Oral history interview with Mark Hall-Patton conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White on August 25, 2016 for the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. Hall-Patton discusses coming to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1993, creating the Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum, and becoming a director for Clark County Museums in 2008, just when the economic downturn caused large layoffs and a drop in visitor numbers. He also talks about how joining the television show Pawn Stars in 2009 significantly raised visitor numbers and increased visibility of museums all over the Las Vegas Valley.
In 1964, Kim Bavington's parents moved to Las Vegas when she was six months old. Her father was an industrial designer and mother was an art instructor. In this interview she speaks of growing up in Las Vegas and the various locations where she lived over the course of years, including: eighteen years in Francisco Park, an apartment in Spring Valley, a first house in Green Valley and eventually a home that she and husband Tim Bavington, an artist, own in John S. Park. Kim earned a Fine Art degree from UNLV and worked at a sundry of jobs to support herself. She reflects on this and on how living in Paris, where she took art classes at Sorbonne for six months, dramatically altered her perspective of Las Vegas. Eventually a neighbor situation further changed her feelings about living in a gated community and she knew she wanted to move to what she calls "an old fashion neighborhood." The house search lead her and future husband Tim to John S. Park Neighborhood and a once "super Mid-Century Modem ranch" house. Their large five-bedroom house was built in 1963, has been restored to its original state and is furnished with 1950s furniture.