Thursday, June 14, 2001 | 11:21 a.m.
Tourist Laurie Kerr peered curiously at the giant, sparking genie lamp as she stood near the Fremont Street Experience Wednesday, crinkling her nose at the neon bulbs.
Oblivious to the journey the lamp made from its home at the original Aladdin Hotel, where it was placed in 1966, to a dusty junkyard, then to its new home at the Experience a few years ago, Kerr stood transfixed for several minutes.
"I've got no idea where it came from, but it sure screams Las Vegas," said Kerr, who was vacationing from Ohio.
It's tourists like Kerr, who are eager to grab a piece of Las Vegas history, whom supporters of a proposed neon museum hope to draw. But as plans are moving forward to build the museum near downtown, supporters are finding that locals are just as interested in the neon lights as tourists.
"We've seen a major cross-section of people who are interested in the old neon signs," Barbara Molasky, president of the Neon Museum, said. "People say, 'Oh, I got married here 25 years ago and I remember those signs.' "
Last week, a truckload of classic signs from the city's oldest and biggest neon producer, Young Electric Sign Co., were unloaded at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and McWilliams Avenue. The land will be the future site of an open-air courtyard with at least 50 neon signs, called a "boneyard."
Across the street, there are plans to build the Neon Museum and Visitors Center, which would be connected to the boneyard by a pedestrian walkway. In addition to the boneyard, the complex would offer a cafe, library, retail shop and a warehouse demonstration building.
The shipment is the first of many to be made in the coming weeks to the boneyard and will include neon signs from the Golden Nugget, Landmark, El Cortez, Las Vegas Club and the Sahara.
The YESCO signs will become the heart of the Neon Museum's collection, which is being billed as the largest assembly of historical urban signs in the world.
Although the idea for a neon museum was floated in the early 1970s, the concept became a reality in 1996, when the city of Las Vegas helped form a nonprofit organization to save and refurbish the vintage signs for future generations. The organization -- the Neon Museum -- is governed by a 18-member board appointed by the mayor and City Council.
On Nov. 15, 1996, the organization installed its first piece, the famous Hacienda Horse and Rider, at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street, under the Fremont Street Experience canopy.
The number of restored signs on Fremont Street has grown to include the Anderson Dairy Milkman, the Flame Restaurant, Aladdin's Lamp, Dots Flowers and the Red Barn.
Last year, the council leased the group land for the boneyard. The group has a temporary lease for the larger parcel across the street.
Molasky said she will ask the council in the coming months to combine the two parcels into one lease, for a total of two acres. After the groups submits site plans to the Planning Commission and City Council, construction is expected to begin by the end of the year, she said.
The group must now begin fund-raising for the project, which is estimated to cost $4 million.
Once the complex is built, the group hopes to continue bringing clusters of signs to the downtown area, like those at the Fremont Street Experience, Richard Hooker, senior cultural program analyst for the city of Las Vegas, said.
Hooker is also designing a map that would direct visitors from the museum to signs at the Experience and to businesses in the downtown area that have working neon signs.
Molasky said that the museum is important to preserve a piece of Las Vegas history that is fading.
"It seems that all of our history gets imploded, and I think these are definite works of art and they should be recognized as such," she said.
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