The Real Fremont Street
July 22, 2009
The photos you see on this page were taken on what is arguably the most famous street in Las Vegas, and as far as world-renowned streets are concerned … it’s certainly up there.
Even though it is almost a household name, most people have never actually traversed this famous thoroughfare.
Sure, everyone is familiar with the four block stretch under the canopy, and the two block “Fremont East” district, but that’s all for show. Given the fact that cars cannot drive in most of the resort area, what most people know as “Fremont Street” is hardly a street at all. It’s just the name of a pedestrian mall.
Fremont Street Canopy
Fremont Street Canopy
Fremont Street Canopy
Fremont Street Canopy and Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont East
Fremont Street Near Fremont East and Canopy
Fremont Street Near Fremont East and Canopy
The Western Hotel and Casino
So, what of the “street” part of Fremont?
Does it even exist?
If so, where does it go, and what does it look like?
Let’s face it, once one gets past 8th street, Fremont becomes a mystery for all but the most ardent explorers of Vegas. It’s an enigma.
Beyond the world’s largest light show, past the glittering casinos, past the neon artwork, lies the real Fremont Street. The part of the street which few locals dare to tread, and even fewer tourists.
For years, the city has been trying to close its eyes and pretend that Fremont ends at the glass slipper. They’ve tried not to acknowledge Fremont’s true existence. But it’s there.
This afternoon, as I made my way from Boulder Station to The Plaza (and back) … instead of hopping on the freeway, I decided to take the entire length of Fremont in order to more fully document this most unusual of urban corridors.
Boulder Highway Becomes Fremont Street
Boulder Highway Becomes Fremont Street
Shortly past Boulder Station, Boulder Highway becomes Fremont Street. While it looks like nothing more than a name change on paper, it actually marks the precise spot where the county becomes the city. The scenery changes from one of a strange quasi-rural road, to an even stranger stretch of asphalt that is not quite urban, not quite suburban, but is every bit as strange.
There are prostitutes on the corner, people making narcotics deals in the open, and advertisements for such well known performers as Ice-T in what seems like the world’s most unlikely place for such an appearance (a nondescript building between a trailer park and a funeral home).
Ice-T on Fremont Street
Ice-T on Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
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TFremont Street
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Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Silver Saddle Saloon on Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
This, is the real Fremont Street. The one on which people can drive, and the one on which people actually live … if only temporarily.
Fremont Street itself is probably the most stereotypically “Vegas” road in the entire city. Not the glitz and glamor “Vegas Vacation” stereotype, but the stereotype for every hard luck story you have ever heard about the town. The aging prostitutes. The degenerate gamblers. The lawless. Those with a penchant for narcotics made from over-the-counter Sudafed.
Fremont Street is like a magnet for those with an alternative version of the American dream.
The “real” Fremont Street is where the movie “Leaving Las Vegas” plays out a dozen times each day, but in a slightly less glamorous way. There are hundreds of drunks living with prostitutes on Fremont, only none of them look like Nicholas Cage or Elizabeth Shue.
There are no gambling sprees, weekend getaways at desert spas, or anything that resembles love … just one day after another blurred together in the pursuit of fleeting moments of happiness in an otherwise miserable existence.
This, is Las Vegas, raw and uncensored. You can almost see the hopes and dreams of Fremont residents discarded on the sidewalks like the omnipresent litter.
One block after the next brings yet another low-rise motel with window air-conditioners which have almost certainly seen better days. Signs are misspelled, and you are hard-pressed to find mentions of such 21st century expectations such as “free wi-fi”.
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Motels on Fremont Street
Even though their rates are nearly the same as The Stratosphere, The Sahara, or Palace Station, somehow these motels survive with a steady stream of clientele plucked from the community that still thrives Downtown. The community of the underground economy.
Today’s Fremont is one of the last true holdouts of yesterday’s legendary Vegas. Not the legend of the guy who came to town and made it big, but the legend of the guy who came to town and lost everything.
Driving down Fremont is like jumping into a time machine and taking a trip back to the 1970’s. It is stuck in a perpetual time-warp. While they have erected at least one condo project (which I don’t believe is doing well), the rest of the street has remained more or less unchanged for 30 years.
Urban Lofts on Fremont Street
Urban Lofts on Fremont Street
Urban Lofts on Fremont Street
Urban Lofts on Fremont Street
Urban Lofts on Fremont Street
Urban Lofts on Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
It’s hard to imagine a more prototypically seedy place, but this was what the city looked like before Summerlin. This was the typical street scape before Green Valley and cheap tract McMansions. Before the city became a boomtown, Fremont was fairly representative of the urban makeup of Vegas.
I live only a few miles from real Fremont, and while I find myself on it fairly often, this is the first time I have made an attempt to document it.
For those with a bit of a “reality” penchant, I recommend the drive at least once. You never know what you are going to see. Over the years, I have seen quite a bit on this stretch of road. 16 year old prostitutes, 60 year old prostitutes, and narcotic offers at my window. I’ve seen shots fired, bottles thrown, and police in hot pursuit of unknown people for unknown crimes.
Fremont Street is so much more than Vegas Vic and Glitter Gulch. It’s so much more than Oscar’s vision of Downtown revitalization. It truly is the Main Street of the real Las Vegas. The one we all know exists, but don’t necessarily want to see for ourselves. It’s the reality behind the facade.
For all of the reasons stated above, it’s one of my favorite places in all of Las Vegas.
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Fremont Street
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Fremont Street
Fremont Street
Written by mad dog on July 22, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I see you got a shot of the USA Hostel on Fremont.
Anybody know what that place is like?
Thanks
Written by Pyramid_GM on July 22, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Those old motel signs are really cool, wow it looks like a 30 year time warp with all those retro signs
looks like a fine place to pick up a BJ and a rock for twenty bucks lol..
Written by David_M on July 22, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Rex, we really enjoy you columns. The wife and I actually drive Fremont street each trip. We have never had any trouble with any cars/pedestrians/prostitutes. Although we have seen some pretty strange sights. In our quest to gamble in every Casino in the Las Vegas Valley, we actually went in the Silver Saddle Saloon for a beer and some video poker. We found the spanish bartender to be very friendly and the beer was cold. We have probalby been to a lot of places we shouldn’t have gone to in Vegas, but we have never had any trouble. We love Vegas, and visit for 10 to 14 days a couple of times per year. Plan to play some pool side black jack at the Statosphere in September. Maybe we will see you there.
Written by Boomer262 on July 22, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I live in Henderson and take this route home from playing poker or blackjack downtown once in a while. I usually do it so I can hit Pepe’s Tacos on Fremont and Charleston. Of course, I have been in there ordering food, and then thinking to myself “why am I walking around here with over $1,000 in my wallet? I am not smart.”
It’s not the kind of place where I’d want to take a leisurely stroll at 1 am, but it does exist. It’s hard to deny that.
Written by beth on July 22, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Wow, that certainly isn’t a side of Fremont Street that I’ve seen. It’s actually quite interesting in a nostalgic sort of way. It is definitely old school Las Vegas. We usually just hang out under the canopy and never really ventured far from it, other than the Strip, so I learned something new. That urban loft thing seems way over priced for starting at $290k, especially in that area and in this economy. Is that place made of metal? In the desert, really? Thanks for the many cool photos, I very much enjoyed seeing Vegas through your eyes.
Written by Mike on July 22, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Ladies and gentlemen, Ice-T has left the building. According to the sign, his appearance was a month ago (June 13). Apparently they’ve been so busy they haven’t had time to change the marquee. Maybe this month they can get someone more relevant like Epstein from Welcome Back Kotter.
Written by ColinFromLasVegas on July 23, 2009 at 6:21 am
Nice piece about a side of Las Vegas that Paris Hilton will NEVER, EVER see when she comes here to get hired to host at some nightclub on the Strip where she gets paid thousands of dollars to stand around, look demure and bored, do her stupid fashion magazine poses once in awhile but has not one iota of talent, and mostly do more work texting on her cell phone than she will mingling with nightclub guests.
I also live on the east side within a few miles of this stretch of Fremont Street and drive through their once in awhile. You nailed it. That’s the Vegas I know too. And I hope tourists that contemplate coming here to visit pay attention to you if they want to wander off the beaten tourist track.
By the way, someone mentioned it up above, but, in my opinion, the best carne asada and/or chicken burritos are in those mom and pop stores in areas like this. Not in the buffet line at some mega-casino on the Strip. I always make it a point to try some new Mexican food place once in awhile (I’m a nut over good Mexican food). One of my favorites for fast take out carne asada burritos is at Roberto’s east of pretty close to the corner of Nellis and Lake Mead. They don’t mess around with portions and the price is very reasonable.
Written by JohnnyFromWI on July 23, 2009 at 10:07 am
In late May this year my fiance fell asleep in our dingy Binion’s pad, so I decided to do so some solo walking/solo drinking. I grabbed a fifth of tequila from the liquor store on Fremont (by Piccadilly Circus Pizza, I think) and headed towards El Cortez. Well, I lost my $20 there, and after playing next to some VERY curious characters, I decided to keep strolling down the road, in search of I don’t know.
I think it was about 1 A.M. but I didn’t feel like it was a horrible area. Quieter than expected actually. I thought I saw a pair of hookers, but in that summer heat, all women dress that way, so I couldn’t tell.
I made it to the Western Motel, dropped in and checked it out and after a while made my way back. The most eventful thing was a guy who claimed to live in 1 of the weeklies there asked for some of my tequila, then tried to sell me weed. Pretty harmless I’d say. Maybe nothing crazy happened in my journey b/c there were a lot of squad cars going up and down the street. Now that I think of it, there was a murder in a trailer park in that area earlier in the week…maybe the area was on high alert, thus making it possible for a Midwest rube like me to stumble around unscathed. Hmm.
Written by Rick Gerlock on July 23, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Nice job Rex. My first job at 18 was night manager of the Desert Moon Motel in 1992. Most of our guests were weekly and monthly renters as opposed to the once every Blue Moon out of town guest who I could never figure out why the chose to stay there for vacation. Almost nightly the cops were either in our parking lot or across the street nabbing someone for something. You are not exagerrating when you say it’s like Leaving Las Vegas down there, just about every long term resident had a booze or meth problem and the working girls were about as bottom barrel as you can get, I have to stop now I”m getting misty eyed
Written by Dan H. on July 23, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Rex,
I’ve never read where you mention Main Street Station in your blogs about downtown. It has a good buffet, a great microbrewery and has $5 black jack, double deck that pays 3/2 on blackjack. I love downtown myself, but I really love Main Street.
Written by McGoo on July 25, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Rex,
I think this may be one or your best reports, so thank you. In a recent solo visit in May, I ventured out to see the behind the scenes areas and felt the same way in my own stupid tourist way.
A report about the El Cortez would be great, I recently visited there and loved it.
Written by VegasSteve on July 27, 2009 at 8:46 am
Rex,
You bring back memories. I used to deliver pizzas in that area when I was eightteen. (My mom hated it) From The strip to Pecos, between Bonanza and Sahara. Got propositioned by prostitutes daily, delivered to every kind of drug addict possible, was tried to sell drugs by 9 or 10 year olds, and even had my pizzas stolen on 28th street. The motels on Fremont were the worst.
Oh the sweet memories growing up here…
Love your blog
Written by crackhead on August 29, 2009 at 5:14 pm
If you want good Mexican food, go to Mamacita’s on Fremont between 6th and 7th street, across from the El Cortez. Excellent food.
Written by Big Pauly on February 15, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Lived for a short time at the Vegas Motel back in 2000. Very interesting area….just gotta keep your head down and mind your own business. Did once walk up to the Fremont casinos and got stopped by a hooker looking for someone to by her coffee in exchange for a….ummmm…favor. Woman wouldn’t make eye contact with me, so I smelled a rat and declined the offer.
Written by PAT GARRETT on February 16, 2010 at 8:31 pm
LIKE ALLL OF VEGAS, GREAT TO VISIT – WOULDN’T WANNA LIVE THERE – JUST DID A WET SKINNY HOOKER, SHE WAS FAIR, AT THE DESERT rAIN 0- i’M GONNA SHOWER AND GO BACK AND GET ME ANOTHER OLD HOOKER. bETTER LOOKING AND MORE HOOKERS THAN LOS ANGELES’S SKID ROW. – BESIDES , MOST OF THESE ARE WHITE – OPPOSITE OF SKID ROW