Was the La Concha Motel Integrated When It Opened?

On our last trip, we finally got to the Neon Museum. Fascinating! We especially liked that the visitor center is in the lobby of the old La Concha Motel, which we always admired when it was on the Strip. Since it opened in 1961, we got to wondering if people of color, like us, could have stayed there when it opened. We asked at the museum if the motel was integrated when it opened, but no one knew. Do you?

We couldn't come up with any evidence on one side or the other, but we strongly suspect that La Concha was, in fact, open to everyone when it arrived on the north Strip next to the Riviera, with its paraboloid concrete roof and Mid-Century Modern design.

For one, after decades of segregation that gave Las Vegas the dubious distinction of being known as the Mississippi of the West, the majority of Strip properties agreed to open their doors to black clientele a year earlier in 1960.

The Moulin Rouge Agreement, named after the integrated 1950s' hotel-casino in Westside Las Vegas, was hammered out in March of that year by the NAACP, Las Vegas Sun publisher Hank Greenspun, and the casino power brokers. Only one day before a threatened citywide protest that the casinos knew would be very bad for publicity, the bosses agreed to end all Jim Crow policies, allowing all comers, not just whites, to gamble, eat, stay, and attend shows in every Las Vegas hotel-casino. Since La Concha opened a year after the Agreement, we can say with as much certainty as possible that it was never segregated.

The other reason that, even without the Moulin Rouge Agreement, there was no color barrier at La Concha is the fact that it was designed by Paul R. Williams, the first African-American member 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 them, like La Concha and the more famous Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport, were strikingly futuristic in their design. It seems highly unlikely that Williams would have designed a motel that could or would exclude people of color.

La Concha was a celebrity hotspot when it debuted, but as time went by, it 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 La Concha to make room for a new development.

The motel itself was razed, but the popularity and historical significance of the unique conch-shaped lobby ensured that one of the last vestiges of classic Las Vegas architecture was deconstructed, moved downtown over a five-day period in December 2006, and reassembled on the site of the Neon Museum.

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

Have a question that hasn't been answered? Email us with your suggestion.

Missed a Question of the Day?

Have a Question?

Tomorrow's Question

Has Clark County ever considered legalizing prostitution?

Comments

Ted Born Oct-29-2023

My "first time"

The La Concha was where I stayed during my very first Las Vegas trip when I was a 21 year old "whippersnapper" way back in 19??!

Jeff Oct-29-2023

There were lingering effects of official segregation

Just because the casinos' official policy of excluding people of color stopped on a certain date doesn't mean that black people felt their visitation was now welcome and immediately began to patronize Strip resorts. It would be years before most black people chose to vacation in a city that had excluded them just a few years before.

Even when I visited the Strip in the late '80s, I saw few black people. People have to feel welcome and not just tolerated to enjoy themselves.

Around 1990, this happened:

I called a major Strip hotel's reservation number. In discussing available dates, the phone lady mentioned Martin Luther King's birthday followed by a racist remark. Even in the Vegas of the 1980s, a reservationist knew there was no risk to her employment in expressing racist views to a caller on a nationwide 800 number.

" [La Concha] arrived on the north Strip next to the Riviera."

Back then, it was the *Center Strip*.

Question of the Day - 29 October 2023

Comments