Boulder City Historic District, is Nevada's largest listing 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 v ...

with 514 buildings. Among the buildings, 408 constructions were built during the first 11 years (from 1931 to 1942). Between

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and 1950, 66 buildings were built; the rest 40 were constructed after 1950. Boulder City, Clark county, southeastern

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 ...

U.S The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. is situated by the

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...

. The only reason for its existence was the requirement of housing the employees hired to build the Hoover Dam on the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

. At the time of construction of the Dam, Boulder City sheltered more than 4,000 employees in 1500 buildings from 1931 to 1935.

Design

The town was designed and built by the

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, and formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and opera ...

and the

Six Companies Six Companies, Inc. was a joint venture of construction companies that was formed to build the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona. They later built Parker Dam, a portion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the Colorado River Aqueduct ...

to support the construction of

between 1931 and 1935. The chief planner was

Saco Rienk DeBoer Saco Rienk DeBoer was born on September 7, 1883, in Ureterp, Opsterland, Friesland, Netherlands to architect Rienk Kornelius De Boer and avid gardener Antje Dictus Benedictus. He studied engineering and passed the Junior Engineer (surveyor) exa ...

. The town center is unified by the consistent use of the Spanish Colonial Revival style of architecture.

History and context

On December 21, 1928,

President Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Mas ...

signed the Boulder Canyon Project Act approving the construction of Hoover Dam and the formation of Boulder City. Afterwards, on March 11, 1931, Six Companies, Inc., a company made up of 6 different construction companies, was offered the contract to build the dam. Boulder City was constructed for housing the workers who came to work on the dam. As the earliest developed experiment in new town planning in the 20th Century, Boulder City holds national significance. The federal government owned the site. All land was preserved by the federal government under the Bureau of Reclamation. The Boulder Canyon Project Federal Reservation as well as the federal rangers obeyed law and order on the reservation and that is why Boulder City was constructed. Around 1931–32, the Bureau of Reclamation and Six Companies, Inc. constructed the housing in Boulder City for their department heads, engineers, and employees on the dam. Permits started to be issued b
Sims Ely
(city manager) for building commercial buildings in the city from 1931. During 1932, the sight of north on Nevada Way towards the Bureau of Reclamation Building on the hill was quite similar to that of today. The management skills of Frank T. Crowe who was one of the most competent construction engineers to work in Reclamation caused the earlier completion of the dam in 1936, 22 months ahead of schedule.

References

{{Nevada State Historic Places/Clark Buildings and structures in Boulder City, Nevada National Register of Historic Places in Clark County, Nevada Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Nevada Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in the United States