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Vegas Retold

The history of Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino

Opened July 1969

Westgate’s curved hotel tower above its entrance and palms, with a large Barry Manilow banner and an elevated monorail at left in 2022.
Westgate’s hotel tower and entrance on May 11, 2022. The signs and Barry Manilow banner record that period, decades after the International and Hilton eras.

jasonwoodhead23 (Jason Woodhead) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

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Original source photograph retained without editorial alteration. Responsive displays may resize and crop the presentation.

Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino began as the International Hotel in July 1969. Designed by Martin Stern Jr., it stood off the Strip beside the Las Vegas Convention Center. The same resort later carried the Las Vegas Hilton and LVH names before becoming Westgate in 2014. Its changing names explain why older accounts describe a familiar place differently.

A resort built in stages

The hotel did not reach its later size all at once. The National Fire Protection Association’s investigation records the original central tower opening in July 1969, followed by an east tower in 1975 and a north tower in 1979. These phases belong to an expanding complex, rather than three independently opened casino identities.

Elvis at the International

Elvis Presley began performing at the International on July 31, 1969. Westgate’s retrospective traces his repeated engagements through his final show there in December 1976. This was a performance venue and hotel during his later Las Vegas career. His 1967 wedding at the original Aladdin was a different event at a different property.

The Hilton years and fire

The resort carried the Las Vegas Hilton name from 1971 until 2012. During that period, a fire on February 10, 1981, killed eight people. The NFPA investigation describes flames spreading vertically along the building’s exterior. This was a separate disaster from the November 1980 MGM Grand fire at the property now called Horseshoe; the hotel names and sites should not be interchanged.

LVH and the Westgate acquisition

After the Hilton branding ended, the resort used LVH—Las Vegas Hotel and Casino—from 2012. Westgate’s acquisition closed on June 30, 2014; its announcement the following day introduced the Westgate Las Vegas name. The buyer planned to convert some accommodation into timeshare villas while retaining a substantial hotel operation. That transaction and renovation did not create an entirely new casino on demolished hotel grounds.

The continuing resort

The current operator describes Westgate as a hotel, casino and timeshare resort at 3000 Paradise Road. The representative map point identifies the resort area, not Elvis’s suite or a theater entrance. Jason Woodhead’s May 2022 photograph shows the tower in its Westgate period, with a Barry Manilow banner and monorail nearby. It is not an image of the International during Elvis’s residency.

  1. The original resort’s architect

  2. The 1981 Hilton fire investigation

  3. Elvis’s performance years

  4. The Hilton and LVH name periods

  5. The completed Westgate acquisition

  6. The resort’s continuing uses

  7. The separate Aladdin wedding venue

  8. The mapped resort area

  9. The dated photograph

What remains uncertain

  • July 1969 is the original hotel opening month supported by the fire investigation; Elvis’s July31 debut is a separate event.
  • The repeated Elvis engagements were not an uninterrupted seven-year daily performance. Promotional sold-out show totals are omitted.
  • The 1981 Las Vegas Hilton fire and 1980 original MGM Grand fire happened at separate properties.
  • The current point represents the resort area west of the mapped principal tower. It does not locate original walls, a suite, an entrance or a walking route.
  • The 2022 photograph shows Westgate-era signs and advertising, not the International or Hilton at the time of Elvis’s shows.
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