Then and now: Developing Kahle Drive

Kahle Drive in 1963. Photos/Bill Kingman

Kahle Drive in 2013.

“Kelmont East” was a grey tri-level apartment complex in 1963 on Kahle Drive at Stateline between Highway 50 and the lake.

Over the years, the Kahle Drive intersection at Highway 50 (behind camera) included the Stateline Medical Center, a small casino, and a local favorite watering hole and dancing spot called The Glass Crutch. Across the state line, there was a Kelmont West (or “Kelmont Arms”) apartments on Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe, which was the scene of a shooting and multi-hours police stand-off in the 1970s.

Kahle Drive today on the left side of this photo has several side-streets and is mostly residential, cornering the Lakeside Inn and bordering the 4-H Club complex. On the right side is U.S. Forest Service land including the popular Lam Watah Trail crossing Rabe Meadow and taking you to Nevada Beach. Rabe Meadow once was the site of an airport, and in the 1970s very nearly became another huge casino/hotel.

Even some concrete foundations (not quite as extensive as today’s “hole”) had progressed.

An easy walk along the trail today (new parking lot near the stoplight) includes several pictorial reader boards which detail the history of the meadow, its Washoe heritage, the airport, the casino, and how it was rescued.

Kahle (pronounced “kail”) was land-owner Oliver Kahle. The Douglas County services building (courtroom, jail, DMV, etc/) and Kahle Community Center and Park of today occupy the area of his historic Oliver’s Club Casino which was razed in the 1960s.

— Bill Kingman