Vintage neon signs from Las Vegas businesses dot a storage lot called the " the boneyard" near Cashman Center. Preservationists hope to move part of the La Concha motel to serve as a visitor center for a museum. Photo by Gary Thompson. The La Concha motel is dwarfed by the Riviera in this 2001 photo. REVIEW-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

In the grand scheme of Las Vegas history, this week's push to save a shuttered Strip motel was no epoch event.

Still, local preservationists said a $300,000 pledge toward moving part of the iconic La Concha motel could provide incalculable returns to locals and visitors alike.

And, they added, more appreciation of the past is needed in a city whose historic ties have met with increasing nostalgic interest -- and all too often, a date with a wrecking ball.

At the request of the city of Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Tuesday agreed to finance the move of the La Concha's facade to a proposed museum site near Cashman Center.

If built, The Neon Museum's permanent home would be part of the city's Cultural Corridor that also includes the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Reed Whipple

Cultural Center and Old Mormon Fort State Park. The locale is already home to dozens of historic neon signs, stored piecemeal in two desert lots known collectively as "the boneyard."

Brad Friedmutter, president of Las Vegas' Friedmutter Group Architectural & Design Studios, said preserving the La Concha alongside a neon museum would help market the city to a new generation of visitors.

Youth interest in the boneyard is already luring film crews to the site, which was evidenced in clips of an MTV performance by the band Evanescence, a scene from CBS television's hit series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," as well as a music video by The Killers, a local band with a strong global following.

Former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan also lobbied to move and preserve La Concha. The motel, designed by Paul Revere Williams, a prominent early black architect whose works include California's Beverly Hills Hotel and Shrine Auditorium, represents a key link to Southern Nevada's past, Bryan said.

"I hope that you'll give us an opportunity to protect our heritage," Bryan, who is chairman of Preserve Nevada, a civic organization that works to save historic buildings, told authority leaders Tuesday.

Scattered among mixed tumbleweeds and broken glass, countless historic icons peek over the boneyard's chain-link fences. The genie's lamp from the Aladdin and Silver Slipper's signature shoe are there, as is the massive pirate skull from Treasure Island's original marquee.

Less-known but equally interesting items include motel signs for the Jackpot and recently razed Del Mar, as well as a king from downtown's former Coin Castle. Anyone willing to donate at least $50 can visit the boneyard by scheduling an advance tour, though museum organizers hope to make the boneyard more accessible.

The authority's grant is contingent on The Neon Museum, a nonprofit group spun off from the city several years ago, successfully raising $300,000 to finance rebuilding and restoring the motel's shell-shaped structure, which now sits idly between the Riviera and Peppermill restaurant.

The motel's owner, the Doumani family, recently closed La Concha to clear room for the Majestic, a 37-floor hotel tower operated by Conrad, the five-star division of Hilton Hotels Corp. Construction on that project is on hold, but the Doumanis still plan to donate the facade to The Neon Museum for use as a visitor center, Barbara Molasky, the organization's co-chair, said Thursday.

"We need a central gathering place. We have so many tourists and locals coming through, so they need a restroom, place to eat and buy little gifts," Molasky said. Incorporating the La Concha into the museum's footprint, she added, would be "a perfect combination" because it is an architecturally significant piece of Strip history.

Plans call for remnants of the La Concha lobby to serve as an entryway to a permanent gallery, events terrace and separate boneyard gallery. The project would require an additional $800,000, which The Neon Museum is working to raise, Molasky said.

Pending funding, she hopes the permanent museum can open in early 2007.

A $4.5 million city park adorned with neon sign exhibits would be built across a driveway, with parking and a second boneyard lot nearby. The site is off Las Vegas Boulevard at McWilliams Avenue, adjacent to the Cashman Center parking lot.

The Neon Museum also hopes to restore many of the signs, which were donated from their owners as well as Young Electric Sign Co. In addition to the boneyard, the group would like to create clusters of miniature museums around the city similar to those now off of Fremont Street.

"What better place to see them than out on the street?" Molasky said.