Then and now: Landscaping improves area
Swiss Village Motel no longer exists. Photos/Bill Kingman
What the area looks like in 2013.
The long-standing Tahoe Bottle Shop remains today, while the Swiss Village Motel, the Fern Road intersection, and Joe Montoya’s Stateline Shell (distant grey building) seen in the 2002 photo have been replaced with today’s landscaping.
In the 1960s, prior to the “LIQUOR” sign, two large poles supported a huge electric Harrah’s marquee straddling over the bottle shop building.
The strategic positioning of that brightly-lighted marquee made it head-on visible to motorists on Highway 50 approaching from as far away as Ski Run Boulevard, listing Harrah’s entertainment attractions in large plastic letters.
A very strong windstorm one afternoon (I think mid-1965) felled the marquee, shattering it on the ground next to the building. It was never replaced, as that was about the time when billboards and off-premise signage became prohibited in the new city of South Lake Tahoe.
That windstorm also destroyed much of the drive-in theater movie screen on Glenwood Way in Bijou.
— Bill Kingman
Bill, it was awesome hearing you share your ‘Then’ stories, live at Camp Rich, with the presentation sponsored by the Lake Tahoe Historical Society. We eagerly await a Panel Discussion: Part 2. But in the meantime, reading this will have to do.
I am enjoying these picture walks down Memory Lane. Keep them coming.
Twice this week I chatted with friends about the location of the old drive-in. I didn’t know that a windstorm was a factor in its demise. Too bad.
Hi, Diana…I should add to my closing sentence that the screen was repaired and the drive-in continued operating until 1984. Thanks! Bill Kingman
I never saw the old drive-in in action, although there were still speaker posts in place when I arrived at Tahoe. But I’ve spent mornings watching coyote families at play in the meadow, a much better use of the land.
The Bottle Shop was a stop for me many times, (back in the day), on the way home from partying at Harveys. 1 a.m and I’m buying a package of miniture chocolate donuts for a late night snack? Sad but true!
The drive-in on Glenwood was a a lot of fun as well. I worked there 3 summers, 70,71 and 72.
Keep them comin’ Bill. Find anything worth using in those old Tribunes I gave you? Take care, Old Long Skiis
Hello:
I’m still looking for a “full-on” photo of the Harrah’s ‘pylon’ sign at their CA entrance (found a partial from the taxi stand across the intersection, in front of the Cal-Va-Rado coffee shop [run by the Kamps]) – so that when found, I can write the story of the traffic flow that made Harrah’s prominent over Harvey’s, as the Embassy Suites being built destroyed a major revenue stream unnoticed by current ownership/management (even way later).
In the other direction, across Stateline Avenue from the Cal-Va-Rado was Harrah’s Lake Club for which I found a Highway 50 marquee photo heralding ‘Anna Marie Alberghetti’ (remember her ?) as playing there (the 1st South Shore Room was in the Lake Club while the big one now being “mis-used” was being built (’57-’59). . .
As Bill’s current photo shows, there are improvements, but there are also mis-managed initiatives that are affecting Tahoe to this day, still unreviewed or spoken of. . .