Milton Norman Photograph Collection (PH-00259)

During the 1930s and early 1940s Las Vegas faced a severe housing shortage. The problem resulted from a rapid influx of job seekers for the Hoover Dam and Basic Magnesium, Inc. and was exacerbated by increasing levels of racial discrimination and segregation in the city. Restrictive covenants and red-lining (denial of services based on financial risk, most often associated with race) made it impossible for black residents to rent or purchase housing in the city and pushed them into the Westside. This area, located across the railroad tracks to the west of the city, was the location of J. T. McWilliams' unsuccessful 1904 townsite. By 1940, the Westside had become a patchwork of tents, sheds, and wooden shacks. Roads were unpaved and the area lacked access to sewer, water, electricity, and telephone service. Periodic flooding turned the streets and lots into a muddy quagmire, earning the area the title of “Mudtown.”

After the start of World War II, the Westside’s population exploded as black Americans were recruited from southern states for defense industry jobs. Restricted from white owned communities and businesses, black residents worked to build a community of their own, leading to a boom in black-owned businesses and another increase in the Westside population. Combined with war-time shortages, this rapid growth led to more substandard housing. In 1943, the Westside residents petitioned the city of Las Vegas to provide basic improvements. The community saw no response until 1944, when mayor C. D. Baker authorized the demolition of over 300 homes the city deemed "unsafe." There was no attempt to rehouse the displaced residents after the destruction.

A survey of the Westside completed by black activists in 1949 found that over 80% of the residences lacked running water and toilets. Bypassing local government, the community delivered the results to the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). The FHA responded by funding the 100-unit Marble Manor housing area; the project opened in 1952. Two years later, Berkeley Square, a sub-division of 154 single family homes designed by architect Paul Revere Williams opened, and in 1955 the city paved the streets, completed a sewer system, and put street lights throughout the Westside. In 1959 a second federally funded housing project opened with an immediate waiting list; even with the improvements, many of the Westside’s residents were still living in substandard housing.

In 1964 the city of Las Vegas annexed a 158-acre parcel immediately to the northwest of Berkley Square. Like the Westside, the area called Vegas Heights lacked amenities or basic infrastructure; the black and Hispanic residents lived in shacks and trailers along unpaved roads. Under the direction of City Planner Donald Saylor, a survey of Vegas Heights and the Westside was completed in 1965. The survey showed no infrastructure improvements in the Vegas Heights area and a high level of substandard housing in the Westside.

Under the new mayor, Oran Gragson, the city’s response was to work with the community to improve the situation. By 1966 Vegas Heights had temporary paving, sewer lines, and electric services. With the consent of residents offered alternative housing arrangements, Westside homes deemed beyond repair were demolished or burned, and by 1975 the city completed planned housing developments in both Vegas Heights and the Westside.

Sources:

Ainlay, Thomas and Judy Dixon Gabaldon. Las Vegas: The Fabulous First Century. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

"Berkeley Square Historic District, Las Vegas, Nevada." Accessed December 12, 2019, http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/berkley-square-historic-district-las-vegas-nevada/

Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Vegas Heights Off-site Improvements Project. Prepared by the Community Development Block Grant Unity, Department of Community Development, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1975.

Moehring, Eugene P. Resort City In The Sunbelt, Las Vegas 1930-2000. Second edition. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 2000.

Orleck, Annelise. Storming Caesar's Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, 2005.

Milton Norman was born in New Jersey in 1924, the son of Laura Walker and William Norman. Milton Norman married Ruth Estelle McFadden in the early 1940s; the couple had two children. Norman moved to Las Vegas, Nevada around 1959 and began working as a code enforcement officer for the City of Las Vegas. In this position he was tasked with surveying the areas known as the Westside and the newly annexed Vegas Heights for the city's planning director Don Saylor. Milton Norman died in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 11, 2009.

Donald Saylor was born July 22, 1922 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the son of Jessie Emberts and George Saylor. Saylor served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and returned to civilian life in 1946. He began his career in city planning soon after, finally settling in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1956. Saylor served as a deputy city manager and city planning director before being named special projects manager. Donald Saylor retired from city planning in 1990 and died April 15, 2005.

Sources:

Genealogical research on "Milton Norman." Accessed December 11, 2019 on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org

Moehring, Eugene P. Resort City In The Sunbelt, Las Vegas 1930-2000. Second edition. Reno, Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 2000.

"Former chief LV planner Saylor dies." Las Vegas Sun, April 18, 2005. Accessed December 11, 2019. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2005/apr/18/former-chief-lv-planner-saylor-dies/