From the UNLV Libraries Single Item Accession Photograph Collection (PH-00171). Photo credit: Nevada Historical Society.

Three decades prior to this interview, Chris Guinchigliani moved to Las Vegas and began teaching at the Clark County School District. Seeing Las Vegas as a place of personal opportunity, she involved herself first in the teachers union; eventually serving as president of the Nevada State Education Association from 1987 through 1991. She shares some of her political experiences being elected to the Nevada State Assembly for 16 years and then became a Clark County Commissioner. Chris and her husband Gary Gray (above left) are longtime residents of the John S. Park Neighborhood and Chris was among those who originated the idea to getting a historical designation for the community. She highlights the process and obstacles within the community as people developed an understanding about what preservation really meant. She touches upon a broad range of topics that living in the neighborhood: Manhattanization, increased traffic, crime, lack of amenities such as a grocery store, the

The historic key used in 1868 for Panaca Co-op in Nevada.

Program listing speakers for the community event held to unveil banners and plaques in the Berkley Square Historic District, February 9, 2013.

Kathleen and Tim Harney moved to the John S. Park neighborhood in 1975, about ten years after relocating from Ohio to Las Vegas, where teaching jobs paid more and the education system was more innovative. The Midwestern ambiance of John S. Park was attractive large trees and older homes among the outstanding features. In this interview, Kathleen laments the neighborhood changes that may be part of a normal aging cycle of any neighborhood as being more acute because of commercial changes on the Strip. Of the years they lived there, Kathleen speaks glowingly of the neighborhood's diversity—diverse in work schedules as much as in religion. She lists the various restaurants and describes the activities that drew the community together. It was a wonderful place to raise their girls who each graduated from Las Vegas High School. . As a passionate educator, she also speaks about the importance of schools, after school programs no matter what neighborhood one raises their children. And while the Harneys moved from John S. Park, she fondly recalls it as the place where she "really became a Las Vegas." It was the place where her family grew up and a place that "needs a little love" at this time. Special Note: Tim Harney, Kathleen's husband, and Kimberly Harney-Moore, their eldest daughter, are also participants in the Voices of the Historic John S. Park Neighborhood oral history project.