First - Air-Conditioned Building in Las Vegas, NV
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 36° 10.180 W 115° 08.529
11S E 667093 N 4004366
This vintage Theatre is located at 310 Fremont St. on the Fremont Street Experience. It is now an Indian crafts and souvenir store.
Waymark Code: WMK8PC
Location: Nevada, United States
Date Posted: 03/01/2014
Views: 6
This website (
visit link) informs us:
"Opened by William Pike and future Las Vegas Mayor Ernie Cragin in 1928, the theater, located at 310 Fremont St., was the city's first, and at times only, movie theater. The theater was the first air-conditioned building in Las Vegas. Now home to a gift shop, the hacienda-style exterior and the interior beams are all that remains of the movie house's historic architecture. The interior of the theater has been gutted, however with a little imagination a visitor can visualize the stairway, balcony and seating that was once El Portal's luxe offerings (and not forgetting the box seats with leather chairs, lofty beams, sparkling chandeliers and a mighty Wurlitzer organ).
As a cultural center of Las Vegas, El Portal reigned through the coming of talkies in 1929, the Depression years of the '30s, the World War II years of the '40s and into the '50s. Frank Sinatra introduced the movie "The Joker is Wild" at its Hollywood-style premiere, held at the El Portal Theater in 1957."
A plaque is located on the vintage theatre and reads:
"El Portal Theatre
'The Gateway'
Built 1927-28
Architect: Charles Alexander MacNelledge
Opened June 21, 1928
This building was Las Vegas' cultural center for many
years. Its 700 seat auditorium and elegant Spanish
motif lobby were used for films, plays, music recitals,
vaudeville shows, high school graduations and other
social events.
310 Fremont Street"
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