We don't know with one-hundred percent certainty, but the answer to your question is almost certainly yes, for two reasons.
Firstly, after years of segregation, in 1960 the majority of Strip properties agreed to open their doors to black clientele. Prior to that, the only integrated hotel in Las Vegas had been the famed Moulin Rouge, which had opened its doors in May, 1955. La Concha opened in 1961, so was very likely integrated.
The second reason that makes us pretty sure that there was no color bar at La Concha is the fact that it was designed by Paul R. Williams, the first African-American member and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. With a practice based primarily in southern California, Williams was responsible for designing the homes of numerous Hollywood stars, plus many public and private buildings some of which, like La Concha and the even more famous Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport, were strikingly futuristic in their design. It seems unlikely that Williams would have agreed to design a motel that was going to practice segregation.
La Concha was a celebrity hotspot when it debuted but as time went by was overshadowed by the towering new resorts that sprung up around it on the Strip. In 2003, owner Lorenzo Doumani, a family member of M. K. Doumani, the original owner, announced plans to demolish demolish La Concha and build a new, larger hotel. However, although the motel itself was razed, the popularity and historical significance of the unique conch-shaped lobby ensured that one of the last vestiges of classic Las Vegas architecture was saved.
But what to do with it? After considering and rejecting several options, the local residents, community activists, and preservationists who had sprung to La Concha's rescue agreed on a highly ambitious plan to deconstruct the concrete lobby and transport it, in sections, downtown (it was too tall to pass underneath the I-95 intact), where it will form the visitor center for the embryonic Neon Museum (and, following this week's decision, will also double as the visitor center for the National Scenic Byway section of Las Vegas Blvd. N.)
After raising well over half-a-million dollars, La Concha Lobby was moved downtown over a five-day period in December 2006, and then reassembled on the site of the Neon Museum. Click this link for a recent panoramic view of the site, courtesy of the Las Vegas Sun (move your mouse upwards to check out the roof).
The federal funding secured this week should ensure that the La Concha/Neon Museum project will come to fruition in the not-too-distant future.
As to La Concha's former home, the site remains vacant. The 5.43 acre property next to the Riviera was going to be used for a mixed use Majestic/Conrad/Waldorf project, which vacillated between consisting of one and two (particularly ugly-looking, if the artist's renditions are to be believed) towers. The project remained in a stop-start pattern for awhile before being finally abandoned in November 2007 prior to any ground having been broken. The land was then purchased by the Triple Five retail-development company for $180 million, but there's been no word of any plans there since last year, as far as we know.
For a tongue-in-cheek YouTube homage to La Concha, which gives a good tour of the motel both inside and out when it was still open for business (just), click here.
Photographs appear courtesy of ClassicVegas.com, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and RoadsidePictures.
