Landmarks: Buildings Went Up, Came Down

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 5/16/2005

Las Vegas, once a tract of empty desert, is changing all the time — just take a look at the giant cranes that continually dot the skyline of one of the nation's fastest-growing cities. The nature of Las Vegas is change, and what once seemed etched in stone is often soon forgotten. But the city has a rich history, and there are those who recall what once stood where today's most important exhibition and hospitality facilities are today.

Information on the history of some of Las Vegas' prominent exhibition sites came from Don Payne, who arrived in Las Vegas in 1940 and headed the Las Vegas News Bureau from 1965 to 1992; Richard Heller, president and general manager of the Sands Expo & Convention Center/Venetian Resort Hotel Casino; Kevin Bagger, director of Internet marketing and research for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority; and John Piet, LVCVA senior research analyst.

• Mandalay Bay, which opened in March 1999, occupies the site of the old Hacienda hotel. The original plans called for the hotel to be named The Lady Luck, but Warren "Doc" Bayley changed its name to correspond with his Hacienda hotels in Fresno and Bakersfield, Calif. The 256-room Las Vegas Hacienda opened in June 1956, and was demolished in December 1996.

• The Las Vegas Convention Center, before it opened in April 1959, was briefly the site of a horse racing track owned by a man named Joe Smoot. Before that it was a vacant lot. The Landmark Hotel, which opened in 1969 and was demolished in 1995, stood where the center's Gold parking lot is today. Before the South Hall was built, it was the site of hotels and apartments, and the old Chateau Vegas restaurant was across the street from what is now the West Hall.

• The Bellagio, which opened in 1998, replaced the Dunes, which was built in 1955 and demolished in 1993. The Dunes Golf Course ran along the east side of Interstate 15 between Flamingo Road and Tropicana Avenue, where the employee, loading and storage areas of the Bellagio, Monte Carlo and New York, New York hotels are now.

• The Venetian opened in 1999 on the site of the Sands Hotel, which opened in 1952 and was demolished in 1996. Before that, there was a gas station and a motel on the premises, according to Payne.

Heller, who oversaw the construction and November 1990 opening of the Sands Expo Center, said that the site was a vacant lot with nothing but a defunct heliport that had to be removed.

• The new Wynn Las Vegas is on the site of the former Desert Inn, which was built in 1950 and closed in 2000. Steve Wynn bought the Desert Inn after he sold the Bellagio, Mirage and Treasure Island.