An exterior view of the Golden Gate hotel-casino in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. The casino opened as Hotel Nevada with 10 rooms on Jan. 18, 1906.
Friday, Jan. 19, 2024 | 2 a.m.
T here are 10 hotel rooms in downtown Las Vegas in which many visitors have to lower their heads so they don’t hit the ceiling.
Those 10 rooms at the Golden Gate, which debuted 118 years ago in 1906, are still available to guests. And on some nights, you can book your spot for a more-than-reasonable $24.
It’s part of the unique history at Golden Gate, which this week is celebrating its anniversary. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman presented a proclamation to Golden Gate owner Derek Stevens at an event Thursday commemorating the milestone, raving about how Stevens has worked over the years to preserve the property’s history.
The first telephone to be in service in city history is there. Same for a small portion of the original walls, which throughout renovations over the years has been preserved.
Goodman gave credit where credit is due: Stevens not only operates the hotel-casino, he proudly works to preserve its history.
“I’ve always thought, ‘Let’s not forget about the past. Let’s celebrate it,’” said Stevens, who bought the property with brother, Greg, in 2008.
“I’m fortunate enough to have been the owner and effectively the caretaker for a period of Golden Gate’s history.”
Stevens loves talking about old Vegas.
When people would travel by train from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles in the early 1900s, Las Vegas would be the halfway point, Stevens explained. Travelers would pay $1 dollar to stay at the Golden Gate.
Of course, humans were much smaller in the early 1900s, Stevens showed using hand gestures to garner a chuckle from the assembled crowd for the anniversary celebration Thursday — Jan. 18, or 1-18, to signify the 118 years of existence.
“The private ownership of these hotels reflects so much of what Las Vegas was always about,” Goodman said.
Much, of course, has changed through the years. That’s especially true of Stevens’ tenure, which has included expanding and modernizing the property.
He purchased nearby souvenir shops, tore them down and built an outside bar extending the length of the property. Soon thereafter, an outdoor stage at the west end of the Fremont Street Experience canopy was constructed, and it now attracts hundreds of people nightly for live music to the area between Stevens’ two properties, Golden Gate and Circa Las Vegas.
The success led to more outdoor stages in other parts of Fremont Street Experience.
“All of a sudden this became a great place for people from around the country and for locals to come hang out with their friends and get a couple of drinks,” Stevens said. “It took off from there.”
Circa debuted in 2020 across the street from the Golden Gate. It was the first casino built from the ground up in downtown since 1980.
Circa has all of the bells and whistles of a new resort, including the Stadium Swim pool area that is widely considered one of the best places to watch a sporting event in Las Vegas. And, as Stevens says, Circa is a great complement to Golden Gate.
Circa also has a part of Golden Gate history.
Golden Gate’s famous shrimp cocktail special — which debuted in 1959 for just 50 cents and was a cheap eats attraction for years — is now available at Saginaw’s Delicatessen inside Circa.
And, just like yesteryear, it served in a chilled tulip glass with the baby shrimp on a bed of lettuce.
“In a town where we celebrate the future, with all these new developments and all these great new hotel-casino resorts and new businesses coming to Las Vegas, sometimes it’s important to take a step back and think about where we came from,” Stevens said. “And there is no better place to think about that than the world famous Golden Gate.”
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