Berkley Square was designed in 1949 by Paul Revere Williams and is named after Thomas L. Berkley, an attorney from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

. The historic district contained 148 homes. It was built in the African American

West Las Vegas West Las Vegas is a historic neighborhood in Las Vegas, Nevada. This area is located northwest of the Las Vegas Strip and the "Spaghetti Bowl" interchange of I-15 and US 95. It is also known as Historic West Las Vegas and more simply, the Wests ...

area of

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 ...

. The district 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 2009. Terry and Jerry Holmes were born at 512 Byrnes Avenue in Berkley Square on March 3, 1951, to Canary and Clarence Holmes.

Description

Berkley Square is the earliest subdivision which was built in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

by and for the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

inhabitants of Las Vegas. The designer Paul R. Williams from Los Angeles is a globally acclaimed African-American architect; in the profession, he made huge progress for his race. Around one and one- half country miles from Las Vegas close t
Owens Avenue
and D Street, the Berkley Square Historic District is situated. And it is bound by Byrnes and Leonard avenues on the north and south, sequentially, and G and D Streets on the west and east, sequentially. The Historic District includes 148 houses built between 1954 and 1955 in the Contemporary Ranch style with 2 models which contrasted by roof type, veranda protuberance and

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

home stretches and fenestration. The quarter was arranged according to

Federal Housing Administration The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), also known as the Office of Housing within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is a United States government agency founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, created in part by ...

standards of the day, demonstrating concern for

traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic ...

and

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...

safety with limited access points and sidewalks disunited from the streets by a

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. ...

strip.

History and Context

The African America
occupants
in Las Vegas had increased from 150 in the 1930s to over 3,000 when

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

ended. The requirement of high-grad
sheltering
became a major socio-political issue for the black community bound by law and custom to the segregated Westside. Around 16,000 people, most of whom were African Americans, lived in the 160-acre Westside area of Las Vegas by 1955. The District helped to develop the living conditions for the town's African-America
inhabitants
In the late 1940s and 50s, local activism demonstrated the advancements which were being made in th
community
Berkley Square also illustrated the massive structure smash which happened in Las Vegas and all over the country in the post-

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

period and reserves good integrity as a domestic exurb of that time.

References

Buildings and structures in Las Vegas National Register of Historic Places in Clark County, Nevada Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Houses in Clark County, Nevada {{Nevada-NRHP-stub