Tour of mid-century homes to benefit preservation group

An exclusive tour of some of the valley’s finest mid-century modern houses is scheduled to begin when doors open at noon May 3 at the Morelli House, 861 E. Bridger Ave., but the 12 to 15 homes on the self-guided tour are top secret.

“The event is a fundraiser for the Nevada Preservation Foundation,” said Jack LeVine, chairman of the nonprofit’s event committee. “We don’t want people to just show up without paying.”

The group was created about 18 months ago and has hosted several events to get the word out and educate the public about its cause.

“We’re advocacy, we’re education, and we’re assisting neighborhood associations in achieving historic designation,” LeVine said. “We strictly deal with residential property, and our valley has a unique situation regarding its mid-century modern homes. In most places, the mid-mod homes are in a ring around the city, spread out and hard to visit. In Las Vegas, huge neighborhoods were built, and many of them are still in very good condition and relatively unaltered.”

LeVine said the group’s executive director, Heidi Swank, came up with the idea for the foundation. Swank is a Nevada assemblywoman, so Michelle Larime is interim executive director.

“Our main mission is preserving historical architecture in the state of Nevada,” Larime said. “Generally, a property has to be 50 years old to be considered for historic designation, so a lot of our mid-century modern homes are becoming eligible now. We want to preserve as many as we can while they still exist.”

She said many neighborhoods are willing to work with the foundation, in part because the historic designation, while it doesn’t necessarily make the home more valuable, tends to stabilize the value. The group is working with the Paradise Palms and Beverly Green neighborhoods.

The tour is set to begin with a lecture by architect Alan Hess, who literally wrote the book on mid-century modern architecture. In fact, he wrote several, including “Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture,” “Frank Lloyd Wright: Natural Design, Organic Architecture: Lessons for Building Green from an American Original” and “Viva Las Vegas: After-Hours Architecture.”

The self-guided tour is set to begin at 1 p.m., when attendees will be given directions to homes in classic neighborhoods, including the John S. Park Historic District, Huntridge, Paradise Palms, the Scotch 80’s, McNeil Estates and more. Up to 15 attendees will go on a Mid-Century Martini Tour at one Las Vegas home that had not been open to tours previously. Some of the homes are in pristine condition, with no modifications, while others have been through renovations.

“My home has the large, open rooms that were the hallmark of that era,” said Nevada Preservation Foundation board member Mark Maffey, who is set to open his home for the tour. “It has a great concrete fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows facing the backyard, which has a new pool that the previous owners added.”

The pool follows classic mid-century modern forms, and the home is on 1 acre of land. Maffey has added as much mid-century modern furniture as he could find and is always on the lookout for another piece.

“I’m a third-generation Nevadan, and my wife is a seventh-generation Nevadan, so preserving our history is important to us,” Maffey said. “We’ve been in the home 3 1/2 years, and we have our families and friends over a lot. Part of the reason we bought it was because it is designed so well for entertaining.”

The Nevada Preservation Foundation operates with the help of a handful of volunteers.

“This is our first tour, and we hope to make it annual,” Larime said. “We hope to do it every May.”

Tickets to the event are $30 for foundation members, $40 for nonmembers and $100 for the Mid-Century Martini Tour. Registration is required by visiting nevadapreservation.org.

To reach East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor email ataylor@viewnews.com or call 702-380-4532.