November Terrordise Palms Social Club

 

Paradise Palms Clown Ads

In honor of Halloween this week, we bring you one of the most frightening items from our discoveries at the Nevada State Museum:  Creepy Clown Ads of Fall, 1963.  We hear Nameless and Phooey still haunt the former Plan-o-Ramic Model Home complex, so for those of you on Seneca Drive, watch out.  Have a safe and happy Halloween everybody!

Paradise Palms 1964 Builder Close Out Ads

By late summer 1964, most of the builder tracts in Paradise Palms had begun to close out their models.  Americana, Fontainebleau and Paradise Homes were the only builders left.  This article from the Las Vegas Review Journal in August, 1964 describes the luxury homes of Paradise Palms a value.  Predicted in this article is a rise in home value due to contributing factors such as the impending Parkway (Boulevard) Mall, Nevada’s first enclosed regional shopping center; roadway improvements on Maryland Parkway, stated to be one of the finest duel highway avenues in the west; and a bright future for the area due to all the planned growth.

08/24/64

Our family that admires billboards is back again, this time admiring a Palmer & Krisel-designed Model 14H home, where one could enjoy the atmosphere of the Islands in an exciting Hawaiian-styled home.  Home buyers could purchase model homes – including furniture – for quick move-ins.  Interestingly, both the elusive 6H and 8E are shown to entice buyers; however only one 6H was ever built in Paradise Palms while no evidence of an unaltered 8E with signature floor to ceiling sliver window and vertical siding has appeared (all other Plan 8’s are well represented throughout our community in both original and altered forms).  

02/23/64

03/15/64 Model 8E

03/08/64 Model 6H

Lone Model 6H, on Tioga Way

The final advertisements for Paradise Palms were a marked departure from previous ads. Simplified clip art-style graphics were now used, and for the first time real people were featured in ads.  The style seen in the late 1964 ads is drastically different from what we saw with the grand opening ads of early 1962, no doubt reflecting changing times and practices.  In the final ad we see that fully furnished models were offered for sale, a practice we saw with Americana Homes.   In a time when the greatest entertainers and the best and brightest in hotel and management staff were lured cross-country to fast-growing Las Vegas, fully furnished homes gave buyers an instant start to their new lives in the middle of the Mojave desert. 

06/07/64

06/28/64

October Las Vegas National Golf Social

Paradise Palms Community Maps

Rediscovered recently from the Nevada State Museum archives are the Paradise Palms community advertisements which approximates where each builder was located.  Starting Paradise Palms prices were $21,950 to $41,000 depending on the builder, and topped out at $68,000 for the most luxurious home offered in Tropical Estates.  As the map is from 1964, Miranti Homes had finished building on the north side of Desert Inn Road in 1963 and had moved to Paradise Palms West, on Twain Avenue.  Valley High School, Orr and Knudson Middle Schools, and Ruby Thomas Elementary Schools hadn’t been built yet – Only Paradise Elementary and Bishop Gorman were noted on the map, the rest were noted as unnamed facilities.  The closest shopping centers were Vegas Village and Commercial Center.  Commercial Center was built by Paradise Homes – one can still see the signature folded-plate zig-zag roofline at the Las Vegas Cue Club fronting Sahara Avenue that echoes that of the Palmer & Krisel Model 11a and 12a.

This second map is from August 1964 – just three builders were left at this time – Paradise Homes, Americana Homes, and Fontainebleau Estates.  The Boulevard Mall hadn’t been named yet and was tentatively referred to as Parkway Mall, which was to feature both The Broadway and Sears, along with convenient parking for 6,000 cars.  Paradise Palms was humbly noted as ‘The most perfectly located residential community in Paradise Valley’, a description which still holds pretty true to this day.  For those who aren't aware, at the time, the unincorporated southeast quadrant of the Valley was known as Paradise Valley – a name which still occasionally pops up on maps or in business names.

This third and final map was not created by Paradise Palms, but was a general Las Vegas Valley map found in the May 1964 Las Vegas Sun which advertised which builders were building where.  Desert Inn front man Wilber Clark had several active subdivisions under construction at some of the most affordable prices in town - $15,995 for a home at Trop & Maryland or at Boulder Highway and Vegas Valley.  The most expensive other than Paradise Palms was Sunset Hills, at Wilshire and Westleigh (Oakey/Decatur) topping out at $27,800.  West Desert Inn Road was known as Asbury Avenue, Martin L. King Boulevard was Highland Drive, St. Rose Parkway, formerly Lake Mead Drive, was known as Frontier Boulevard, North Eastern Avenue was 25^th Street, Lake Mead Boulevard turned into a road named Miller Avenue, and the North Las Vegas Airport was noted as Thunderbird Field.   Interstate 15 hadn’t been built yet, and Las Vegas Boulevard was U.S. 91 & 93. 

October Historic ‘Hoods Bowling Challenge: Paradise Palms vs. The Flamingo Club

Friday, October 10^th marked the third and final Historic ‘Hoods Bowling Challenge issued by Paradise Palms.  For our final match of the season, the Flamingo Club readily took on our challenge and gathered their finest bowlers to go head-to-head against the Palmers.  Both teams well represented their respective organizations in what turned out to be the most well-attended event of the season.  Despite some challenging conditions – a malfunctioning  yet generous pin-reader for the Flamingos on Lane 19, transitioning from regularly-lit bowling to the dark and blacklight-lit Cosmic Bowling and some questionable music blaring through the basement of Sam’s Town, the Palmers held strong and maintained high scores throughout the night. 

Our own Jason Medberry & Steve Fey both scored turkeys – three strikes in a row – Steve on Game 1 and Jason on Game 2, while Dan Stafford was the official high-scorer of the night with 155 on his second game (Cameron, Richard and Jason were all narrowly close with 152, 153 and 154 respectively).  High scorer for the Flamingos was William with 147, who along with Shar scored the most strikes in a single game.  In what turned out to be one of the most fun events of the season, the Palmers pulled together to score their second victory of the season.  Final score:  Flamingo Club 101.1, Paradise Palms 116.9.  Rumors of a re-match in November began flowing almost immediately – if challenged the Palmers will gladly accept.  Thank you Flamingo Club for such a great evening, you gave the Palmers quite a run.  

Paradise Palms/DOCO MOMO 2013 Open House Day

The 2013 Paradise Palms/DOCO MOMO Open House Day was a complete success.  Over 150 guests chose to spend the day with us & tour our mid-mod neighborhood.  We'd like to thank all our friends, fans and neighbors who participated in our big day, and send a huge thank you to all the staff at the Las Vegas National Golf Club who allowed us to use the Club as a meeting point & host our after-tour cocktail party.  Also we'd like to thank our 25 Paradise Palms volunteers who generously donated their time and resources to make this day happen out of pure dedication and love of this neighborhood. 

Photo courtesy of Jeff Green

Photo courtesy of Jeff Green

Photo courtesy of Jeff Green

Photo courtesy of Dane Robinson

Photo courtesy of Dane Robinson

Photo courtesy of Dane Robinson

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Ken Knee

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Krystal Hawkins

Photo courtesy of Dane Robinson

Photo courtesy James Rieke

Photo courtesy James Rieke

Photo courtesy James Rieke