The city’s Historic Preservation Commission is in the process of conducting research in order to add historic neighborhoods to the City of Las Vegas Historic Property Register and we need your help. Our current focus area is concentrated on homes located in Tracts three and five within the Charleston Heights area. The specific area is a cluster of 147 homes built throughout 1955 unofficially known as the Cliff May Homes. You can read the initial survey report of that resulted in the recommendation to focus on the Cliff May Homes here.
The boundaries of the study area are roughly Evergreen Avenue, Heron Avenue, Easy Street, Upland Boulevard and Idle Avenue.
The city has hired a consultant to research the history of these homes, the neighborhood where they are located and the people who were past or are current residents. If you live, or previously lived, in one of these special homes, we would love to hear from you. Click here to share your photos and memories. The deadline for submissions is March 30, 2024.
This information is a vital part of the research that is necessary to designate a historic district. One of the most important pieces to determining and understanding the history are the people who grew up in the area, or at one point in time lived in one of the Cliff May Homes.
The Cliff May Homes, built by the Burns Construction Company, was a notable development in Charleston Heights. In August 1954, Vegas Realty began advertising the Federal Housing Administration approved Cliff May Homes, emphasizing their association with “America’s foremost designer of Ranch Homes, Cliff May, in association with architect Chris Choate.” May was an architect who is widely regarded as the father of the mid-century modern ranch house, a style that evokes a sense of the fabled West. The houses tend to be one room wide with rooms strung together, reinforcing the connection between inside and outside.
Photo courtesy: Architecture & Design Collection, Art, Design, & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara
