Riviera and Peppermill Walking Tour
4 discoveries Audio narration
The Riviera’s illuminated Strip frontage on October 19, 2003, with show and food-court advertising. The resort closed in 2015 and was demolished in 2016.
The Riviera gave the young Strip a taller silhouette. It opened on April 20, 1955, with a nine-story hotel and Liberace at the piano. The opening-night newspaper promised an orchestra, a ballet and an elaborate showroom program: entertainment was part of the resort’s identity from its first evening.
Before the opening: the Casa Blanca project
The project had earlier been planned as the Casa Blanca, before financing and licensing difficulties brought changes in the development group. That working name should not be mistaken for a separate casino operating here in 1952. The Riviera that welcomed guests in 1955 soon faced bankruptcy. Its glamorous opening and its early financial trouble belong to the same story.
A resort assembled over decades
What eventually disappeared was much more than the original tower. Successive additions created a layered resort: company filings date the North tower to 1955, South to 1967, Monte Carlo to 1974, San Remo to 1977 and Monaco to 1988. Changes to the buildings and frontage allowed the Riviera to keep trading as larger resorts transformed the Strip around it.
A long life on stage
The stages carried much of its public personality. Liberace’s opening engagement was followed over the decades by performers including Marlene Dietrich and Orson Welles. Later production shows included Splash, La Cage and Crazy Girls. UNLV preserves show files, architectural records, menus and the first general manager’s scrapbook. Those collections document different periods of the resort, rather than a single unchanging version of the Riv.
Closure and demolition were different events
The end of hotel and casino operation came on May 4, 2015. Contemporary reporters watched guests and employees leave as the doors closed around noon. Riviera Holdings had sold the land and structures to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority that February. Sale, closure and demolition were separate events: the resort stopped operating in 2015, while demolition followed in 2016. The Monaco tower imploded on June 14; it was a later addition, not the original 1955 tower.
The land after the Riviera
The purchase served convention-center expansion rather than another Riviera casino. The surrounding land was subsequently handled in parts. LVCVA’s 2023 renovation announcement identified a separate ten-acre Riviera parcel for sale, and its 2025 financial report records the sale of ten surplus acres at Las Vegas Boulevard and Elvis Presley Boulevard. The former resort should therefore not be treated as one surviving building or equated with the entire present convention campus. The historical photograph below shows its illuminated frontage in October 2003, twelve years before closure.
Read the full historySources and context
The opening-night announcement
Las Vegas Sun, April 20, 1955: contemporary nine-story opening announcement, Liberace and showroom program. Full indexed article body read; the announced opening is corroborated by the later anniversary account.
The early project and financial difficulties
Nevada Humanities, Online Nevada Encyclopedia, Riviera Hotel excerpt: originally planned Casa Blanca, licensing difficulties and changing partners before the Riviera opening. The excerpt was read, not the full separate Riviera article, whose reader returned a cache miss. Casa Blanca is not represented as an operating 1952 casino.
An expanding resort
UNLV Skyline: 1955 opening with Liberace, early bankruptcy and later architectural expansion. Its statement that all buildings still stand is obsolete and is not adopted. Its five-story facade description is not the total height of the original hotel tower.
The Riviera’s performers
Jerry Fink, April 19, 2005 anniversary account: April 20, 1955 opening and performers including Liberace, Marlene Dietrich and Orson Welles. Full indexed article body read. No claim that all appeared in the opening program.
Records of the resort’s life
Su Kim Chung, May 6, 2015: collections include original general manager Marshall L. Wright’s scrapbook, architectural drawings and menus. Archival holdings are evidence leads, not permission to reproduce collection images.
The production-show archive
UNLV Riviera Hotel and Casino Records finding aid: show files include Splash, La Cage and Crazy Girls. Its historical summary conflicts with contemporary evidence on Casa Blanca and closure day; those claims are not adopted. Collection description is used for holdings only.
The towers and the 2015 transaction
Riviera Holdings 2014 Form 10-K: tower table gives North 1955, South 1967, Monte Carlo 1974, San Remo 1977 and Monaco 1988. Subsequent-event section records the February 20, 2015 property sale and planned May 4 closure. Actual closure is established separately by on-site reporting.
The last guests leave
J. D. Morris, May 5, 2015: firsthand account of the May 4 closure around noon and departing guests and employees. Full indexed article body read. The day of closure is distinguished from the following day’s publication date.
The Monaco tower comes down
LVCVA, June 14, 2016: actual Monaco tower implosion at 2:37 a.m. for convention-center expansion. This does not establish that the whole resort fell in one implosion or that Monaco was the original tower.
A separate Riviera land parcel
LVCVA, May 9, 2023: West Hall debuted in 2021; renovation funding included proceeds from the separate ten-acre Riviera parcel. The announced sale and later completed financial transaction are distinct evidence.
The completed surplus-land sale
LVCVA Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, year ended June 30, 2025, Management’s Discussion and Analysis, printed page 13 / PDF page 28: completed ten-acre surplus-land sale at Las Vegas Boulevard and Elvis Presley Boulevard. Used with the 2023 Riviera parcel identification; no buyer, current building or surveyed historic footprint is inferred.
The former resort vicinity
GeoNames 6465849 as displayed by Mapcarta: 36.13615, -115.16222. Rechecked October 20, 2026. Historical area marker only; stale accommodation descriptions are not adopted. Not a surviving building, visitor entrance, full former resort boundary or photographer’s camera position.
The illuminated frontage in 2003
trolvag, October 19, 2003. Original 1600 × 1200 Panoramio photograph preserved on Wikimedia Commons. Panoramio licence review confirmed CC BY-SA 3.0 on August 18, 2015. Exact original pixels and metadata inspected; camera GPS is not used as the hotel location.
Casa Blanca was a pre-opening project name, not an established operating casino here in 1952.
The May 4, 2015 operating closure differs from demolition in 2016. The June 14 Monaco implosion did not remove the original 1955 tower in that single event.
The former resort land was handled in parts. No identity between the whole old resort and any one current building or parcel is asserted.
The map is an approximate historical area marker, not a surveyed footprint or verified entrance. The photograph’s camera coordinates are separate from the property location.
The historical photograph records October 19, 2003, not the opening or present conditions. The main image is an AI-generated illustration based on a user-supplied vintage reference of unverified date and authorship; it is not archival evidence.
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