Las Vegas Magazine
By Nina King
February 24, 2021
In the heyday of Vegas, it wasn’t the Strip that was big, it was Fremont Street. The first hotel in Vegas, Golden Gate (formerly Nevada Hotel), opened in 1906 at Fremont and Main, and it’s still there. Casinos and hotels lined both sides of the avenue, and celebrities and stars could be seen in the glow of the famous lights.
But gradually, the resort business in downtown Las Vegas began to slow because of competition from the burgeoning Strip. By the early ’90s, the city and businesses felt they needed a draw, something that would give visitors more than a place to gamble; it would give them an … experience.