Two Marvels in the Desert

On our recent trip to Las Vegas, we drove out to the Hoover Dam.  We wanted to see the remarkable Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge which has opened since our last visit out there.  A pedestrian walk alongside the span hovers high above the Colorado River and gives the perfect vantage point for amazing views of the dam.

The O'Callaghan-Tillman bridge is a bypass for U.S. Route 93 which previously crossed the top of the Hoover Dam.  Traffic back-ups were common.  After the 9-11 attacks, there were serious concerns about security at the dam and plans for the bypass were expedited.

You can still drive over the dam, but the only place the road takes you is the parking areas for visitors. 

Once I'd taken pictures from the bridge, we drove to the dam for a closer look.

The dam was dedicated in 1935.  The era of the 30s is evident in the art deco architecture of Gordon B. Kaufmann.  The clocks on the intake towers show the time in the two states that share the dam.  Since Arizona doesn't observe daylight saving time, the time on the clocks is the same for much of the year even though Nevada and Arizona are in different time zones.

Lake Mead stretches out on one side of the dam.

An inlet near the intake towers if full of fish.

Now the view of the O'Callaghan-Tillman bridge, a composite steel and concrete arch bridge.  What a spectacular sight!

The Hoover Dam is its awe-inspiring equal.

These marvels in the desert are engineering feats to be celebrated. 

The Neon Boneyard

This is where the great neon signs of Las Vegas go to die (or just rest a while before someone puts them back into use).  Welcome to the Neon Boneyard.  No, these are not historic buildings.  But they are a part of the nation's architectural history!

Here lie the remains of hundreds of signs that once lit up the Vegas Strip or Fremont Street downtown.  Many are familiar to anyone who visited the city within the past twenty years.  Binion's Horseshoe, the Stardust and the Tropicana are just a few.  Some of the hotels, motels and restaurants represented by these signs are no longer with us; others, like the Tropicana, are still around.

Some of the signs are relics of the past. 

Luckily for us, even in an ever-changing city like Las Vegas, there are preservationists who recognize the value of the past.  These signs represent the old Vegas.  Neon and flashing lights were the order of the day before the new breed of signs that now reign over the gambling empire.  Giant video monitors have replaced the vintage signs that once glowed in the desert.  The new look Vegas is impressive in its own right, but, in my opinion, doesn't have the same "knock you off your feet" effect of the old.  You certainly can't feel the heat of the lights as you once did on a drive down the strip!

 

As the old signs were dismantled, the sign companies held onto the parts for a time.  Some were re purposed, but most were not, and, as the inventory grew, the companies began to discard them.  Historians came to the rescue and created the park as a means of displaying and saving the iconic remainders.  Entry to the boneyard is through the restored lobby of a early 1960s era motel which has been moved the site.

The LaConcha Motel is long gone, but this piece of it lives on as the front door to this literal walk down memory lane.

Tampa's Bungalow Terrace

Bungalow Terrace is a unique street located in Tampa's historic Hyde Park neighborhood.  Alfred Swann and Eugene Holtsinger developed this very special pedestrian way lined with 19 homes in 1913.  How lucky we are to still have it today!

Most of the homes are modest, but some are larger.  Many have been restored to pristine condition.  There is obvious pride of ownership here.

You don't need to worry about dodging cars on Bungalow Terrace.  The homes front a wide sidewalk that runs between West Inman Avenue and West Swann Avenue.  Auto access for residents is located in the alleys that run behind the homes. 

You can easily walk the length of Bungalow Terrace in just a few minutes.  Although this is just minutes from downtown and in the center of an historic urban neighborhood, the setting is peaceful and lush.

Many of the homes display the craftsman characteristics that are common to bungalows from this period.

Here's a look at the alley behind the houses.

An historic marker at the West Inman Avenue entrance to Bungalow Terrace shares the history of this lovely enclave.

Bungalow Terrace is part of the larger Hyde Park historic neighborhood which is filled with beautiful homes and apartment buildings dating to the turn of the last century.  The scenic location along Hillsborough Bay is one of Tampa's jewels.

Was "Citizen Kane" Born Here?

I came upon the Green Spot Motel in Victorville, California when my wife, in a weak moment, indulged my obsession with driving old Route 66 bit by bit, and agreed to head east from Los Angeles into the Mojave desert.  We had driven a good stretch of the old highway in Texas and New Mexico, but had seen no more of it in California than Santa Monica Boulevard, which hardly seems to count.  We were in LA for a week and I wanted to see the "real thing"...the old part of Route 66 that had not been swallowed up by that great city.

 

When we drove into Victorville, the Green Spot motel caught my eye right away.  This was the kind of place I was looking for!  It appeared to be a true remnant of the heyday of Route 66.  A little research confirmed the motel was built in 1937 (or thereabouts) by John Roy to capitalize on the highway's tourist trade.  The Green Spot thrived into the 1950s until the Freeway bypassed Victorville in 1959. 

 

 

It is in sad shape today.  But there is real history here.  The Route 66 Encyclopedia cites Hollywood legend that the first draft of "Citizen Kane" was written here.  Orson Welles had banished writers John Houseman and Herman J. Mankiewicz to Victorville to shield them from Hollywood distractions.  This old post card shows what a different place the Green Spot motel was in those days.

 

 

Here's another post card advertising the motel as "Southern California's finest auto court-- truly deluxe."  There you have it. 

 

 

With "running ice water" in each of the 21 units, air conditioning by Frigidaire, and, in later years, a pool in the courtyard, this must truly have seemed an oasis in the desert.

 

Just across the street, the Green Spot Cafe was a good place for a meal.  There were plenty of customers as the bus station was right next door.

Today, the swimming pool is filled in and covered up, the cafe is long gone, and the Green Spot is not quite as inviting as it once was.

 

The Green Spot now appears to be the kind of place that rents by the hour. What do you think?  Should we check in for the night?  The office is open.

 

 

We have to approach places like the Green Point motel with a little (or maybe a lot of) imagination if we want to recapture the vibe of the glory days of Route 66.

 

 

There are Green Spot motels in every town that was ever bypassed by an interstate.  Many have been torn down; others hang on somehow, waiting for what?  Someone to infuse them with money and bring them back?  It can happen.  Some of the old motels on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami that became crack-houses, centers for prostitution, and flop houses in the latter decades of the 20th century are actually receiving face-lifts and becoming what the investors like to call "boutique" properties.

 

 

Could it happen at the Green Spot motel?  I would never say never.  After all, how many motels can claim a spot on the timeline of "Citizen Kane" as a selling point?