Historic Reno Hotel Gets Reprieve

Giving preservationists hope of keeping the wrecking ball at bay, a judge has ordered temporary protection for Reno’s historic Mapes Hotel and scheduled a December trial to determine if the city illegally approved demolition of the downtown landmark.

Checkout time for the 52-year-old Mapes--once a favorite of Hollywood stars and site of performances by stars from Mae West to the Marx Brothers--is set for Jan. 30, Super Bowl Sunday. Officials plan to implode the hotel in what critics complain is an attempt to draw a national audience prior to the football game’s kickoff.

A temporary restraining order issued Tuesday by Washoe County District Judge James Hardesty prohibits the city from doing any work that would permanently damage the hotel. Hardesty set a Dec. 16 trial date to decide the fate of the Art Deco hotel, which has been boarded up since 1982 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The hotel’s defenders applauded the judge’s decision, which also blocked the city from tearing off the hotel’s roof or weakening its frame--work that was to begin this week.

“This is utterly fantastic,” said Richard Moe, president of the Washington-based National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is fighting to save the hotel. “This hotel is unquestionably one of most significant buildings in the entire state of Nevada. To tear it down would be short-sighted and just plain sinful.”

Built in 1947, the 12-story, brick and concrete structure--which sits on the banks of the Truckee River in downtown Reno--was the first hotel in the country to feature gambling, dining, entertainment and luxury accommodations under one roof.

After considering several plans to salvage the hotel, Reno city officials rejected them as too expensive. They are anxious to make room for more entertainment-oriented businesses. One city councilman even questioned the hotel’s historical status, saying “I’m older than the Mapes.”

One proposal rejected by city officials was to turn the Mapes into market-rate housing for senior citizens.

“That deserted old building sits on a major block of the downtown casino core, right on the Truckee River--this is prime turf not to be wasted,” said Mary Henderson, the city’s director of community relations. “The city has plans for that site. We want something viable and alive, not something that’s been boarded up for 18 years.”

City spokesman Chris Good said Reno wants to preserve its past, pointing to plans to turn a 1927-era downtown hotel into artist lofts. “We want to preserve our history when it’s financially feasible to do so,” said Good. “And the Mapes is just not feasible.”

Reno officials, who bought the 178-room hotel in 1996 for $4.5 million, say Hardesty’s order will only temporarily halt their demolition work. “For now, it stops us from doing anything that will put the building past the point of no return,” Henderson said.

Moe said the city should be ashamed of itself for “creating a spectacle” of the planned demolition by scheduling it for Super Bowl Sunday. “It’s the unseemly, gleeful approach by the city that I find disturbing,” he said.

But Henderson said the Super Bowl Sunday demolition date is mere coincidence and that city officials plan to destroy the building in the early morning to ensure a low-key event. They don’t want to rival the hype surrounding recent hotel implosions in nearby Las Vegas, she said.

“We just want this hotel to go quietly into the good morning,” she said. “We’re trying not to turn this into a celebration. The last thing we want is anything on a Vegas scale.”