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Photos show Little Church of the West signs during the day and at night. Two surveys were conducted to gather information about this sign. One was conducted in 2002 and one was conducted in 2017. PDFs are available for both surveys. See the 2017 survey PDF for additional information that is not included in the object description.
Site name: Little Church of the West
Site address: 4617 S Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: Greg Smith
Sign details: The Little Church of the West now resides on the south end of the Strip, along the east side among the smaller roadside hotels. Surrounded with pleasant landscaping the property is a charming and welcome sight among the more barren area of the strip.
Sign condition: Structure 4 Surface 4 Lighting 5
Sign form: Pylon; Fascia
Sign-specific description: There are two specific signs which are significant to the property. The first being the double backed internally lit pylon roadside sign which sits on the east side of Las Vegas Blvd and faces east/west. The 10 feet at its widest, and thirty seven feet tall. The structure consists of a center pole upon which an internally lit plastic sculpted message board sits. Painted in an old west script upon the plastic are the words "Little Church Of The West Wedding Chapel," with painted scrollwork on the top and the bottom of the plane. The entire message board is bordered in neon. Sitting on top of the message cabinet is a small, sculpted apse and bell. The original sign from its original construction still exists atop the actual structure of the Little Church of the West. It is an image of a cross outlined in white neon.
Sign - type of display: Neon; Backlit
Sign - media: Steel; Plastic
Sign - non-neon treatments: Graphics; Paint
Sign animation: none
Sign environment: The property sits among the dying roadside motel environment of the South end of Las Vegas Blvd It stands as on of the properties that is still in good repair. The pleasant landscaping and grass provide a pleasant establishment among the southern strip. It seems to capture the environment it has always tried to attain, of the picturesque country church.
Sign manufacturer: Larsen Sign
Sign - date of installation: It was originally part of William J. Moore's Last Frontier Village, which was assembled in the late 1950's. The current pylon sign was manufactured in 1996.
Sign - date of redesign/move: Originally, it resided in the Las Frontier until it was demolished in 1954. The Little Church of the West stood approximately in the spot where Sax Fifth Avenue is located. When the New Frontier was constructed, it was moved to the east side of the Strip approximately where the Silver Slipper was located. It stood in this location until 1978 when it was moved to the south edge of the Hacienda's property. The property was moved to its current location in 1996.
Sign - thematic influences: The thematic influence of the Little Church of the West draws from its original property which was the Old Western theme of the Frontier Hotel Casino. The Last Frontier Village was assembled from actual Western towns and reassembled on the Last Frontier's Property. With its wooden facade, brown color tones, script and pylon structure, the Little Church of the West rings true with its origins, while still incorporating the subtle elements of Las Vegas such as neon.
Sign - artistic significance: The Little Church of the West is reminiscent of old west theme which extends back to the very beginnings of Las Vegas and which dominated the themes for a period of time. " Before it became filled with themed western architecture, Las Vegas was an actual western town with a Spanish Style train station and false front facades fronting plank sidewalks"-Alan Hess, After Hours Architecture. Such properties, which dominated the early years of Las Vegas, were the Pioneer Club, the El Rancho Vegas, the El Cortez, the Last Frontier, Binion's Horseshoe, and the Silver Slipper.
Surveyor: Joshua Cannaday
Survey - date completed: 2002
Sign keywords: Pylon; Fascia; Neon; Backlit; Steel; Plastic; Graphics; Paint

Florence McClure came to Las Vegas later in her life, but the state felt her presence and the community her contributions as if she were a native daughter. Introduced to the League of Women Voters in 1967, McClure met her political mentor Jean Ford and learned how to practice the core elements of democracy. She put those tools to work in a number of ways, however her participation in the creation of the Rape Crises Center and her advocacy for locating the women’s prison near Las Vegas are two of her long-lasting efforts. Florence Alberta Schilling was born in southern Illinois where she enjoyed the security of a tight-knit family and the independence to test her abilities growing up. She graduated from high school and attended the MacMurray College for Women at Jacksonville. With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she began a series of jobs working for the war effort. She moved to Ypsilanti, Michigan with a girlfriend to work at the Willow Run Army Airbase and then moved to Miami, Florida where she worked for the Provost Marshall in the Security and Intelligence Division. She met her husband, James McClure, at the time and they married in 1945. During the next several years, they raised a family and moved around the country and to Japan with the military. McClure came to Las Vegas in 1966 as part of her work in the hotel industry which she engaged in after her husband’s retirement from the military. She had worked in California and Miami Beach, but it was Burton Cohen in Los Angeles who invited her to join him in a move to Las Vegas to build the new Frontier Hotel and Casino. Following the completion of the Frontier, she moved to the Desert Inn with Cohen in 1967 and worked as the executive office manager. After a few years, she decided to leave the industry and complete her college education. She graduated from UNLV in 1971with a BA in Sociology with an emphasis on criminology. She was 50 years old. McClure had been a member of the League of Women Voters for a few years at that point and had learned the political process from Jean Ford and workshops on lobbying. She had numerous skills that were waiting to be tapped when she attended an informational meeting on the incidence of rape in the Las Vegas valley. From that meeting, a small group of individuals, including McClure, began the organization Community Action Against Rape (later renamed the Rape Crisis Center) in 1973. It was the first agency in the area devoted to serving individuals who had been assaulted and changing the laws on rape. The organization’s first office was set up in McClure’s home. Over the next decade, she worked to change attitudes and reshape policy by constantly raising the issues of sexual assault with police officers, emergency room doctors, judges, and legislators. Her role as an advocate took her into hospital emergency rooms and courtrooms to assist victims. It also took her to the state legislator to lobby repeatedly for a change in laws. During this period, journalist Jan Seagrave gave McClure the nickname “Hurricane Florence” - a fitting moniker that captured the force with which McClure attacked the issue. As a result of her efforts and those of the people with whom she worked, we now 1) recognize rape as a crime of assault; 2) forbid the sexual history of a rape victim from being used against her in court; and 3) recognize marital rape. In addition to learning about Florence McClure’s activities, the reader of this interview will gain information on the role of civic organizations like the League of Women Voters in engaging the voluntary efforts of women in the post-war years.

Narrator affiliation: Miner, Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company (REECo)

Includes meeting minutes and agenda, along with additional information about letters. CSUN Session 33 (Part 1) Meeting Minutes and Agendas.

On March 13, 1975, Luise Soholt interviewed Dr. David Bruce Dill (born 1891 in Eskridge, Kansas) about his experience as a researcher in physiology, specifically in Boulder City, Nevada. Dill first discusses his educational background in physiological research, including studies done around the world, and his eventual interest in the effects of heat on the workers of Boulder Dam. Dill then discusses the topics and findings of some of his studies, including one on heat cramps and one on the comparison between sweating in a dog and that in a human. Dill also discusses the use and purpose of salt tablets.