The Las Vegas High School Historic District in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

is a historic district which includes 11 buildings on the campus of the school district. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2022. It includes the Las Vegas High School Academic Building, Gymnasium, and Frazier Hall, now the Las Vegas Academy of International Studies and Performing Arts. The academic building and gymnasium is an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

building which was listed on the National Register in 1986, and which represents a subset of the Art Deco style known as " Aztec Moderne", in which Aztec design motifs were used in an overall Art Deco palette of forms and materials. The academic building and the gymnasium are two of the original 3 buildings that were built. The third was destroyed around 1950. The listing was expanded to include Frazier Hall in 2021. Described as the best example of Art Deco in Las Vegas, the school was designed by father-and-son architects George A. Ferris & Son of

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. The stucco-covered reinforced concrete buildings are decorated with a variety of

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

medallions and friezes depicting animals and plants. The two-story academic building, measuring , is part of a seven-building complex within the larger Las Vegas High School Neighborhood Historic District. The gymnasium is of complementary form and construction, measuring . The gymnasium's entrance is rendered as a stylized Mayan arch. The Academic Building and Gymnasium are linked by the 1952 Humanities Building, which is not regarded as contributing to the historic character of the complex. The school became a

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

for specialized studies in 1993. The Academic Building and Gymnasium were listed on the

on September 24, 1986. It was included as a contributing property in the National Register listing of the large Las Vegas High School Neighborhood Historic District in 1991. The academic building and gymnasium listing was enlarged in 2021 to include Frazier Hall. The entire campus was then listed on the National Register in 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Las Vegas High School Academic Building And Gymnasium National Register of Historic Places in Las Vegas High schools in Las Vegas Art Deco architecture in Nevada Defunct schools in Nevada School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Nevada Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada