Known just as “the adobe,” this structure on the former Kiel Ranch in North Las Vegas is considered the second oldest building in the region.
Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 | 2 a.m.
A measuring device helps track the widening of cracks in the walls of the adobe. Preservationists would like to see the ranch site saved, but the economy is likely to be a hindrance.
The interior of the Doll House, above, the second of two buildings at the ranch site, is filled with debris. In 2007, city officials asked the state for $8 million to rebuild the site. They were denied.
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The lonely pair of historic Kiel Ranch buildings — well, what remains of them — appear haggard, just off Interstate 15 in North Las Vegas, barred from human contact by a brick wall topped with steel bars.
The larger building, cloaked by unkempt shrubs and 10-foot-tall sagebrush, appears ready to crumble like an old sand castle.
It lacks one of its walls and leans on beams. A metal sign warns visitors that it’s not safe to interact with the nameless building, called only “the adobe.”
The Doll House, a white shed, is a bit healthier, although its peeling paint serves as a reminder of 32 years of abandonment. Its interior is filled with debris and, strangely, a broken toilet.
Are the buildings worth saving?
“I asked that a few years ago and almost got killed for it,” said North Las Vegas City Councilman William Robinson, who has represented the area of Kiel Ranch for 26 years. “I won’t do that again.”
Robinson said he can’t recall anybody else suggesting the site should be abandoned once and for all.
Kiel Ranch defenders — a crew of preservationists, historians and a few senior citizens who live in the area — believe it’s the most important place in North Las Vegas. But even though the site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, efforts to save the long-ignored ranch have failed, and the buildings are falling into greater disrepair.
The Paiutes settled at the site in the 1800s, drawn by a life-sustaining spring, making it one of the oldest settlements in Southern Nevada. Mormons later farmed there.
In the 1880s, Conrad Kiel built a ranch, and his adobe is considered the second oldest building in the region, after the Mormon fort on Washington Avenue in Las Vegas.
The Kiel site is now an all-but-empty parcel of land near Carey Avenue and Losee Road. Its closest neighbor: an industrial park.
In 2007 North Las Vegas asked the state for more than $8 million to rebuild the ranch. It didn’t get it.
Now, two years later, getting any money from the financially struggling state is even more unlikely. State and federal grant programs are likely to be cut this year, said Ron James, state historical preservation officer.
That, coupled with the local governments tightening their belts, will make it even more difficult for projects like Kiel Ranch reconstruction to be completed.
Preservation “is always difficult even in times of prosperity,” said Corrine Escobar, president of the Preservation Association of Clark County. “In times of a depressed economy it gets more difficult. Preservation costs money.”
Still, the city is developing a plan for the site. The first priority is stabilizing the adobe. North Las Vegas purchased the site in 1976 (and has been widely blamed for its current condition).
About 20 people at a recent public meeting pressed the city to finally restore Kiel Ranch.
“Things like these are rare, especially in this community where we implode stuff,” said Mary Alice Esparaza, a resident who attended the meeting. “I’ve cried a million tears driving past there.”
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