Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003 | 11:26 a.m.
Some traditions die hard. In Southern Nevada, nowhere is that more evident than with the old Las Vegas High School "senior squares" that refuse to vanish into history.
A project to resurrect the downtown sidewalk monument to mid-to-late 20th century history and culture was initiated by alumni who have raised $5,000 privately and also will use a $17,000 state grant.
"This was our history and we want to preserve it," said Sarah Butler Walker, chairwoman of the 22-member Senior Squares Committee and a member of the Las Vegas High Class of 1970.
"It was no easy task because we could not find an overhead color photo that showed what the original squares looked like. We had to look at many photos that showed just parts of the squares. Some had people standing on them. And not many of the photos, especially the early ones, were in color."
Starting in 1941 and continuing for 39 years, 5 1/2-foot-by-5 1/2-foot squares were painted in front of the three-story art deco school at Seventh Street and Bridger Avenue. In 1980 an incoming principal, with little sense of their significance, had them sandblasted because he thought they were unsightly.
Following a public outcry from powerful leaders who are alumni of the school, the squares were restored in the form of pebble-tech mosaic designs and the tradition continued until 1988, five years before the school moved to its present campus at 6500 E. Sahara Ave. in the foothills of Sunrise Mountain.
Last year the chipped and decaying mosaic squares were removed and concrete was poured for a permanent restoration of the 48 senior squares in front of the building, now the Las Vegas Academy.
Work on that project by professional painters is scheduled to begin this weekend and take four to five days, culminating with a 9:30 a.m. Nov. 7 ribbon-cutting ceremony by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.
The squares originated as a prank with a simple "41" painted in red on the sidewalk by senior Robbie Robinson and two of his underclassmen friends.
"Robbie was full of the dickens, so it did not surprise us that he had done it," said Betty Whitehead Willis, a member of the class of 1941 and a legendary local artist whose work includes the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign that long has greeted millions of visitors at the south end of the Strip.
"There he was in Principal Maude Frazier's office, his head down and looking at the red paint on his shoes and realizing there was no sense in denying it. What is remarkable is that it became such a marvelous tradition."
Robinson went on to become a local optometrist for 52 years and served 10 years in the Nevada Assembly and four years in the state Senate. He helped the committee with the restoration research and history of the squares.
"The only message I wanted to send at the time was simply that we were here," said Robinson, who is retired and resides in Las Vegas. "I recruited juniors Glenn Van Eaton (now of Illinois) and Jim Porter (now of Phoenix) to look out while I painted a real messy '41.' "
Robinson, a cheerleader and band member at Las Vegas High, said he did his January 1941 stunt to mirror a tradition at his old school in Payette, Idaho. His punishment was a tongue-lashing from Frazier, who made him clean up his mess -- and made him help classmates paint a neat red "41" on a white surface.
Willis said that while Frazier could be an imposing and sometimes frightening woman, she also was a fair headmistress who saw the value in creating a lasting memorial to each class. After World War II, she instructed seniors to paint on the sidewalk emblems that represented their era.
Over the years, seniors developed so much pride in the squares that any underclassman who was caught walking on them was required to clean them with a toothbrush.
While many squares are copies of yearbook covers, others are individualistic and symbolic of an era -- the Class of 1951's mushroom cloud representing above-ground nuclear testing in the Nevada desert during the Cold War and the Class of 1972's Peter Max-influenced psychedelic age tribute.
Others are simplistic, yet subtly symbolic. For example, the Class of 1956's square features a clock, not to represent the passing of time, but rather a veiled tribute to the birth of then-controversial rock 'n' roll music.
"It's Bill Haley and His Comets' 'Rock around the Clock,' " said Las Vegas High Class of 1956 member Patty Haack. "Many of us wanted to leave a lasting message of something about our youth."
The most controversial of the squares perhaps is the Class of 1971 entry featuring a headless youth in a football jersey holding a can of beer -- a message of teenage rebellion during the dark days of the Vietnam War.
Marjorie Willis Holland, Willis' daughter and a member of the Las Vegas High Class of 1970, said school spirit motivated her class to restore the squares when they gathered for their 30-year reunion in 2000.
"Our class is full of movers and shakers who have a great respect for tradition," said Holland, a graphic artist who runs The Pig Trough screen printing shop with her mother.
"Las Vegas is a young city that keeps reinventing itself to show the world that it is new and exciting. And it doesn't care if it has to implode or paint over something to get out that message. But not everything can be that way. Some of the old needs to be preserved."
Holland, who with her mother drew the miniature square artwork from which artists will paint the full-sized squares, says to her the senior squares represent "the beginning and the end of the age of innocence."
Robert Curry, a local artist who is involved in other restoration projects including the art walk at Circle Park on Maryland Parkway in the Huntridge District, will receive $6,000 for painting the permanent monument. The committee says Robert Curry Studios is writing off $30,000 in labor costs.
"We are designing this to be permanent with high-density pigmented paint sandwiched between layers of concrete sealer," said Curry, who will be assisted by artists Scott Lyon and Thane Maxwell, a Las Vegas High 1981 graduate.
"We will be on our hands and knees doing old-school work, sort of like the way billboards were painted before the computer-generated images of today."
Curry said he will remain true to the designs that have been researched by the committee and drawn by Willis and Holland, but noted that there will be a uniformity that was missing from the original paintings.
"For some years the students used oils, for other years they may have used latex or even house paint," Curry said. "This project will be done with professional-grade paint throughout. Hopefully, the only maintenance it will require is a coat of sealer each year."
Committee members said if vandals try to graffiti the artwork, any marring will be easily wiped away, and the annual resealing job will cost about $500.
Committee members Walker, Holland and Haack said the senior squares are being installed at the old Las Vegas High campus instead of the new campus primarily to honor tradition.
"The campus on Seventh Street is the only Las Vegas High many of us have known," Haack said. "Many of us really do not know the new school."
Walker said that while her group's allegiance is to the old Las Vegas High, there is nothing to stop the students at the new school from rekindling the senior square tradition on their campus.
"We would like to see that kind of commitment," Walker said.
Patrice Johnson, principal of Las Vegas High, said that while there has been no interest expressed by her students to carry on the senior square tradition, there are strong ties between the new and old campuses.
"There are a number of traditions that have been carried on," she said. "Just recently, more than 4,000 people showed up for the 'bone game' (against Rancho High)."
Las Vegas and Rancho traditionally compete in football for Sir Herkimer's Bone, a symbol of the rivalry between the schools.
"Also, we've had many students whose parents moved to this zone so that their children could go to Las Vegas High just as they did and, in some cases, just as their parents did."
Last spring, the 2003 graduating class invited the Class of 1953 to their graduation as part of its golden anniversary celebration, Johnson said.
Also, former Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., a Las Vegas High 1955 graduate, secured a grant to repair and place on display at the new school the sports awards dating back to the early 20th century -- trophies that were found abandoned, broken and mangled in storage at the old school.
Johnson said if a future class wants to resume the senior squares tradition on the new campus she would be willing to hear the proposal for starting and maintaining the artwork.
Holland said if the tradition is not rekindled on the new campus it will not be a tragedy.
"Today, seniors give gifts to the school, and that's something that is important too," Holland said. "Some traditions fade away and new ones take their place. But traditions never die if they are in your heart."
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