Sunday, March 18, 2007

Las Vegas - Golden Palm Hotel Closed Permanently






Las Vegas - Golden Palm Hotel Closed Permanently

On the west side of I-15 and Tropicana is The Golden Palm Hotel. I was going to do a piece on the oddities of this place, and just found out that it closed permanently on March 12, 2007.

Thus ODDITY #1 - The Golden Palm Hotel was often so empty, and the restaurant was closed so often, that even though I was in the parking lot a few hours ago photographing the place, I did not know that it was closed while I was right there.

Shortly after photographing the place, a friend told me he thought that it was for sale. Then in my photos, I saw a sign which said it was closed for demolition. Lastly, I visited their website, which I never knew existed, and it explains they closed to become a "high rise condo-resort-casino." Before I saw that, I speculated that the site could one day be a gas station; to which my friend said it wasn't big enough.

The Golden Palm Hotel used to be a casino. At some time they stopped being a casino, and it appears that the only change they made was to take a magic marker and cross over the word "casino." Take a look at one of the photos I will include with this, and you will see the magic markered out word.

By the way, that was ODDITY #2.

ODDITY #3 is that at one time, it was an IHOP. Or at least the restaurant was. The IHOP letters can still be seen on the outside wall, although I am not sure how well it will be visible when I upload.

ODDITY #4 is that the restaurant would close for weeks or months at a time, while leaving the neon OPEN sign on. Then when the restaurant would reopen, the OPEN sign would be turned off.

I ate there once, and it was unimpressive. The next night, the place was closed. Then it opened a few months later, only to close again a few days later.

Throughout the openings and closings, they have kept up banners which proclaim Best Of Las Vegas from the local newspaper The Las Vegas Review Journal. I don't know what that is about.
A sign prices rooms at $29.99, but it was suggested to me by someone that they ought to have put up a sign which said "Free Is Expensive."

I never stayed at the hotel. I only ate at their restaurant once; and walked into and back out of, their lounge. The lounge was sort of a dark room with a bar at the left, a band area all the way ahead, and some vending machines on the right. I don't remember what they were vending. I think they had some chairs and tables too.

As you will see in one of the photos, The Golden Palm Hotel was within sight of New York New York, and the other places at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana. Usually tourists only come to this side of Interstate 15 in order to go to major places such as The Rio, so The Golden Palm Hotel has probably been invisible to most.

I am happy to bring a little piece of this oddity to you here, in this tribute to The Golden Palm Hotel, which closed the day before The Stardust was imploded.

Across the street from The Defunct Golden Palm Hotel is a Standard gas station which looks like a Chevron. Maybe it used to be a Chevron. Something very odd about that intersection.


For the record the location of The (Defunct) Golden Palm Hotel is 3111 W. Tropicana Las vegas, Nevada 89109.


Farewell to The Golden Palm Hotel; a real Las Vegas oddity.

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