Question of the Day - 07 June 2025

For anyone who's unfamiliar with it, the Guardian Angel Cathedral is located at 302 Cathedral Way, just east of the Strip on Desert Inn.

It was designed in 1963 by famed Mid-Century Modern architect Paul R. Williams, the pioneering African American talent behind the La Concha motel in Las Vegas (now the Neon Museum's ticket office), among many other famous public and residential buildings in Nevada and California. Here's how the Guardian Angel came about.

Back in the 1950s prior to the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, which addressed the relationship between the Catholic Church and the modern world, there were no Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon masses, meaning that many Catholic casino staff were unable to attend due to shift conflicts. As a solution, one of the managers at the Stardust and Desert Inn requested that the local diocese offer a 4:30 a.m. mass on Sundays so that the Catholic cooks, bartenders, waiters, and musicians could fulfill their Sunday church obligation after late shifts.

For a while, a lounge in what was the Royal Nevada Hotel (also designed by Williams and located next to the Stardust) hosted mass, which later transferred to the showroom at the Stardust, following the night's final performance.

In 1955, St. Viator, the city's only other Catholic church (located at E. Flamingo and Eastern on what was once the city dump), was razed due to lack of structural stability. As part of his efforts to improve his mobbed-up image with some active philanthropy, as well as the value in a conveniently located church for his casino workers, Moe Dalitz, the juice behind the Desert Inn, approached his friend, architect Paul Williams, with a scheme to build a Strip cathedral, for which Dalitz donated the land. Despite being Jewish, Dalitz in 1961 funded the cathedral with his own money (unlike some of his other projects, including Sunrise Hospital and the Las Vegas Country Club, for which union pension funds were also tapped). The inaugural mass was conducted in October 1963.

Williams employed the dramatic A-frame design, bisected by 12 triangular recesses, each of which features a colorful stained-glass depiction of one of the Stations of the Cross, some featuring Las Vegas and/or gambling and even topical '60s atomic references. The result is a dramatic building, more than capable of holding its own next to the pomp and glitz of the Strip. The cathedral has seating for 1,100 congregants and is adorned with colorful murals and mosaics, including the large piece over the entrance by Los Angeles artists, the Hungarian sisters Edith and Isabel Piczek. It's one of the more striking, yet lesser known, authentic architectural reminders of Las Vegas' early days.

While the Guardian Angel Cathedral now offers a more typical service schedule and no longer conducts wee-hour mass, it remains popular (especially with tourists) and in 1995 was renovated to the tune of $1.3 million and adding features like sanctuary angels and a hanging crucifix. On May 30, 2023, Pope Francis elevated the Diocese of Las Vegas to an archdiocese, making Guardian Angel the Metropolitan Cathedral, serving an official count of 620,000, representing roughly a quarter of the total Las Vegas population. The actual number is likely higher, due to unregistered Catholics, particularly within the Hispanic community.