‘Part miracle’: Historic Las Vegas hotel celebrates 120 years

The oldest hotel in Las Vegas hit a rare milestone this week, as the Golden Gate Hotel & Casino, which opened Jan. 13, 1906, as the Hotel Nevada, celebrated its 120th anniversary.

Friday evening’s anniversary party in downtown Las Vegas will include giveaways, complimentary birthday shots and commemorative merchandise, all in celebration of Golden Gate’s place as the city’s first permanent hotel.

“This is, literally, the birthplace of hotel tourism and casino as we know it today in Las Vegas,” Jeff Victor, vice president of operations for Circa Hospitality Group, said Thursday morning.

Even as the property has expanded, the Golden Gate still bears physical imprints of its earliest days. Victor noted the building’s original footprint at the corner of Fremont and Main streets, evidence of which is still visible today in seven narrow second-story windows along Fremont Street and 11 more on the Main Street side.

Those windows once belonged to the earliest guest rooms, including the “Original 10,” which remain part of the hotel’s room inventory.

A good deal of the property’s preserved history came into focus after its 2006 purchase by brothers Derek and Greg Stevens, who now operate the Golden Gate along with The D and Circa hotel-casinos in downtown Las Vegas.

Derek Stevens said one of the reasons he and his brother bought the Golden Gate was because “no one else was going to be able to copy it,” an unusual advantage in a city built on imitation and reinvention.

“From a product and a brand differentiation perspective, (we thought that) if this worked out well, this was a great launching pad for us coming to Las Vegas,” he said.

The Golden Gate’s age reveals itself in surprising ways. After the 2006 acquisition, construction crews uncovered a small hidden kitchen space on the Main Street side. Evidence of the kitchen, which was among the first add-ons to the original hotel, remains today in the form of several aesthetically pleasing archways and exposed brick on display.

“The fact that (Golden Gate) still exists is part miracle, I guess,” Victor said. “When you think about all the souls that have walked through here and all the things this building has seen, and to have it reveal itself in little chunks here and again, is terribly exciting.”

Elsewhere, the present-day electronic-gaming pit was once an open-air courtyard that hotel guests could look down into. When it was eventually enclosed, the casino’s earliest “eye in the sky” was simply a worker lying on his stomach on a rolling mattress, peering through a pane of glass to monitor the action below.

Golden Gate holds significance in Las Vegas’ neon history as well. As the Hotel Nevada, it was home to the second neon sign in downtown, behind only the long-since-demolished Overland Hotel.

Even as it leans into its past, the Golden Gate has not shied away from operational changes.

The casino is where Stevens first introduced the concept of dancing dealers, a feature that has since become a signature element at The D and Circa.

Last year, Golden Gate removed all live dealer table games, replacing them with electronic table games across the pit. The shift reflects broader customer preferences, Stevens said at the time of the change.

In addition, the Golden Gate recently launched a nightly “Night Starts Here” promotion, which features a daily happy hour offering complimentary bar drinks from 6 to 7 p.m. to kick off the evening crowd.

To mark the 120th anniversary, Golden Gate will host a celebration Friday beginning at 6 p.m.

Contact David Danzis at ddanzis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0378. Follow @AC2Vegas_Danzis on X.