Reno mayor says demolition vote will bring end of old Mapes Hotel
Preservationists still hope historic site can be saved
By Scott Sonner
Associated Press - Sept. 20

RENO -- Local historic preservationists say the battle to save the old Mapes Hotel isn't over until the wrecking ball swings.

But Reno Mayor Jeff Griffin says it's already finished.

After a three-year battle, Griffin said the City Council's 5-2 vote in favor of demolition this past week was the final nail in the coffin for the 51-year-old hotel -- the first in the country to feature gambling, dining, entertainment and luxury accommodations under one roof.

"I believe it is over. I think the final decision has been made," Griffin said Saturday.

"It is a sad day, but basically there is no white knight," he said. "We tried every possible way to save it."

The City Council last Monday rejected three proposals to save the historic Virginia Street landmark on the banks of the Truckee River.

The Mapes was Nevada's tallest building when it opened on Dec. 17, 1947. Its unique art deco style earned it a listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

City spokesman Chris Good said demolition is expected sometime after the first of the year.

But activists aren't giving up the ship quite yet. Toni Mollet Harsh of the Truckee Meadows Heritage Trust is among those still holding out hope a new plan will emerge to save the building.

"No, I don't believe it is over with," she said in an interview.

"We have lived with demolition since September of '97. So when people throw out the idea of demolition to us, that is not a new word to our vocabulary," she said.

"We are exploring our options right now," she said.

Top-name entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr., Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Gypsy Rose Lee and Danny Thomas headlined in the famed Sky Room during the Mapes' heyday in the 1950s and '60s.

Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe were regular visitors in later years.

But since 1982, it has sat boarded up and vacant, much to the chagrin of city officials who view the property fronting Virginia Street as key to the city's redevelopment efforts.

Harsh said the City Council vote could be reconsidered if one of the five members who voted in favor of demolition makes a motion to reconsider. She declined to discuss any strategy any further.

"I'm always optimistic," Harsh said. "It's just such a significant piece."

At least one member who voted in favor of demolition said afterward he was operating under a mistaken impression of the financial benefits of razing the building as opposed to trying to find somebody to refurbish it.

The council approved a $1 million loan to the city's redevelopment agency for demolishing the downtown landmark only to learn the city still owes the former owner of the hotel $1.7 million for the sale of the Mapes site.

"If I'd known that, it would have completely changed my vote," said Councilman Dave Rigdon. "My vote was based solely on fiscal reasons, and this changes the entire fiscal package."

The mayor and other council members conceded that they were caught by surprise but said it would not have caused them to change their votes.

Griffin Rigdon, Sherrie Doyle, Bill Newberg and Tom Herndon favored demolition. Councilmen Pierre Hascheff and Dave Aiazzi argued in favor of continuing to pursue one of the three proposals for purchase and renovation of the hotel.

"No one is joyous about the passing of this building," Griffin said.

"But it is necessary. It is part of life. It is part of the rebirth of downtown," he said. "At least there is some finality to this. In some sense, it is cathartic."

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