Cottage industry: Group works to preserve LV’s railroad past

Sito Negron

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003 | 11:10 a.m.

The vestiges of Las Vegas' railroad past are being threatened by the future, as downtown land becomes more valuable and landowners and the city seek to revitalize the core of the urbanized valley.

So preservationists are keeping a close eye on a downtown cluster of railroad cottages, brick buildings that date back about 90 years, to make sure that when something new and shiny goes up, what preceded it is preserved.

"These cottages are just critical," said Bob Stoldal, chairman of the city's Historic Preservation Commission, which was to meet today. "It's the last piece of railroad history we have downtown. We've lost everything else."

Stoldal and a city engineer visited one of the cottages, at 604 Fourth St., Tuesday afternoon. The goal was to see if it could be moved, and to ensure that until it is, the city does not destroy it. Although one plan for the property fell through, the city is interested in using the land for a development project.

Margo Wheeler, deputy director in the Current Planning division of the city planning department, said in an interview before the tour that the city would only tear the building down if "we got an engineer's report that indicated it couldn't be moved."

She said the city was working on finding a site for it.

"It's pretty expensive to move the little puppies, but we're certainly willing to pursue this and hope like heck to save the darn thing," Wheeler said.

Stoldal said the results of the engineer's review Tuesday were positive, and the issue will come up for discussion at the Historic Preservation Commission, which was to meet at 1:30 p.m. today, 731 Fourth St., conference room 2B.

"The inspector said the building is in great shape structurally and can be moved if necessary," Stoldal said. He said the cottage even retained what looks to be some of its original fixtures, like a wash basin set at a right angle in the corner of the bathroom.

The homes were built for railroad employees shortly after the turn of the century. About a dozen of the cottages survive, out of the original 64. They are built of cinderblock and are under 1,000 square feet each.

While the city owns one of the buildings, and wants to use that property, across the street, lawyer Jerry Kaufman owns a cluster of railroad cottages.

He said he plans to develop the land, but would be glad to donate the cottages to a group that can move them.

"I think through mutual cooperation on everybody's behalf we can save some of those homes," Kaufman said.

He said the property will be sold, but there is time to save the cottages.

"I get two or three phone calls a day on those properties," Kaufman said. "A lot of interest is there."

He didn't know the how long it will be before the cottages have to make way for his development.

"If the plans were approved tomorrow, and they're not ... it would still take three, four, five months into the next year before we even got a go ahead," Kaufman said.

Stoldal said he hopes all the buildings -- especially the city-owned cottage -- can be saved, in place if possible.

"The ultimate is the structure stay in its historic context, where it was originally located," he said. "The next (best outcome) is that they stay some place close to that."

He mentioned as ideas the old post office downtown, which the city now owns and is going to turn into a museum, or the Clark County museum on Boulder Highway, where one of the cottages already has been moved.