Fires have damaged several historic buildings in LV

Thursday, May 29, 2003 | 11:18 a.m.

Several historic Las Vegas buildings that were either in the process of being renovated or were otherwise being preserved have met fiery demises.

The gutting of the Moulin Rouge in a predawn blaze today brings to a half-dozen the number of local historic buildings to be severely damaged or destroyed by fire in the past 18 years.

All were closed at the time of the blazes. All of the fires prior to the Moulin Rouge were said to have been started by vagrants or vandals. Investigators were to begin searching later today for the cause of the Moulin Rouge fire.

The Whitehead Mansion, built in 1929 when Las Vegas was a small, dusty town, was the last major property to burn before today's incident. That fire occurred in July 2000, after the Junior League of Las Vegas sank $1.3 million into restoring the property at 10th Street and Carson Avenue.

The Mission-Revival style building had long stood at Seventh Street and Mesquite Avenue but had been moved to a new site a year before the blaze to make way for a parking lot.

Other devastating fires to historical properties include the Houssels House, the Old Ice House, Las Vegas Hospital and the Park Mansion on the Kiel Ranch in North Las Vegas.

In May 1983 the home of late gaming pioneer J. Kell Houssels Sr., the longtime owner of the Tropicana hotel-casino, was moved from Sixth Street and Charleston Boulevard to the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The day after the move, an arson fire severely damaged the 53-year-old Tudor-style house that also was known as The Pines. It was restored and today houses the UNLV Consciousness Studies Department. In 1988 fire rumbled through the abandoned Las Vegas Hospital at Eighth Street and Ogden Avenue, destroying the medical facility that was built in 1933 and closed in 1976. It was on the National Registry of Historic Buildings.

Also in 1988 the Old Ice House at 600 S. Main St., which for many years was used to preserve produce shipped from California, was hit by a series of blazes that Las Vegas Fire Department officials ruled were started by vagrants who were using the abandoned building as a flop house.

Preservation groups at the time lobbied to save the 80-year-old structure that had been abandoned in 1983. It had been included in the city's redevelopment plan for preservation.

However, after a series of blazes, the city issued a permit to the Union Pacific Railroad allowing it to level the site for safety reasons.

In August 1992 an early-morning fire destroyed the 81-year-old Park Mansion, the cornerstone of the 146-year-old Kiel Ranch at 200 E. Carey Ave., just west of Losee Road.

Despite the loss of the mansion, which also was called the White House, efforts continue to preserve the ranch, was donated to the city of North Las Vegas in 1976.