Fire has destroyed several landmarks

In the last 17 years, fire has taken a costly toll on historic Southern Nevada buildings that either were abandoned or awaiting restoration.

Like the 71-year-old Whitehead House that burned Tuesday, the Houssels House, the Old Ice House, Las Vegas Hospital and the Park Mansion on the Kiel Ranch in North Las Vegas all were empty when they caught fire. Also, each fire is believed to have been started by vagrants or vandals.

In May 1983 the home of late gaming pioneer J. Kell Houssels Sr., the longtime owner of the Tropicana hotel-casino, was moved from Sixth Street and Charleston Boulevard to the UNLV campus.

The next day, an arson fire severely damaged the 50-year-old Tudor-style house that also was known as The Pines. It was restored and today houses the UNLV Consciousness Studies Department.

Other local landmarks were not so fortunate.

In 1988 fire rumbled through the abandoned Las Vegas Hospital at Eighth Street and Ogden Avenue, destroying the medical facility that was built in 1933 and closed in 1976. It was on the National Registry of Historic Buildings.

Also in 1988 the Old Ice House at 600 S. Main St., which for many years was used to preserve produce shipped from California, was hit by a series of blazes that Las Vegas Fire Department officials ruled were started by vagrants who were using the abandoned building as a flop house.

Preservation groups at the time lobbied to save the 80-year-old structure that had been abandoned in 1983, but the city issued a permit to the Union Pacific Railroad, allowing it to level the site amid safety concerns.

In August 1992 an early-morning fire destroyed the 81-year-old Park Mansion, the cornerstone of the 143-year-old Kiel Ranch at 200 E. Carey Ave., just west of Losee Road.

Despite the loss of the mansion, which also was called the White House, efforts continue to preserve the ranch that was donated to the city of North Las Vegas in 1976 and includes an adobe house that was built in 1855.

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