New Partners 1954

Last August my father and I visited county and state offices in Las Vegas searching for historical documents. Our first destination was the Nevada Gaming Control Board at 555 E Washington Avenue #2600. They were uncertain which old records were private or public and referred us to the Gaming Control Board in Carson City to search their findings and dispositions. Carson City is 400+ miles north, not local. Onto the next destination…

Our next stop was the Clark County Business License Office at 500 S Grand Central Parkway #3. They told us the Westerner was in Clark Country, but also within the city of Las Vegas, so those records could be held at the Las Vegas Business License Department.  Moving on…

We meandered into the Las Vegas Business License Department, at 333 N Rancho Drive, and spoke to Rhea Cicale. She was extremely helpful and suggested we request public records from the Las Vegas Public Records Center. However, this website warns:

“Not all City of Las Vegas records are permanent, some have a much shorter lifespan. All records are kept in accordance with Nevada State retention schedules, which were adopted by the City; they would only be kept beyond that schedule if they were deemed “historical”.

I requested public records from three Las Vegas departments: Building & Safety, Business Licensing, and Meeting Records. My first response came from Scott Widney. He emailed a PDF document link with Las Vegas Meeting Records from 1949 to 1966. The file had 59 references to the Westerner. Awesome! I searched the PDF and found references to my grandfather and godfather:

My grandfather was approved as a partner on August 18, 1954, exactly 62 years prior to my information request, cool! Further review indicates a partner shuffle occurred during 3rd quarter of 1954. Emilio Giorgetti was removed and the following people were added as new partners:

• Joe K. Hart
• Harold O. Pepple
• Ron W. Pepple
• Andrew Fava
• Italo Ghelfi
• S. D. Vlahandreas
• Marion Branch
• J. A. Ragghianti
• John P. Ryan
• John Haines
• Joseph L. Sylvester
• Henry C. Sylvester
• R. L. Graves

Business Licensing responded next and advised that the Westerner’s original liquor license wasn’t transferred to anyone after the business closed. No records were found. And finally, I’ve received no response from Building & Safety. We assume that records such as floor plans and approval for building additions were not retained and probably destroyed.

I’ll post new articles as additional details are gleamed from the 900+ page PDF document.