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Diamonds in the Desert

Raise your hand if you’ve heard of or remember the futuristic design of the 1950s dubbed the Googie architecture movement? Stay with me; you may be surprised.

Entering Las Vegas, Nevada, from California on Arrowhead Highway/Highway 91, now called “the Strip,” you can still find remnants of roadside America from its motoring past. One of the not-so-ubiquitous treasures is the Diamond Inn Motel, built in 1940.

While visiting Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay, I was delighted to discover two historic landmarks, “The Sign” and the Diamond Inn Motel. Well, to be honest, only the sign is designated as a historic landmark. But they are both worth a look just to get a glimpse of Las Vegas’s history.

You can discover this quaint roadside business if you have the pluck to make your way from your room through the modern monolith hotel/casino maze and can actually get outside for an early morning walk. 

Admittedly, I’m an early bird; I was out the door by 5:15 a.m. enjoying a light breeze and a pleasant 78 degrees. Keep in mind that in late May, temperatures can quickly exceed 100. My morning walk quickly reminded me of the dramatic contrast of scale between the old and the new. Now, practically in the shadow of the immense Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, I could not pass up the opportunity to walk into the Diamond Inn’s main check-in/reception area and ask the young man behind the counter, “How much is a room?” He pointed to a handwritten piece of paper on the counter with the prices for the night and weekly rates. “Do you have any brochures?” I asked. “Not about the hotel,” he said. “Just the ones there on the window sill.” Yes, you guessed it, the location of strip clubs and the typical tourist brochures you find littering the sidewalks of Las Vegas.

When built in 1940, the Desert Isle Motel, its original name, hovered on the city's outskirts. With a little research, you will discover it is one of the oldest buildings still standing on the strip. The first hotel/casino built on the strip was called the El Rancho Vegas Hotel & Casino, built in 1941. Later, in the '40s and ’50s, dozens of motels were built next door, the Mirage, Lone Palm, Desert Rose, and many others that were the high points of Old Vegas with their glittering neon signs. The Diamond Inn is still standing and in business; it is a little worn from the years of blistering heat. The front window was broken and held in place with duct tape, the pool had been drained, and it could use a paint job; I could only imagine what the rooms were like. However, there were cars parked in designated room spaces. That’s a good sign, right?  My hunch is today, tourists would call it a diamond in the rough, a historical treasure.

Proceeding south as the rays of golden sunrise peeked over the horizon, the second gem I approached was the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, built in 1959 and now powered by a solar array. Coincidently, I had never seen this sign before. As it’s known to the locals, the sign is located in the median at 5100 Las Vegas Boulevard South, just north of the historic stone pillars of the old McCarran Airport on the east side and across from the Bali Hai Golf Club. According to my GPS, the sign sits in the town of Paradise and is located roughly four miles south of the actual city limits of Las Vegas.

 As I approached from the north side, in the large bold and scripted font, it read, Drive Carefully Come Back Soon. Huh, what is this? I thought. So, I crossed the street to the median and walked around to read the placard next to the large solar panels.

A few fun facts were:

  • Designed in 1959 by Architect Betsy Willis
  • It is a horizontally stretched diamond-shape
  • The design was never copyrighted and remains in the public domain
  • The white neon circles were designed to represent silver dollars
  • December 2008, a 10-acre parking lot was built for tourists
  • Added to State Register of Historic Places in December 2013
Surprisingly, it looked familiar. So, a quick tap on the Googie link from a Google search on my phone. I had seen this style before. For those familiar with Los Angeles, some examples are Norms Restaurants, Johnie’s Coffee Shop on Wilshire Boulevard, the oldest McDonalds in Downey, California, which opened in 1953, the classic drive-in theater signs, and the Theme Building at the Los Angeles airport.

Today, you can see many diamonds in the desert in Las Vegas, but not one that represents such a blast from roadside America’s motoring past.

I'm Patrick Ball; thanks for reading. See you in the next episode.
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