Casino land sale linked to Las Vegas’ early days

When John F. Miller was building a hotel in Las Vegas, a local paper reported he was sparing no expense.

The rooms were large, well-lit and ventilated, and electric lights and a telephone system were being installed.

All told, the hotel would be a “credit to Las Vegas and as comfortable a hostelry as can be found anywhere,” the Las Vegas Age declared in 1906.

Nearly 120 years later, after a history of name changes, expansions and other new features, the former Hotel Nevada still stands — a stunning feat in Las Vegas, where numerous hotels, primarily on the Strip, were imploded over the years to clear space for bigger and flashier casino-resorts.

And as a recent real estate deal shows, the historic downtown hotel long known as the Golden Gate was still linked to the original developer, who built the project in Las Vegas’ early days as a tiny desert outpost.

Golden Gate owner Derek Stevens confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he acquired the land under the hotel-casino, at the corner of Fremont and Main streets, from descendants of Miller.

Stevens had been leasing the land from the family, and property records show that his $19 million purchase of the 1.3-acre parcel closed last month.

The family sold the plot to Stevens through an entity incorporated in 1908 as the Hotel Nevada Mining Company, a business formed when Las Vegas was still part of Lincoln County.

Miller launched the company to invest in hotels, mining claims, oil wells, real estate and liquor stores, according to its incorporation papers.

The entity is now called the Sal Sagev Hotel Co. Inc., as the hotel’s name was changed in the early 1930s to Las Vegas spelled backwards.

Sal Sagev Hotel Co. President James Reynolds — who, according to Stevens, is the great-grandson of Miller — could not be reached for comment on the sale.

UNLV history professor Michael Green said he liked the notion that Miller’s descendants still owned the land under the hotel, and he noted that historians live for links from the past to the present that people don’t expect.

“That would be one of them,” he said.

Phone number: 1

Stevens, a visible downtown casino boss who also owns the D Las Vegas and Circa, said he always wanted to buy the Golden Gate’s land from the original owners.

He has made numerous changes to the compact property at 1 Fremont St., at the western edge of the canopy-covered Fremont Street Experience. He also promotes its place in Las Vegas history.

As outlined on the Golden Gate’s website, Las Vegas’ first telephone was installed in the hotel in 1907; the hotel put up an outdoor electric sign in 1927, a precursor to Las Vegas’ famed neon lights; and the hotel introduced Las Vegas’ original shrimp cocktail in 1959.

Display cases near the check-in desk also serve as an in-house museum.

Visitors can see hand towels, a room key and phone directory from the Sal Sagev in the 1930s; chip racks and promotional liquor bottles from the ‘50s; casino uniforms from the ‘60s; and wood piping that held the original line for Las Vegas’ first telephone.

There is also a display that notes the hotel’s original phone number: “1.”

Miller, who died in 1957, is said to have arrived in Las Vegas on the first train here. He bought the plot for Hotel Nevada at the 1905 land auction that kickstarted Las Vegas’ beginnings, paying $1,750, according to Green.

He initially opened a tent hotel but then built an actual hotel building, Green said.

On Jan. 6, 1906, the Age reported that Miller was building a “first-class” property. Miller also issued a warning in the same issue, printed right nearby, telling readers to put up the notice “where you will be sure to remember it.”

“No one has any authority to have goods or anything whatever charged to me, and I hereby warn everyone that I shall refuse to pay any debts unless contracted by myself,” he wrote.

Las Vegas, Lincoln County

A week later, the Age reported that the hotel had “quite a roll of guests” even though the interior was only partially finished.

In summer 1910, the Age wrote that Miller had resigned as manager of the hotel and would take a much-needed rest in Southern California for a month or two.

The paper also noted that the “Hotel Nevada Mining company” had taken over the property about two years earlier and had since maintained Miller’s various enterprises.

State records show that Miller formed the company in late 1908 and declared its principal office would be at the Hotel Nevada in Las Vegas, Lincoln County.

Clark County came into existence in 1909, after the Nevada Legislature cleaved it off Lincoln County.

By 1910, the Las Vegas “precinct” of Clark County had a population of 945, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report.

‘Chief loser’

In 1931, the Hotel Nevada’s name was changed to Sal Sagev. It had a rough start under the new brand.

On Nov. 12, 1931, the Age reported that almost 24 hours of incessant rain had caused large property damage in and around Las Vegas.

“Chief loser in the city was the Sal Sagev,” the Age wrote, adding that the hotel was in the process of remodeling and “virtually without a roof over the entire building.”

Nearly two decades later, the hotel garnered headlines for another reason.

On Sept. 22, 1949, the Review-Journal reported that a desk clerk at the Sal Sagev discovered a mysterious note indicating that Los Angeles mobster Mickey Cohen’s missing henchman Frank Niccoli had been “rubbed out.”

The clerk notified police about the note.

In 1955, investors from the San Francisco Bay area opened the Golden Gate casino on the ground floor of the Sal Sagev. Eventually, the entire property became known as the Golden Gate.

New resort nearby

In 2008, Stevens and his brother, Greg, secured approval from Nevada casino regulators to acquire a 50 percent stake in the hotel-casino. They took full ownership in 2015.

The Golden Gate has undergone several changes over the years.

Its ownership group added a five-story hotel building in 2012, saying this marked the property’s first major expansion in 50 years. Stevens unveiled more upgrades in 2017, including a bigger casino floor, a longer outdoor bar along the Fremont Street Experience, and a Jazz Age-inspired entryway with 500-pound golden velvet drapes.

Stevens has also done demolition work nearby.

He and his brother acquired the partially closed Las Vegas Club hotel-casino property in 2015. Then in 2016, they purchased adjacent land with two small casinos — Mermaids and La Bayou — and a strip club called the Topless Girls of Glitter Gulch, saying the deal would let them reshape the block with a new hotel-casino property.

They leveled the buildings and developed Circa, which opened in fall 2020.

The 35-story, 777-room resort is known for its year-round, 4,000-person capacity pool area and three-story sportsbook with a 78-million-pixel screen and space for 1,000 people.

It was downtown’s first newly built resort in four decades — and it stands only about 80 feet away from the oldest hotel in Las Vegas.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.