You are here

Nevada » Southern Region » Las Vegas » Las Vegas Strip » Little Church of the West

Little Church of the West

-A A +A
1942, Walter Zick and Harris Sharp Architects, and William J. Moore. 4617 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
  • Little Church of the West (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Little Church of the West (Bret Morgan)

The first known structure designed and built exclusively for use as a wedding chapel in Las Vegas, this modest Neo-Gothic wood-frame church stands at the south end of the Strip. The dark-stained cedar board-and-batten siding and minimal decoration were meant to make the chapel look like a church in a western frontier town. The steeply pitched gable roof covers a cathedral ceiling with exposed beams. California redwood clads the interior walls and is used for the altar. The chapel owes its remarkable survival from the early days of the Strip to its small size, which has enabled three moves from its original site. Initially built in 1942 by the Last Frontier Casino on the Strip, the building was moved first in 1954 to another part of the casino property, then in 1979 to the grounds of the Hacienda Hotel after the Last Frontier was demolished. Since 1979, independent owners have operated the chapel. In 1996 the building was moved again before Circus Circus Enterprises (now known as Mandalay Resort Group) imploded the Hacienda to make way for a new mega-resort. Like every other building on the Strip, the little church has a roadside sign supported by a dark brown column and surmounted by a steeply pitched gable roof.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Julie Nicoletta
×

Data

What's Nearby

Luxor
New York New York
Paris Las Vegas
Bellagio
Donald W. Reynolds Student Services Complex

Citation

Julie Nicoletta, "Little Church of the West", [Las Vegas, Nevada], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/NV-01-SO26.

Print Source

Buildings of Nevada, Julie Nicoletta. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 222-224.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,