Naming Las Vegas: Lawless Center history a mystery worth solving

To say the least, the sign for the Lawless Center, a shopping plaza at 4100 E. Lake Mead Blvd., stands out. What isn't immediately apparent is how it got that unusual name.

"The sign is fabulous," said Mary-Margaret Stratton , an expert on mid-century modern design and culture . "There are so few signs in their indigenous habitat. The sign is spectacular with the Sputnik on top and the brush script lettering. It's an incredible, simple but outstanding design."

The sign has many proponents but one notable detractor.

"It's a piece of garbage," said Brian "Buzz" Lemming , who created the sign in 1963. "It's pretty free-form. That was way back in my younger days."

Lemming is still working in the sign design business and is proud of his later work, including the signs for the Orleans and Eastside Cannery. He doesn't remember where the name for the Lawless sign came from.

"That was 40-something years ago," Lemming said. "I'm sitting here looking at a picture of it on my wall, and I don't have a clue."

"A name like that is usually a landowner or developer," Mark Hall-Patton, director of Clark County Museums, said before doing a quick search of his books. "There's a masonry contractor named Robert M. Lawless in a 1970 county directory."

A search of the property records revealed that the land has been owned by the same family, the Van Buskirks , since 1962, before the plaza was built the following year. A deeper look at those records failed to turn up anyone with the name Lawless associated with the project.

The current owner, Patricia Van Buskirk, is the daughter-in-law of the original owner, Jeanette Van Buskirk, who died in 1998.

"She was an amazing woman," Patricia Van Buskirk said of her mother-in-law, "She didn't take any guff, and she fought for every inch she got. She raised three boys on her own, and they all turned out great."

Jeanette Van Buskirk was married a few times but always kept her first husband's name. Patricia Van Buskirk said he was a good man, but they had married too young, when Jeanette was still a teenager. She recalls that he worked for roughly 20 years at the Stardust. She pointed out they were no relation to the Van Buskirk who was a builder who named Van Buskirk Circle in Paradise after himself.

While she couldn't recall how the center got its name, she said she'd talk to the only remaining son, her brother-in-law.

The trail then le d back to county records, where it was discovered that the only records that were digitized and in the system were a few permits to work on the already completed structure.

For such an iconic sign, little has been recorded about the shopping center. Aside from photos of the sign, there are no records of the building in the Nevada State Museum at Lorenzi Park, the Clark County Heritage Museum, Special Collections at UNLV or the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which holds the records from the Las Vegas News Bureau.

A search through old phone books revealed a 1962 listing for Lawless Robt M, whose occupation was listed as bricklayer. Tantalizingly, the name Jeanette is listed parenthetically after his, indicating his wife's name.

A Google search for the name "Robert M Lawless" turned up a former UNLV instructor by that name, ironically teaching law. He is currently teaching at the University of Illinois.

"I only was in Las Vegas from 2002 to 2006," Lawless said. "My father was a lawyer as well from the Midwest."

He never saw the sign in his time here but wasn't surprised at the coincidence.

"It's not that uncommon a name," Lawless said. "When I was growing up, we had a neighbor across the street named L awless who was no relation."

Jeanette is a common name also, but a comparison of addresses on old property records turned up Jeanette Van Buskirk and Robert Lawless owning the same property at different times. With coincidences piling up, one more call was made to Patricia Van Buskirk. She had talked to the surviving Van Buskirk son, but he wasn't interested in talking about the past. The conversation seemed to have jogged her memory, though.

"I remember her saying she paid him (Lawless) a weekly check to build it," Patricia Vanbuskirk said. "He was a strange duck."

It seemed almost certain that Lawless Center was named for Robert M. Lawless, and the why of it was solved with one more record search.

On Aug. 31, 1962, around the time construction began on Lawless C enter, Jeanette Van Buskirk married Robert M. Lawless. It was apparently a marriage she didn't like to discuss.

"I only know a few things -- what she'd let me know," Patricia Van Buskirk said. "She was extremely independent. She was a hard-working woman. She lived here most of her life; she had a rest home where she took care of the elderly. We've always been a quiet family, not seeking publicity."

The Lawless Center sign is owned and maintained by Young Electric Sign Company. It h as always been a leased sign, but it appears to be there for the long haul.

"It's a great sign; we love it," Patricia Van Buskirk said. "It's a very stable property, and all the units are rented. We should be here a long time."

Contact Sunrise and Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 380-4532.