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Transcript of interview with Gilbert D. Yarchever by Claytee White, 2006
Date
2006-04-03
Archival Collection
Description
Gilbert Yarchever was one of nine siblings, born and bred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He describes the way his mother?s family was granted the last name of ?Kurfeersf" by Emperor Franz Joseph (of Austria-Hungary), explains the Seder (the Jewish observation of the exodus of Hebrews from Egypt), and tells what it was like to survive the Depression. Gilbert describes the jobs he held after high school and the government examination he took that led to his lifetime of adventure and travel. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1940 and kept himself busy working for the government and taking classes at George Washington University, as well as working part time at Hecht Department Store and as a freelance court reporter. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Gilbert was sent to Africa on a merchant ship, helped smuggle Jewish survivors into Jerusalem, and was assigned the task of negotiating with Arab sheikhs for laborers to build a road. In the years after that, he worked in Europe, Panama, Alaska, Japan, and Hawaii and describes many of the jobs he was responsible for and many of the individuals he met. He also married and had children, kept up with university classes whenever he could, and collected art objects and paintings. Following his retirement in 1977, Gilbert and his family came to Las Vegas and bought a condo in Regency Towers. He did some consulting work for a couple of years, and then he and his wife began traveling around the states and going abroad. He was involved with UNLV?s EXCEL program, the music department, and the Las Vegas Art Museum. (He and his second wife Edythe presented the first major exhibition on Holocaust art at the museum.) These days Gilbert often donates pieces from his art collection to churches, synagogues, and charitable organizations.
Gilbert Yarchever was in the Navy during World War II, helped smuggle Jewish refugees into Jerusalem, worked as a civil servant in many countries, and moved to Las Vegas in 1977. He helped found the EXCEL program at University of Nevada, Las Vegas and was an art collector with his wife, Edythe Katz-Yarchever.
Text
Interview with William John Mayer, July 20, 2004
Date
2004-07-20
Archival Collection
Description
Narrator affiliation: Electrical Engineer; Los Alamos National Laboratory
Text
Photograph of the front exterior of the Hotel Nevada (Las Vegas), circa 1910
Date
1908 to 1912
Archival Collection
Description
Hotel Nevada after the addition of a balcony. Transcribed from photo sleeve: "by Florence Lee Jones ... March, 1969. Early Las Vegas History. The Hotel Nevada, at the Southeast corner of Main and Fremont Streets, is the oldest continuous hotel business in Las Vegas, although it has been known as Sal Sagev (Las Vegas spelled backward) since 1928. The hostelry started as a tent in 1905, but the late John Miller soon erected a permanent building, shown above, which provided the most luxurious accommodations and the best food in Las Vegas for many years. In the 1930's the Sal Sagev Hotel had one of the three elevators in town. A private dining room was a popular place for private parties for the elite of the town. The hotel is now owned and operated by Miller's son, Abe Miller, and his daughter, Mrs. Sherman E. Nugent. The Golden Gate Club now occupies much of the first floor of the building. On the North side of the building is a sign "Bank of Southern Nevada", which was the second bank established in Las Vegas. (The other was the First State Bank.) Started by John F. Miller, Ed Von Tobel, Sr., Will Beckley, Attorney Frank Stevens, and Hal D. Buzick, the Bank of Southern Nevada was an important factor in Southern Nevada's economy. During the 1930's and the Depression, the federal government issued restrictive orders on bank operations. The reaction of the independent Las Vegans was 'No guy in Washington is going to tell us how to run our bank.' ... So they paid off all the depositors and closed the bank. The Rhoads & Rhoads General Machine Works (extreme right) was one of the first automobile agencies in town - the start of Community Chevrolet."
Site Name: Hotel Nevada
Address: 1 Fremont Street
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