Vera Holloway covers downtown Las Vegas for the Journal: the casinos and hotels between Main Street and El Cortez, the Fremont East district, and the neighborhood’s history from the railroad depot forward. She writes the Downtown, History, and Eat & Drink sections.
Benny Binion opened the Horseshoe at 128 Fremont Street in 1951 and started the World Series of Poker there in 1970. The tournament left in 2005. The building did not.
Nine casinos on five blocks, built between 1906 and 2020, from the railroad depot at Main Street to the El Cortez at Sixth.
Las Vegas's oldest hotel opened as the Hotel Nevada a year after the town was founded. It has had three names, one address, and the city's first telephone.
The casino at Sixth and Fremont opened in 1941, had Bugsy Siegel as a part-owner for a year, and was Jackie Gaughan's home for decades. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Fremont Street Experience opened in December 1995 as a rescue plan for a declining downtown. What it was built to do, who paid for it, and how it has changed.
The cowboy sign over the former Pioneer Club has stood since 1951. The neon that surrounded it is mostly gone from the street, and some of it is on display a mile north.
Downtown Las Vegas has more old-line steakhouses per block than anywhere else in the city. Where each one is, when it opened, and what each is known for.