "Early Las Vegas" digital exhibit on the UNLV library website, said, "We are not really a city who gives a damn about preserving things. We just bulldoze and rebuild." He would like to see several of the cottages moved and preserved.

While Kaufman is among those who would like to redevelop the land where the cottages sit, he would also like to see at least one of the buildings preserved on another location.

Standing inside one of the cottages recently, on the original hardwood floor, he got excited explaining the importance of maintaining its original structure. He has spent thousands of dollars cleaning up the cottages and making them useable.

"We paved the alley and put in new air conditioning, but we maintained the integrity of the buildings," Kaufman said. "We did not change the structure or the walls of the house. These (cinder block) walls are so insulated, not like the ones they make now with drywall."

It's the cinder blocks that make the cottages harder to transport to a new location, Mark Ryzdynski, Clark County Museum Administrator, said. A few years ago the museum planned on moving one of the cottages to its location on Boulder Highway, but ran short of time and money to complete the move, Ryzdynski said.

Kaufman said he would be willing to work with an agency wishing to move one of the cottages and Ryzdynski said the museum is very interested in obtaining one.

"The railroad cottages are very specific to a time and place of a people, and that architectural display is very important to the start of Las Vegas," Ryzdynski said. "Had the train not come through here at the time and place that it did, then Las Vegas might not have ever existed."

Because those cottages housed the employees that helped make Las Vegas what it is today, eight of them were recognized by the National Register on Dec. 22, 1987.

Although there is no formal movement afoot to save the cottages on site, owners and others associated with the cottages fear that such a movement might gain momentum as word of impending sales spreads around the Las Vegas Valley.

State Historic Preservation Officer Ron James said people should see the high property value and commercialization going on downtown and respect the owners' right to do what they want with the land.

"When people come to me and say these cottages need to be saved, I ask them 'Would you live there?' "James said. "It is really easy for other people to say you've got a great historic property here and you should do something to preserve it, but if they were faced with the decisions of the property owners they would see it is a little more difficult."

Peter Flangas, an attorney with law offices downtown, said he would oppose any on-site restoration because it would not be good for a businessman like himself to have a preservation area that might inhibit his ability to expand.

Other cottage owners, who wished to remain anonymous, were also against preserving the cottages because they said the buildings have deteriorated too much to save.

Robert Stoldal, chairman of the city of Las Vegas Historic Preservation Commission, favors moving a cottage to an area where it could be preserved forever.

"They are worth more to people as parking lots and I think that is tragic," Stoldal said of the cottages. "Some of the owners recognize the history of the land, but they have an economic need.

"Las Vegas has been a boomtown since the building of the dam, and the population doubles virtually every decade. People come here to do something; the good, the bad and the ugly. When you grow so fast you need to stop and see what you are doing to the community."

James and Stoldal would like to see one of the cottages moved to either the museum or the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, opening in May 2005.