Fremont Street Story Walk

We start at the Plaza Hotel and Casino, and the ground under it is where Las Vegas itself began. In 1906 a Spanish-style depot stood here, the first train station in Las Vegas. In 1940 it was replaced by a Streamline Moderne Union Pacific station, which was torn down in 1970. The Plaza opened on July 1, 1971, and it was advertised as the largest casino in the world, with the biggest casino floor in Las Vegas at 66,000 square feet.

Look up at the North Tower: it carries three murals, each 21 stories tall, by the artists Shepard Fairey, D*Face and Faile. Its steakhouse, Oscar's, is named for Oscar Goodman, a former mayor of the city. You'll hear his name again later. In 2023 the Plaza renovated its Main Street side and added the Carousel Bar, where U2 filmed their music video for Atomic City that same year.

This is the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino, at One Fremont Street. It's the oldest and smallest hotel on the Fremont Street Experience, with just 122 rooms. Its story starts in 1905, when John F. Miller opened a tent hotel here.

The first record of the Hotel Nevada dates to January 13, 1906, and its casino ran until Nevada banned gambling statewide in 1909. In 1931 the hotel was renamed the Sal Sagev. Read that backwards and you get Las Vegas. The Golden Gate Casino opened in 1955, and the whole property took the name Golden Gate Hotel and Casino in 1974.

It also claims a small piece of food history. In 1959 it became the first place to serve a fifty-cent shrimp cocktail, an idea owner Italo Ghelfi borrowed from Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. It became a Las Vegas cliché, and the price has gone up since.