Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino ( 129 Fremont Street) – Built just after World War II in 1946, modernist architect Walter Zick has been credited with additions and redesigns dating from 1949-1959. Main Street and it has one of the best animated neon signs in the city. The building’s 1930s facade is visible from S. Golden Gate Hotel & Casino ( 1 Fremont Street) – Originally opened as the Hotel Nevada in 1906, then rebuilt as the Sal Sagev in the mid ’30s, the Golden Gate (renamed in 1955 by investors from San Francisco) is the oldest hotel & casino in the city and is famous for introducing shrimp cocktail to Las Vegas in 1959.

Designed by modernist architects Walter Zickand Harris Sharp. Main Street) – Originally named the Union Plaza for the Union Pacific railroad terminal that stood here, this was once the largest casino in the world when it opened in 1971.

We’ve listed our favorite quintessential modernist era Hotel & Casinos keeping in mind that many changes have been made to these properties over the years… click on addresses below for Google Map locations, or check out this cool walking map courtesy of Ladah Law. The real casino building boom on Fremont took place in the post-war years and at least six of these locations are still standing. The original Las Vegas was built around Fremont Street, downtown, and started to take off during the Great Depression (yep, that’s ironic) when casino gambling was legalized and construction began on the nearby Hoover Dam.

List of downtown las vegas casinos