Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Ask Mr. Sun:

Why is the Fifth Street School on Las Vegas Boulevard?

Sun Topics

When the Las Vegas Grammar School opened its doors in 1936, the town’s 12,000 residents almost immediately began calling it the Fifth Street School. It was on Fifth Street, after all.

The building hasn’t moved, though the Mission/Spanish Revival structure received a $13.4 million renovation and rebirth last year as home to various arts and architectural groups.

What has changed in the interim is the name of the city’s most famous pavement. Fifth Street — so named because it was the fifth north-south street east of Main — lost the number in 1959, when it was renamed Las Vegas Boulevard.

Fifty years later, that Las Vegas Boulevard was ever known as Fifth Street is almost forgotten. But the Old Fifth Street School can’t shake the name.

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