Midcentury rescue

Kristen Peterson | Photography by Tiffany Brown

Sunday, April 15, 2007 | 7:26 a.m.

For all the kicking this city takes for its spotty preservation record, Alan Hess, guru of midcentury modernism, could do nothing but lavish praise on Las Vegas for the rescue and resurrection of the 1959 Morelli house.

The home that once sat in the Desert Inn Country Club is a historical preservation project taken on by the Junior League of Las Vegas. The group uses the Morelli house, now at Ninth Street and Bridger Avenue, as its offices.

The house is also part of the walking tour of the Las Vegas Historic District.

"That sort of support for midcentury modernism is rare," Hess says. "There is a growing interest in architecture of the 20th century, but not the kind of support and spirit that I see here."

Sands bandleader Antonio Morelli designed and built the home with Sands carpenter Richard Small. It has everything that dreams were made of in the 1950s and is loved culturally and architecturally.

"Anybody who was anybody had a house at the country club back in the day. Louis Prima, Wilbur Clark," says Lynn Zook, director of the As We Knew It: Classic Las Vegas archive. "This is the only one left . "

The new darling of Las Vegas' past was unveiled Monday by local dignitaries and Junior Leaguers dressed in vintage couture for the cocktail reception.

Not only does the Morelli house show the "depth of midcentury modern ethos," said Hess, an author, architect and historian who serves as architecture critic for the San Jose Mercury News. "It represents the identity of the character, history and type of city that Las Vegas is."