Museum creates vintage holiday displays

By Dave Clark

Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008 | midnight

This year's Heritage Street Holidays exhibit at the Clark County Museum through Jan. 15 features interior decors and holiday scenes representing each decade in Nevada from the 1920s to the 1950s.

"Every year we set it up just a little bit differently," recreation cultural specialist Malcolm Vuksich said. "There are period trees in every home. Kitchens and dining rooms are set up with what we think is the typical holiday meal during the decades represented by the homes."

From the 1920s, the Beckley House — a California bungalow — will showcase the golden age of handcrafted glass ornaments. The Babcock/Wilcox House of the 1930s, built in the Minimal Traditional style, depicts the Great Depression era, when trees were creatively decorated.

The Townsite House, which embodies 1940s government housing, illustrates the war and the holidays as people came together in patriotism and tradition. The P.J. Goumond Heritage House, a Tudor Revival home of the 1950s, highlights America and Southern Nevada as the country became accustomed to a world at peace and a time of prosperity with larger, brighter and more complex lights, ornaments and decorations.

"I think people are interested in how Nevadans lived in the earlier days," Vuksich said. "This is a very good example to not only visit homes restored to these specific period styles but also to look at antique and vintage ornaments and see how they were used in a family celebration. You almost leave the present day and step back into the '30s, '40s and '50s."

All of the homes are also decorated with donated vintage furnishings, he said.

Dave Clark can be reached at 990-2677 or [email protected].