Progress made on restoring neon lights at historic Las Vegas hotels
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LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) -A row of neon lights at Downtown Las Vegas hotels have been carefully restored to shine brightly along Fremont Street, three years after the project was launched to revitalize historic signs.
The Lucky Motel, Traveler’s Motel, the Starview Motel, Fremont Motel, the Las Vegas Motel and the Gables Motel are six properties that have been completed.
In 2019, the City of Las Vegas launched Project Enchilada, a development plan to revamp Downtown Las Vegas and restore historical buildings to their former glory. Owners and city officials work in partnership with careful restoration of the decades-old signs.
“We don’t want to lose that history... walking down those streets and walking under those signs and looking at those signs, taking pictures in front of those signs, and be able to really connect with our with our history through that that neon legacy,” said Dr. Diane Siebrandt, historic preservation officer.
The signs are carefully repaired by local restoration companies.
They’re old, they’re broken. Some of the signs are 50 years old or older, they haven’t been maintained. So it’s first cleaning them, and then we have to restore them. And that is really the biggest challenge,” she said.
“The reds and the yellows, the blues, the greens-- it has been ingrained in people’s psyche that neon equals Las Vegas,” Dr. Siebrandt said.
The next phase of neon restorations has already begun, and signs along Las Vegas Boulevard are currently being restored before they can make their public debut.
