Today I had the honor and privilege of having lunch at the
Hartland Mansion located at Sixth and Charleston, downtown Las Vegas. What a magnificent visit that was. For about two hours I was transported to old
glamorous Las Vegas enjoying the feeling of being back in time. The mansion goes back to 1940 and originally
there were two houses that eventually were joined through a massive renovation.
At the time, the mansion was
approximately 13,000 square feet. In
those days, the Sixth Street District was a high-end residential neighborhood
where people in the casino and hotel industry used to live, including Howard
Hughes and the Binions. In 1978, the Hart family bought the mansion
with renovations undergoing. The Harts
completed the renovations.
In 1980 and 1981, the mansion had two fires. Mrs. Hart made the decision to renovate the
mansion to its original design but enlarged the design to 31,000 square
feet. The rebuilding and restoration
took nearly 7 years to complete. These
are just brief facts regarding the history of what it’s called today the
Hartland Mansion. But the mansion has
history to easily write a book. Which
reminds me that Mrs. Hart told us that she is writing a book that should be
completed in a near future. Now that I’ve
been there and met the owners, I can’t wait to read that book. It is also said that Elvis stayed in from
time to time when he wanted to escape the Hilton for a while. In fact, the house has a bedroom that they
call the Elvis room. Lots of fun times
were had at this mansion. If each wall
could talk…
These days the Hartland Mansion is opened for parties,
weddings and scheduled tours. I went
there to have lunch today with several local meetups in a combined event. They won’t open the mansion for less than 30
people.
The moment you enter the mansion, you are immediately
transported to the great old Las Vegas.
The majestic double-curved stairways and checkerboard floors are really
impressive. Mrs. Hart and Larry, her
son, were very pleasant and welcoming. Mrs. Hart is a sweet lady and she shared with
us some interesting and humorous things about her personal life and life in the
mansion in “those” days. Her son Garry gave us
the tour of the mansion and I was going crazy between wanting to listen to him
and taking pictures. To me, it was
magical looking at the decoration, the many decorated bathrooms, the accessories,
the pianos, the collections, photos, memorabilia and antiques. I learned that a scene from the film “Casino”
was filmed in the living room. Now I
want to watch that movie again since I barely remember anything.
The truth is that this year I have done a number of things
that were beyond my imagination. I had
never heard about this mansion before. People
in the group that have lived in Las Vegas for 20+ years, had never heard about
this mansion either.
Every day I love more living in Las Vegas. And I love exploring the new as much as the
old. The Hartland Mansion is one of Las
Vegas best kept secrets. Well, maybe not
anymore. Viva Las Vegas!
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| Elvis room |
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| Toni Hart, the owner |
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| Toni Hart when she was younger. |
