Historic barn saved from area’s growth

Monday, Nov. 4, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

A landmark red barn built near the corner of Charleston Boulevard and Lindell Road in 1955 is going to be moved this week to the Clark County Museum, where it will be preserved as part of the history of Southern Nevada.

Dawna Jolliff, curator of exhibits for the museum, said Allen and Helene Esslinger homesteaded a plot of land in 1950.

At the time, the area on West Sahara between Decatur and Jones boulevards was wide-open space. Allen built the barn in 1955 with help of his friends and painted it bright red with white trim.

As development moved into the area the barn looked strangely out of place in the middle of businesses and housing, Jolliff said.

She said the family donated the barn to the museum so it would be preserved.

Karen Salamon, daughter of the Esslingers, said the barn became a landmark in that area.

"Everyone gave directions by saying 'Just look for the big red barn on the side of the hill,' " she said.

It was used as a dance hall, as a place for children to play house and as a lookout, Salamon said. She said there was no power, water or phone at their home when she was a child. Her father was a railroad engineer, and a crew dispatcher would come to summon Allen to work.

"I could scramble up to the barn loft and look to see if the crew dispatcher was coming and to tell my dad he had to go to work," Salamon said.

"I loved to go up there at night and watch the neon bubbles go up the sign at the Flamingo hotel," she recalled.

Salamon, who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., said the barn "housed and kept safe a family's belongings over half a century while the city of Las Vegas grew up and around it over the years."

Salamon said it was like a "time warp place." The home still is on the 5-acre homesteaded parcel with a trailer home. It is surrounded by commercial and residential development.

She said her late mother "kept it an island in the county" because she wanted to have animals, sometimes numbering as many as 500.

Eventually, Salamon said, she intends to clear the land and develop it.

A dedication ceremony, by invitation only, is scheduled Thursday at the museum.