Vintage Vegas captured

Friday, June 15, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

Believe it or not, Las Vegas had residents before the 1970s who weren't living in hotels or flying in to sing in lounges.

There were neighborhoods with families that worked regular hours and sent their children to school.

Knowing that this is news to many newcomers, a local Realtor with a fondness for old Las Vegas devised a quirky contest that had residents snapping photos of themselves in the city's more unusual areas.

Part educational and part promotional, the tour was organized by Jack Levine in the hope of showing suburbanites that there are alternatives to stucco and tract homes.

More than a dozen participants shot off to various neighborhoods - Glen Heather and McNeil Estates, Rancho Nevada, Scotch 80s and the Huntridge, among them.

They photographed themselves in front of Mayor Oscar Goodman's house, by gates to older communities, at an old murder scene and in front of the spectacle that is former Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren's home.

An eye for composition had little to do with winning. The photos merely add your name into a $1,000 drawing. Winners will be announced this weekend at a party sponsored by Very Vintage Vegas.

The contest was a way to let everyone know that there are "exciting, fun, interesting places in the urban core" that were here by the 1970s, Levine said.

Local couple Denise Duarte and Marlene Adrian said the tour took them into areas they had never seen or had long forgotten, and gave them a chance to look at nonconformity in home design.

"It ties you back to your community by taking you into neighborhoods you don't drive into every day," Duarte said. "It would be great if we had piled more friends into the car and gone together."

Longtime resident Brian "Paco" Alvarez said the way Las Vegas grew outward offers a clear look at change in residential architecture over the years.

"You have all the eras represented," he said. "As the city grew out, the architecture became more contemporary, and then you get what you have today, which is Summerlin and Green Valley and the Mediterranean-style houses."

Levine, who moved to Las Vegas in 1985, refers to the city's neighborhoods as concentric circles. He's been selling older homes for more than 15 years and sees a trend in homeowners wanting to move inward to older neighborhoods.

"They want charm, character, uniqueness and history," he said.

Mary Margaret Stratton of Atomic Age Alliance and her husband own a home in Paradise Palms and advocate preservation and proper renovation of mid century modern homes. The nonprofit group wants to educate residents already living in vintage homes on their value, in part by slide show presentations later this year for homeowners.

"For the 1940s we'll go to Huntridge, the 1950s Glenn Heather and the 1960s Paradise Palms," Stratton said. Once that's accomplished, the group will offer lectures for real estate agents.

Working with mid century modern Realtor Mark Minelli of sincitymodern.com, Stratton created Mondo-Vegas, a 68-page self-guided tour that leads to Las Vegas' architectural landmarks, including those neighborhoods.

Although Stratton's group doesn't have a financial interest in promoting the neighborhoods, she said a contest such as Levine's is a fun excuse for like minds to get together.

"The more Realtors trying to save these neighborhoods, the better," she said.