Over50Vegas: Overland Hotel 2 Fremont Las Vegas, NV

2 Fremont Las Vegas, NV

Overland Hotel

ca. 1906 to 1949?

Listed in the 1939 Nevada phone directory as

Hotel Overland 2 Fremont.............. 59

along with:

Overland Bar 6 Fremont.................900

Overland Cafe 4 Fremont................ 43

Overland Drug Co 10 Fremont...... 402

To the left is the Talk O' The Town Bar, a favorite watering hole of early Las Vegas.

It was located in the Overland Hotel

from ca. 1949 to 1952.

About 1952 the Talk O' The Town bar was replaced by The Chatterbox!

Talk O' The Town Bar UNLV http://digital.library.unlv.edu/u?/sky,1657#sthash.9fNBS0Fq.dpuf

Photo Credit: UNLV Digital collections

This was a pretty busy piece of property.

Many businesses cycled through the Overland Hotel building.

Shown on the right is the "slots only"

Overland Arcade which is listed in

Fuller's Index as opening April 21, 1948 and listed in the phone books through 1954.

Next to the Overland Arcade is

Wing's Cafe and right behind the parade of horses is the second location

of the Las Vegas Club.

...Up at Main and Fremont, from the

Nevada Bar and on the north end of it was

the old Hotel Overland, which was controlled

by John P. Wisner.....

{Charles W. Aplin: An Old Timer of Las Vegas- University of Nevada Oral History Program - Mary Ellen Glass 1969}

Photo Credit: UNLV Digital Collections

Overland Arcade, Wing's Cafe, http://digital.library.unlv.edu:81/u?/sky,1586 Las Vegas Club

Overland Cut Rate Drugs Ethel's Liquor Monte Carlo Turtle Races

A great view down Fremont Street highlighting the Overland Hotel during the "Las Vegas Club Turtle Races"!!

In the background is also Cut Rate Drugs, State Cafe, Ethel's Liquors, Monte Carlo Club.

Below is a closeup of the businesses further down the street.

Ethel's Liquor store Boulder club Cut Rate Drugs Sate cafe Las vegas Fremont street

Overland Hotel Talk O the Town advertising 1949

Overland Hotel Talk O the Town advertising October 1949

Swizzle stick from the Overland Bar in Downtown Las Vegas

The Talk O’ the Town

was a bar in the

Overland Hotel.

The ads are from 1949.

Just six years after the original building lots were bought,

the Overland Hotel would become a total loss in a massive fire on May 23-24, 1911.

Ads in the Las Vegas Age newspaper in 1905 and 1906 for the Overland Hotel and the Overland Cafe. Notice the ad on the left notes, “White Help Only”.

Although Las Vegas thought of itself as a progressive town, segregation was alive and well.

The Las Vegas Age newspaper was published by early pioneer “Pop” Squires.

Photo postcard of the first Overland Hotel building circa 1906-1910 before the original building burned down.

The street at the front along the “Overland Hotel” sign is Main Street and the street

in the forefront is Fremont Street long before it was paved.

John S. Wisner bought lots on Main and Fremont for $1,750 at the original Las Vegas land auction on May 15, 1905. He would shortly begin construction on the Overland Hotel, one of the first and most modern hotel and business buildings in the early days of Las Vegas.

In February of 1911 Wisner expanded the Overland Hotel with an annex covering 60 feet along Fremont Street. The ground floor would be divided into three storefronts, F. E. Matzdorf's Overland Restaurant, The Red Front Store and the other available for rent.

But John S. Wisner, owner of the Overland Hotel, did not waste any time in rebuilding the hotel in the same location. The Las Vegas Age newspaper described the new building as, "...much better in every way than the one destroyed.”

There are even a few collectibles associated with the Overland Hotel and it's associated businesses.

Below is a postcard showing the view down Fremont Street and wishing the recipient a happy and prosperous 1940!

In 1949 the Las Vegas Club moved into the Overland at 20 Fremont Street

and slowly expanded to encompass the entire building.

On August 20, 2015 the Las Vegas Club closed, ending a 66 year run.

The former Overland Hotel along with the entire block began to fall to the demolition crews.

Click here to see the progress of the demolition.

Below is a great original tourist photo from 1955. Click on the image to enlarge and zoom in for details.

The Overland Hotel, Sal Sagev, Las Vegas Club, Monte Carlo Club,

Lucky Strike Casino, and the Golden Nugget on Fremont street.